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The new age to documentary filmmaking. What has changed that much?

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From The Heart Productions

How documentary came to be is sometimes a question to ponder about. Not that it changes much of anything, but realizing how it started can help us appreciate further its laying impacts. Documentary as a genre began as an experiment of casually pointing cameras at the things around us and seeing what would happen. This measure later became significant in addressing and providing a factual report on a particular subject.

 

At first, getting public appeal was a significant obstacle in the earliest documentary filmmaking. Most documentary filmmakers could rarely obtain independent film grants nor any other funds for documentary film as it was considered a misfit for cinema's and were displaced by fiction. Thus, its survival was kept alive by a mixture of government and corporate patronage, which often receives mixed results. This form gets saved further by broadcast television which provided documentaries with a steady supply of funds and a reach to larger audiences.

 

Although in more recent times, broadcasters have appeared to get tired of airing documentaries. However, this genre of filmmaking has begun to gain a significant reputation as a form that Producers could air in cinemas. This partial liberation of documentaries away from television has enabled it to carve out a place online. As a result, a significant number of outstanding works have gotten produced even with little or no independent film grants and funds for documentary films. We may now say that the documentary genre has finally become a recognizable cultural form. However, its successes haven't resolved the precarious nature of the documentary film; far from it, filmmakers still struggle to make good work.

 

People now have discussions about documentary films. It is common to hear them describe documentary films as the new rock and roll that saved several filmmakers from oblivion. While a lot don't tend to talk much about how much these films will make, instead, they talk about the various independent film grants and funds for documentary films that the filmmakers can apply for and how much good and better these documentaries are than the fictional offerings. Documentary Films that only a few years ago would have gotten the smallest audiences are now packed out.

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