Has the documentary genre passed out?

Take a look at the list of the best pretenders to the non -fictional special this season of Emmy and you will find great musical talents: Bruce Springsteen. Celine Dion. John Williams. The Beatles.

However, far from an exciting foray into the modern canon, these excursions from the renowned rock and roll temple suggest a world in which non -fictional television has become a brand management exercise, say documentary leaders, marginalizing a robust narration and journalism.

The Special Documentary Emmys once covered a wide range of social subjects. From about 25 years ago, he understood the stories of prisoners of war in Vietnam and prison concealment, candidates for children of beauty and racial inequalities. But in recent years, it has changed. In 2024, four of the five nominees were biographies of authorized celebrities. The previous year? The same.

Do not rely on many changes this season: artists music The documents flood the space.

“This is a large part of the streaming where companies are looking for reliable and global names, and what is said in the films does not really matter,” said Thom Powers, a veteran documentary programmer in Toronto, Doc NYC and other festivals. “It becomes less a question of content or rigor and more about marketing.”

The fact that these changes occur at a time of crisis – from social injustice to climatic disasters to reducing the federal security net – makes tragedy much greater, say non -fiction experts. Documentaries are not available at the exact moment they need most.

Three veterans filmmakers, which all asked not to be identified because they did not want to even compromise hypothetical partnerships, expressed their concern and underlined the change in the DOC power base of managers only of time and HBO to Netflix, Disney and Apple, which, according to them, have granted the priority of varnish and recognition of names.

Part of the decrease, they say, can also be traced when the streamers began to broadcast advertisements, as Netflix did at the end of 2022, offering them a lower stomach for the content that could alienate advertisers.

In addition, these platforms sometimes pay their subjects, transforming them into de facto directors. After so many decades when artists, actors and athletes were forced to give in control of companies, record labels and teams for which they work, the pendulum has changed in the other direction.

Not that companies have no say: the need for a film for musical rights and increasingly tight surveillance of the entities that control them can mean that even basic humanization details are left out. Many non -fiction films today only concern what the subject wants us to see – fewer documentaries than documents.

The crisis appeared in the fall with the revelation that Edelman, the creative force behind the 2016 Docuseries winners of the Emmy Emmy Emmy OJ: Made in Americahad directed a similar piece for Netflix on the beautiful genius and the alleged malicious (and worse) manipulations of prince. But with the lawyers and the primary rights management company, the primary charge which were in charge of the succession of the musician concerned about the effects of prince’s catalog sales, at least some among the supervisors of the succession would have threatened to use a clause in the contract which would require the film from nine hours to six. The move led the piece ended to retain permanently. A new, more brown authorized film not directed by Edelman will now rise in her place.

We hardly need a plumbing nine hours from the black soul of Paisley Park to understand what is lost. Many and many times, the film approved by the artist slides in front of the most busy material. Spring Road diary,, The Hollywood Reporter ‘exam offered that “in -depth excavation or exhaustive accounting is not the case”. Of Music by John Williams,, The guardian said: “The man behind the maestro remains elusive.” Of I am: Céline Dion,, Variety noted that the film was “succeeded in an inch of his life … There is a feeling that the filmmaker did not want to include anything that his subject does not approve”.

The change is surprisingly recent. Only six years ago, the Emmy winner for Doc Special was Leaving NeverlandHBO’s unwavering look at the so -called Michael Jackson abuses two alleged victims – far from last year’s winner on the genius of Jim Henson who was authorized by his family and out of Disney. The company was undoubtedly happy not to deal Neverland– Legal level headache. (There still seems to be journalism in certain narrow documentary genres, such as real crime, which recently gave Netflix Robust documents from Liz Garbus Gouilles.)

Doc-world veterans indicate the size of banners as a culprit.

“It is a difficult environment now in the United States for controversial content,” said Alex Gibney, the documentary filmmaker winner of Oscars and Emmys (Clarify won the EMMY special non-fiction in 2015). “With consolidation, you think you can talk to everyone, so you don’t want to offend anyone.”

Gibney’s own journalistic film on Benjamin Netanyahu, Bibi filesImpossible to find a big network or a streamer at the Toronto International Film Festival this year, joining another work by Tiff acclaimed, Steve Pink Anti-Trump doc The latest Republicanin the distribution desert. Instead, filmmakers say that documentaries landing big business are well -intentioned but ultimately unpleasant – the cult of fans in authorist clothes.

Serving fans is not a crime, of course, and many musical films can charm or educate the faithful. But the filmmakers say they fear that these looks gently listening to serious work. And they regret with regret the irony that artists whose genius came from the exploration of disorderly contradictions are often found with treatments largely free from them.

The personalities of the music industry behind these films argue that their efforts serve creativity in their own way, and that even if they can have a hand measured in the way they manage sensitive or controversial material, they always aim to launch an enlightening light.

“Artists must be willing to tell their story, which means good and bad, victories and struggles,” explains Tom Mackay, president of Premium Content At Sony Music Entertainment, who was behind a crowd of recent musical documents, including films on Cyndi Lauper, June Carter Cash, Luther Vandross and Céline Dion Picture. “It cannot be a two -hour victory tour.”

Mackay recognizes that an integrated audience is part of the attraction in a difficult media environment. Distributors can count on “this world fans base to migrate to this platform to watch this film,” he said.

Although the presence of these films is considered as an example of marginalization of journalism, the people involved with them say that they really respond to a deterioration in culture of culture and in part even by attacking it. “Journalism – in particular musical journalism – has changed; There are not as many music points and not as much in -depth articles on musicians as before, “explains Deborah Klein, manager of Primary Wave whose customers include Melissa Etherridge and Cypress Hill, who were both recent documents. “It’s a way to know them a little better.”

However, many projects are motivated by commercial models. Conglomerates with musical catalogs do not need to pay license fees, eliminating a main budgetary expenditure. They are then paid when they sell their film to a platform and take another bite to Apple income when the popularity that followed leads to an increase in flows or album sales – a triumph less cinema than synergy. It is difficult to avoid the monetizing truth that Disney + is the company that turns off the story of Star Wars Composer John Williams or that the NBC Peacock streaming arm is behind Ladies and gentlemen … 50 years of SNL music.

A “universe” logic remains: just as Disney produces wonderful and Star Wars Shows by the bucket, he follows the model in non-fiction, peddling three films to which he owns the rights, Michael Lindsay-Hogg Original 1970 Whether it is soFour -hour restoration of Peter Jackson in 2021 images of this film The Beatles: Come backAnd, now, the product of Scorsese Beatles ’64. Any company that is worth its salt engages in a cross promotion. But producing and distributing films with a package strategy ordered for a group that has spent a large part of their career fighting banned packaging can trigger the irony counter. Welcome to the Lennonverse.

Natalia Nastaskin, director of content of Primary Wave, says that “we hope there is an impact on the catalog”, she also thinks that “there is a revealing narration opportunity” with these films. She called them “another form of artistic expression”.

But documentary directors say that the approach makes an environment very different from that to which they are used to. “By calling for a meeting on these projects, you can sometimes feel more as if you are filling a marketing hole than offering an artistic vision,” said one of them.

Sheila Nevins, former executive of HBO and the so-called “godmother” of the modern documentary which was nominated for the Emmy Non Fictionne special, says that it has been discouraged by the company and the creative inclination in recent years. “The documentary is in the hiding place,” she said categorically.

However, she thinks that even if the greatest streamers do not take much risks, a wave of documentaries as well as the public eager to understand the challenges to which the country will emerge to resuscitate the form.

“It is not because these companies do not want to go too deep in the water.” These filmmakers will return with their fists on fire. And they will hit very hard. “

This story appeared for the first time in an autonomous issue in May of the Hollywood Reporter Magazine. To receive the magazine, Click here to subscribe.