The breakdown of the Writers Guild of America’s contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers could benefit the documentary industry. Especially those documentary filmmakers with projects seeking distribution.
Following a Hot Docs Industry panel discussion about creative distribution, filmmaker and author Jon Reiss said that while he stands “firmly” with the Writers Guild, he does see potential in the strike for docus. But unlike the 2007 writers strike, when networks cut seasons short and aired reruns, streamers have years worth of content in the pipeline along with international shows written by scribes outside the WGA.
“I think there will likely be a programming gap, and that will require the re-shuffling of schedules, which I hope will be an opportunity for the many documentaries that haven’t yet sold in the past year,” Goldman adds. “We have to see how long the strike lasts before we see a shift in the landscape.”