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The Nonfiction New Wave is...

Charlie Phillips 28 January 2008, 5:53 PM

Now that Sundance is over, there's some really interesting reflections going on around docland. I particularly liked reading AJ Schnack's zeitgeist-tracking, in which he identifies (positively) the existence of lots of new documentaries which "reject dogmatic strictures of form and that are, ironically, a return to the genre's roots"

Bigger Stonger Faster

It's a noting that lots of great new docs have been weaving narrative and fiction into their factual heart, ranging from staging 'unfilmable' sequences to large fantasy excerpts. I direct you to AJ's article for the full list of the exact docs he's referring to, but my instant reaction is that cross-pollination and hybrid forms of films are always exciting to me. But, if it means gimmicky silliness like Sicko, I'm not so sure.

Basically, it's a question of scale. The kinds of low-budget indie docs I love need to stage, elaborate and fantasise a bit by necessity and often benefit from it. I'm just not so sure about it when it comes to the biggies with bigger crews where catching the important real stuff is a lot easier.

Anyway, enough wailing. They announced the Sundance awards last night and here's who won - lots of films that sound amazing but we won't get to see for a bit like the documentary grand jury winner Trouble The Water. Be patient everyone, they'll come over here soon!

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It's good to know...

... we've teamed up with The Co-operative for this competition. We have a team of experts ready to watch the films, and they will choose which one will win a cash prize of £2,000, which ones get shown to a Channel4 Commissioning Editor, and which ones have the chance to be shown on Channel 4 itself on their 3 Minute Wonder strand.

Entered so far ...