It seems like the Tribeca Film Festival grows bigger every year, which is great for filmmakers because it means that our films have a greater opportunity of being seen by audiences. As a first time documentary filmmaker, I am intrigued to see that there are 62 documentary shorts and features slated into their program this year. Although 49 films are made by US filmmakers, much of the subject matter of these films has a diverse global theme, which will appeal to a wide audience. Tribeca's documentary breadth is in part due to TFF's stated mandate to support global awareness and social action, promoting 'emerging and underrepresented artists'.
At one point I thought that documentary films were overly educational and somewhat pedantic. But as we all know, in recent years, documentaries have become an accessible and hip medium for filmmakers who choose to opt out of the "cool kids" group of features for lack of connections or money. I meet documentary filmmakers all over the world at festivals and markets who are making documentaries that they want to make without the hassle of waiting for the multi-million dollar budgets to be approved. For little money, with limited equipment and a skeleton crew, they can independently start shooting their documentary films and tell the story they want to tell without appeasing a corporate mandate set by non-filmmakers.
As a female documentary filmmaker, who's current project is a personal documentary about my family's experience's in Shanghai during the second Sino-Japanese War, I was pleased to see that there are films with tangential themes to my documentary topic: Asian themed docs (13), historical docs (5) and war docs (8). There's even one specifically about the second Sino-Japanese war, Nanking, but it's a different kind of beast wherein it's a feature documentary written with a script and includes professional actors reenacting the historical aspects. Sadly, there's only one personal documentary, from Austria (and it's a short), which leads me to ask the question ~ does the documentary marketplace devalue personal voices or is the Tribeca Film Festival not interested in people telling their own stories? Since I haven't spoken to the programmer I don't know the answer but I hope for my sake it's not the former.
The fact that 75% of the programming is from US storytellers and that 50% of those docs are telling foreign narratives begs to ask the question; if TFF wants to promote and support global awareness, why can't I see it straight from the horse's mouth? Why can't people outside of the US tell their own stories, globally? Are we lacking in foreign filmmakers? Was there but one person from Pakistan, The Philippines, Israel, Hungary, India and China who made a documentary this year ~ because that's what is represented at Tribeca. Perhaps there was. Maybe if you're a non-American documentary filmmaker who made a film in 2006 with a local subject matter, which remains relevant beyond its borders, you could let me know.
I recently returned from the Berlin Film Festival, where similarly, the world's stories' were being told by American voices. There are filmmakers, film financiers and film distributors from around the world who gather for 10 days to watch, discuss, finance and buy films. It's a very exciting place to be in the month of February and one of the three largest film markets in the world (Cannes and Toronto being the other two). At this A-list festival, there were very few documentaries, most of which were made by Americans. Two, in fact, are at Tribeca this year, but all either told a personal story or the filmmaker had a personal connection to their subject matter and place. Some US documentary filmmakers are uniquely telling American stories, but others are receiving financing for films about international subjects, ones they are not closely connected with.
From personal experience, I know how difficult it is to tell someone else's story, in a different language, foreign country, and another time. I'm looking forward to going out and supporting my fellow doc filmmakers in the difficult endeavor of telling other people's stories. US documentary filmmakers are giving a voice to people who otherwise would not have one. But, I would like to see more product by foreign filmmakers telling their own stories; stories about their own countrymen and women, US filmmakers are giving a voice to people who, at this point, do not have one.