Fact is the new fiction in film

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Touching: the current hit about the children’s Eurovision Song Contest, Sounds Like Teen Spirit

Fashion forward: The September Issue

X-Factor-appeal: Afghan Star

Formula One legend: Ayrton Senna

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• Derek Malcolm on Sounds Like Teen Spirit
• Entertainment podcast

News that über-producers Working Title are prepping a factual feature about racing driver Ayrton Senna confirms it: documentaries are the new blockbusters. Ten years ago, hardly any factual films received a cinematic release. Now, producers know that the right subject, handled with commitment and panache, can provide as much of an emotional charge, and a greater return on investment, percentage-wise, than a fictional feature.

As one producer points out, documentaries are a no-brainer. They are often labours of love, on which a director will work for as long as it takes and for next to nothing. They use cheap, existing footage, and don't require stars, effects or post-production.

The film that arguably started the revival of the genre, Michael Moore's Roger and Me, also set the template. Made in 1989 for just $160,000, this unashamedly passionate, personal film saw the portly film-maker accuse the head of General Motors of killing Moore's hometown of Flint, Michigan, by closing its car plants. The film made just under 8 million: a paltry sum in Tinseltown terms, but a 50-fold profit for a political film about the working class. By the time of his equally angry and partisan Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004 Moore's budget had risen to $6 million. His profits, though, hit $222 million.

If Moore was the trailblazer, other films showed the full potential of the documentary. British director Kevin MacDonald made One Day in September, about the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, for just £320,000 but infused it with as much tension and pace as his current, big-budget thriller State of Play, and was duly awarded with the 2000 Oscar for Best Documentary.

March of the Penguins, French director Luc Jacquet's breakout nature documentary film, was as strongly-plotted and moving as any Disney or Pixar animation. Tellingly, Jacquet told me he had no qualms about humanising the familial relationships and gruelling challenges faced by the emperor penguins, or getting Morgan Freeman to supply a velvety, emotive narration for the American release. These factors, he pointed out, helped an $8 million nature film take $127,392,695 worldwide.

It's not always inflammatory political stories or natural-world sagas that catch film-goers' attention (although the highest-profile documentary ever, Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, arguably embraced both). Spellbound, the 2002 study of American kids competing in spelling competitions, and Sounds Like Teen Spirit, the current cult hit about the junior Eurovision song contest, captured the same quirky, niche audience as Little Miss Sunshine.

Morgan Spurlock hit the jackpot by feeding himself on McDonald's food for a month in Super Size Me. The Story of Anvil, about the eponymous heavy rockers, showed that truth could be stranger, and funnier, than Spinal Tap-style fiction. Recently, critics were falling over themselves to praise Not Quite Hollywood, a firecracker history of Australian exploitation cinema.

So everyone is looking for the next documentary hit. Film-maker Marina Zenovich spent years putting together her film Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which throws new light on the Polish director's conviction for rape. Immediately after the film screened at the Sundance Festival last year, she was whisked into the limo of Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein and plied with a megabucks distribution deal.

As well as Working Title's Senna flick, films are due this year about fashion designer Valentino, about American Vogue, and about the All Tomorrow's Parties alternative music festival.

The inconvenient truth about documentaries, though, like all films, is that no one knows what will work. Michael Moore suffered a backlash over Sicko, and Spurlock over Where In the World is Osama Bin Laden? Comedian Bill Maher was accused of knocking easy targets amid the faithful in his atheist polemic, Religulous. And the producers of the investigation into profanity, F*ck, probably invoked their film's title when they read the reviews.

Fact may be fashionable in film again, but it's just as much of a gamble as fiction. So what's up, doc?

REALITY CHECK: SIX DOCUMENTARIES TO WATCH OUT FOR

OUT NOW
Sounds Like Teen Spirit
Summary: follows 10- to 15-year-olds competing in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest who, unlike adult Eurovision, write and compose their own entries in their mother-tongue.
Blockbuster factor: the unwitting comedy provided by the children's efforts will pull at the heartstrings.

Afghan Star
Summary: follows two men and two women in Afghanistan as they risk all to win Tolo TV's X Factor-style series.
Blockbuster feature: seeing pop culture where you'd least expect it to be is surprisingly entertaining.

COMING SOON
Valentino: the last emperor
Summary: a look at the relationship between Valentino and his business partner, Giancarlo Giametti, during the final two years of their careers.
Blockbuster factor: glitz and behind-the-scenes looks into couture's most hidden quarters will excite anybody with an interest in fashion.
Release date: out now in US. Release date in the UK to be confirmed.

All Tomorrow's Parties
Summary: a jigsaw of footage taken by filmmakers, fans and musicians on mobile phones, camcorders and Super8 showing performances at the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival.
Blockbuster factor: features performances from a huge list of music artists including Belle and Sebastian, Portishead, Mogwai, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Grinderman and Battles.
Release date: premieres on 24 June at Edinburgh Film Festival.

The September Issue
Summary: tells the story of the renowned Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and her huge team of editors as they prepare for the September 2007 issue, the single largest issue of
a magazine ever published.
Blockbuster factor: a chance to see ambition in its purest form — gives an insight into one of the biggest fashion power houses in the world.
Release date: September 2009.

IN PRODUCTION
Untitled Ayrton Senna documentary
Summary: follows the life of the legendary Brazilian Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna. It is said to feature original footage of Senna's races.
Blockbuster factor: has the full backing of the Senna family, plus the Midas-touch of Working Title films is behind the project.

 

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