On the eve of the International Documentary Association’s 2nd Getting Real conference in September 2016, 6 documentary producers, who would soon form the Documentary Producers Alliance (DPA), came together to write and release “A Little Respect: Documentary Producers’ 2016 White Paper.”

A talk with the directors Jennifer Tiexiera and Camilla Hall about their film that checks in on the subjects of high-profile documentaries.

With no union for documentarians — with the exception of those in the WGA or DGA — the recent strikes have left nonfiction filmmakers uncertain about how to be supportive.

Four producers premiering films at Tribeca Festival give insight on what it takes to have a film selected for the festival.

Despite its recent formation during the fall of 2021, the Documentary Cinematographers Alliance has already put forth a comprehensive guideline of “best practices” DPs should advocate for and adhere to while working on any given nonfiction shoot.

Since our founding in 2016, the Documentary Producers Alliance (DPA) has grown to include over 300 members from 53 cities, eight countries and counting.

The Documentary Producers Alliance (DPA) has published a set of best practices for filmmakers and their partners navigating financial discussions and negotiations.

Following more than three years of research and collaboration with industry stakeholders, the Documentary Producers Alliance (DPA) today published new landmark guidelines for financing in documentary film in a document entitled “Guidelines For The Documentary Waterfall” at documentaryproducersalliance.org.

Following more than three years of research and collaboration with industry stakeholders, the Documentary Producers Alliance (DPA) today published new landmark guidelines for financing in documentary film in a document entitled “Guidelines For The Documentary Waterfall” at documentaryproducersalliance.org.

COVID-19 exposed and accentuated long-standing fault lines in our industry: a financial sustainability crisis, the absence of labor protections, and a growing movement to reconcile decades of structural inequities between white and Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) filmmakers and communities.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to halt film productions across the country, the Freelancers Union and a coalition of 25 independent film and media groups have called on the federal government to support its members.

In the world of documentary film, where projects gestate and then are produced over the course of years, and with funding often raised in stages from a variety of different sources, the determination of producer credits can turn into something like the Wild West.

Documentaries are increasingly becoming big business, which in turn has changed the way nonfiction films are funded and distributed. One of the unintended consequences of there being a wider variety of funding sources is that producing credits have become virtually meaningless,

Over the last several years, the IDA has engaged in and convened numerous conversations across our field about critical sustainability issues facing documentary filmmakers. One issue that has consistently emerged is that filmmakers and their financial partners lack standards around crediting, pointing to the fact that there has been little agreement on what credits reflect in terms of actual work or financing.

The process of assigning credits on documentary films has turned into a “free for all,” according to a group of top doc producers who hope to bring order to an unruly situation.

The move reflects the evolving funding and distribution landscape for documentary projects, which has led to inconsistencies in title and end credits used to reflect such funding. One side effect, says the DPA, has been the diminished meaning and value of certain credits, reducing recognition of labor and essential industry currency.

The question of industry and career sustainability is approaching a zeitgeist in the documentary film industry, with articles and conference panels emerging to address the issue head-on. Indeed, that was the goal of the recent series, Documentary Pays?, written and published by realscreen, and exploring the economic pressures placed on many documentary filmmakers working today, and it certainly struck a chord within the industry.