NEW INDUSTRY PANELS FOCUS ON DOC AND FACTUAL SERIES


Hot Docs is delighted to introduce a new event for 2005, closing the week of industry sessions with a nod to our many delegates - both producers and broadcasters - working in documentary series programming. The three Thank Doc It's Friday! panels focus on behind-the-scenes intelligence for those developing and distributing non-fiction series television.

Events will be held on Friday, April 29 from 11:00 am to 5:15 pm, on the Second Floor of Victoria College (93 Charles St. W., behind the Isabel Bader Theatre).

The first panel, New Technologies: New Life, from 11:00 am to 12 noon, explores how the advent of new media and technologies is creating exciting opportunities for documentary and factual series, enabling filmmakers to reach larger audiences by expanding beyond television markets and creating viable alternative revenue streams. Savvy producers and broadcasters must be aware of the new platforms and be willing to take risks. The integration of Short Message Service (SMS), on set-top box applications, online commerce, online education and online distribution are the future of successful series. Through discussion and case studies, this session will detail the importance of utilizing new media and technologies when planning a documentary or factual series. It will explore a number of critical issues, including: how the new technologies affect financing structures; the relationships between producer, broadcaster and new media producer; and how current trends are impacting documentary and factual series around the world.

The second panel, The Hits, from 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm, asks for the back story on some of the year's best factual series television from those working on the front lines, as well as asking where they're finding inspiration for the next. Moderated by Rachel Low a Principal with Red Apple Entertainment, the panel features Phil Fairclough (Senior Vice President, Programming, Discovery Channel USA), Robyn Hutt (Vice President, Documentaries and Specials, Court TV) and Michael Williams (Principal, Scout Productions, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and FOG OF WAR).

The final panel, The Inventors, from 3:45 pm to 5:15 pm, asks panelists Keith Brown (Vice President, News & Documentaries, Spike TV (MTV)), Elizabeth Cullen (Vice President, Acquisitions & Co-Productions, Oxygen Media) and Cindy Witten (Vice President, Programming, History Television, Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting) what they've done recently that they might have considered outside the realm of possibility in the recent past, and what they see coming in the next five years.

As part of the inaugural Thank Doc It's Friday!, for the first time this year, Hot Docs' popular Rendezvous service features channel executives interested in receiving pitches on doc series ideas. See www.hotdocs.ca for further information on Rendezvous.