“I hope I still remember how to watch fiction films,” smiles Chris McDonald, president of Hot Docs, North America’s largest documentary festival that also runs one of the world’s first documentary focused cinemas (Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema in Toronto).
Last year, five documentaries screened by Hot Docs were invited to Jio MAMI. This year, McDonald is a jury member for the international competition section that is primarily driven by fiction films. He was also on a panel at the bootcamp with young filmmakers when we caught up with him for a quick chat on documentaries, in India and abroad, when he told us about plan to set up a fund for Indian filmmakers. Edited excerpts from an interview:
On Hot Docs’ plans for India
Toronto has half a dozen programmes in universities and colleges that are documentary specific. I don’t think there are many in India. It’s ironic that the world capital of fiction filmmaking doesn’t have nearly the same production of documentaries. The documentary industry here is fledgling, it’s still growing. Which is why we are so interested in — in a non patriarchal way — of working with a local Indian partner for starting a documentary fund for Indian filmmakers, living and working in India. We have raised eight million dollars in the past seven odd years, funds from the private sector that we give directly to filmmakers. We have supported over a 100 films that have won awards all over the world.
Nisha Pahuja’s The World Before Her , which I believe was the largest grossing documentary in India two or three years ago, was one of the films which we funded. These are grants that we give to filmmakers. It is just a way of supporting the documentary community in Canada and around the world. When I say non-patriarchal, we are not trying to save India. We are not saying that we are the only ones who are going to do this. It would just be great to support indigenous filmmakers from this part of the world.
On how the idea fora fund came about
It was somebody from Indian Documentary Foundation last year who approached me. He was aware of the fact that we have a Blue Ice fund for filmmakers living and working in Africa. We have raised over 2.5 million dollars from the private sector and we work with filmmakers in 25 countries in Africa. They participate in bootcamps, we bring them to our festival. We were always looking for great Indian documentaries for Hot Docs and now we are trying to go a step further and find a partner who would be interested in starting a fund. It could be as little as a $100,000. We have talked to several people about it. It’s a great programme and we would love to get off with it as fast as possible.
On the documentary filmmaking circuit in India and abroad
It’s not part of the film viewing culture right now in India. But if you look at North America, look at Toronto specifically, every weekend on an average I would say at least two-three documentaries are released theatrically. It’s very robust. If you look at Netflix, Apple TV, iTunes documentaries are extremely popular. I am not talking about factual programming but one-off, creative, feature length documentaries. Dedicated documentary festivals are growing. We are seeing the traditional fiction festivals expanding their documentary programme.
There is an appetite from the public for non-fiction content and I think there are reasons for that. The public is lot smarter than we give them credit for. Public is mistrustful of corporate media and is interested in getting independent perspectives on important issues. At one time we used to call documentaries cod liver oil: they tasted bad, but were good for you. But our job for the last 23 years has been to convince the public that documentaries are entertaining, fun, informative, educative.
They are also about serious issues, they are important films about social justice and human rights, the environment. Sometimes they could even be about your crazy uncle. That’s okay too. Documentaries are being made from the most obscure to the most important subjects.
On technology ringingin changes
On technology ringingin changes
You can make a feature-length documentary for almost nothing. Changes in technology have impacted documentaries more than any other genre of filmmaking. It became cheaper, easier and faster to make films. You can shoot a film with two people: the sound person and the cameraperson. You can edit the film on your laptop. The sound design can be done at home. You can still make films for a million dollars but you can also make films for 10,000 dollars.
On documentaries versus fiction films
Documentaries stick with you. You always learn something, even from a bad documentary. The same can’t be said for a bad fiction film. It’s just a waste of two hours.
On the range of subjects getting explored
There is this new genre of documentaries we call “I hate my mother lets find out why”. It could be father, uncle. Those are the films filmmakers should be making in their 20s, may be early 30s. If you are still making films about your crazy father or mother at 40 then you’ve got a problem. You need to get it out of your system and then make a film. People are making films about anything that you can possibly imagine.
There was a film that came out five years ago called Helvetica . An entire documentary on the history of a font and it was fascinating. It also did extremely well theatrically. If you have a very good idea you can run away with it and bring it to life.
On the story and the form
There are perhaps a dozen different styles: diary films, personal films, investigative films, cinéma-vérité, filmmaker as a character in the film, like Michael Moore…
You have to make a film that resonates on an emotional level with the audience. It could be intellectually as well. If it’s boring its not gonna work. Some great films are not well made. They are great because the subject is so unforgettable. You don’t necessarily need both (story and form) to make a good film but it’s very difficult to make a good film with just images and cinematography. It needs to go beyond that. It’s about the story telling, using the story to engage with the audience. You complement that with cinematography, mise en scène.
I have always felt that European films were always far more photographic, creative, riskier than North American. North American films have been very focused on story, character. I am seeing a blurring of the lines now. North Americans are getting more creative and making more beautiful films and Europeans are focusing a little more on character and subject and story. There used to be a much bigger divide, but now there is more of a crossover.
On the newer forms
You are seeing short films: 10 minutes ones. Beautiful, extremely well made, painstakingly put together. Another new development is the use of animation in complementing the story.
For instance you do re-enactment of an incident through animation than using actors. It’s a very clever device and it is very successful. I didn’t see it 10 years ago and now every second film has an element of animation. Drones are also extremely popular.
On his pick of the Indian documentaries
We were involved last year in The Insignificant Man. We worked with the filmmakers on it. It was at Toronto film festival last month. Anand Patwardhan has been making brilliant films for decades. His is the classic form. There are many Indo-Canadians: Ali Kazimi, Nisha Pahuja. We have a film in our cinemas now — Elisa Paloschi’s Driving With Selvi — then there is Leslee Udwin’s India’s Daughter . Indian expats and foreign filmmakers based in India are also making important documentaries.
