LOS ANGELES — On a bustling post-Oscar Monday,"Free Solo" co-directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin arrive for their photo shoot looking like they've barely taken a breath since climbing the stage at the Dolby Theatre the night before to accept the award for documentary feature.
"This year is about connection for most people," Vasarhelyi tells Variety, sipping hot water and gazing at her two children, Marina, 5, and James, 3, who have tagged along with their parents to Hollywood's Milk Studios. "I think it's got a lot to do with the streaming services," says Vasarhelyi, acknowledging prolific buyer-producers like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. She also credits increasingly sophisticated audiences, which are more prone to accept nonfiction as entertainment and are lured by the high level of talent being drawn to work in the space .
The documentary field had been sleepy since the close of the early aughts, when Michael Moore reinvigorated the genre in 2002 with"Bowling for Columbine," and when"March of the Penguins" stole hearts in 2005 and earned $127 million at the worldwide box office ."People are also looking for truth," he says."Nonfiction filmmaking is still ultimately journalism, especially when it's not splashed across a psychotic news cycle with constant spinning.