Were so thrilled that the John Templeton Foundation has come on board to support us… ## Watch on Deadline
Lozano anticipates about a thousand applications for this cycle of grants.
We dont exclude any region, or any story or storyteller.
Deadline spoke with Lozano about some of the big issues facing the documentary sphere.
Sundance Institute’s Carrie LozanoCourtesy of Miguel Mendoza
Lozano: Yeah, theres a lot of anxiety.
I think the sky fell really quickly.
You saw things were happening and then suddenly its like Oh, wait!
This is the whole web connection of platforms and distribution opportunities.
You cant recreateFire of Lovein a kind of commissioning room.
It just doesnt work that way.
Independents, by their very nature, they have a vision.
Theyre going after it and theyre kind of unobstructed.
But thats different from art, right?
The pandemic obviously exacerbated a lot of things.
I think part of whats happening is… people over-hired, overspent during the pandemic when everybody was captive.
And now that the world is resettling theres a retraction…
I live in Silicon Valley its just happening across the board.
I feel optimistic that things will settle.
It might be a year or two.
I think this is an opportunity for public media.
I dont think any of us want to live in a world where we dont have independent storytellers.
To me, that is a danger to democracy.
And so we have to find ways to meet the moment.
CL: To me, [documentary] was always a nonprofit enterprise.
That doesnt mean theres no commercial potential for films, or some films.
But independent nonfiction filmmakers… thats not their motivation.
You cant stop filmmakers from making films…
When I was starting to make films, we had to constantly talk about audience.
Who are we trying to reach?
Why are we trying to reach them?
How are we going to do it?
And I think in the last decade thats not been as big of a requirement.
Who is it for?
Who is my most important audience?
Where do I want this to be?
How are you going to get it to them?
CL: I am a strong advocate of public media.
I always have been.
That is part of my own roots…
There is something to be said about knowing that youre reaching 1 million viewers across the country.
There are lots of reasons why data is not transparent from the streaming platforms, but its not.
We dont actually know where films land when theyre there.
This is something I have spoken about openly for a long time.
Thats a problem for us as non-fiction storytellers to not understand who were actually reaching and where.
That is just the truth.
Certainly, there are challenges.
Theres a challenge when youve depended on appointment television and that doesnt exist anymore.
What do you do?
And how do you convert that?
Hey, lets park it here, and Im on to the next thing.
Its a very tempting model, and if it works well, thats amazing…
But theres a benefit to having editorial independence, to owning your work.
DEADLINE: Youre a member of the Academys Documentary Branch.
And I think thats part of whats fed into this.
It is a grueling.
I want them to get the glory.
It is out of whack… Its not a good model.
What do we do about it?
Im not on the governing board, so I dont have to figure it out.
Its pretty worrisome, and I dont think any of us think its the best way forward.
