Beginning in March, Lord Puttnam has led five seminars on all aspects of the screen industries. The sixth, on 11 May, will focus on the growing importance of factual and documentary makers with Ridley Scott.
University of Sunderland and Northern Film + Media present the series with suppport from Pinewood Group.
Socially sharable and broadcast video journalism and documentary are key areas for development with NFM. The aim is to commission young and diverse stories from content makers in the North East – the sort of content not normally developed by the more established producers.
The schemes recognise the importance of factual documentary makers producing content for social media channels. It’s a way in which new voices – younger, northern, working class, more diverse – can be heard online. It underlines Lord Puttnam’s work in holding platform operators to account for the development of a pandemic of misinformation through unregulated influencers spinning fantasy in place of facts.
The popularity and scale of documentaries now being commissioned by streaming services such as Amazon and Netflix enables a whole new world of opportunity to address injustices and misleading conspiracy theories. This session will attempt to underline the fact that news, factual, current affairs, documentaries and factual entertainment now offer more entry level opportunities than drama.
