NYT article about HBO Docs
Made for TV, but Shown First in a Theater
By ANNE THOMPSON
Published: May 10, 2004
ver the last 25 years, few people have done more to propel documentaries to popularity than Sheila Nevins, executive vice president of HBO and Cinemax for original programming, documentaries and family. But in nurturing and releasing films ranging from "Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt," to the 2004 Oscar nominees "My Architect," "Balseros" and "Capturing the Friedmans," Ms. Nevins has unwittingly made her job a much more difficult one.
HBO and Ms. Nevins no longer have the field pretty much to themselves, as movie studios and rival cable outlets rush to feed the audience's craving.
To adapt, Ms. Nevins has had to overhaul the way she does business. When buying a documentary, HBO, a unit of Time Warner, no longer insists that it be shown on HBO first before a lengthy release in theaters. Ms. Nevins has to spend more to acquire projects, and more to finance them. And she finds herself collaborating with theater exhibitors, a group she could once ignore.
Mark Urman, distribution president at ThinkFilm, a distributor of independent films, has witnessed the shift first-hand. Four years ago, when he worked at Lions Gate Entertainment, he called Ms. Nevins about release plans for "The Eyes of Tammy Faye," a documentary detailing the life of Tammy Faye Bakker. She did not want to talk to him. "She said, 'You open the movie, get all the attention, and when it's time for the movie to air, there's nothing left to say,' " he said.
Ms. Nevins's new thinking is on display with "The Agronomist," Jonathan Demme's portrait of a murdered Haiti activist. After ThinkFilm acquired the film, which is currently in theaters, Ms. Nevins bought the broadcast rights. This time, Mr. Urman recalled, "She said, 'We love you, you'll make noise with the movie, it has to be on HBO.' "
Last year's sleeper hit "Spellbound" is the new documentary model, a movie about real people that borrows cinematic fiction techniques. The movie about a national spelling bee took in $5.7 million in theaters before showing on HBO. "We embarked on 'Spellbound' jointly," Mr. Urman said. "We split rights, working together so that everybody got what they needed. We opened in May 2003, HBO aired in November and the video went out in January."
Traditionally, in exchange for financing a documentary feature, cable channels like HBO claimed full credit in an on-air premiere. "It used to be a hard and fast rule that you had to be on HBO first, then DVD or video," Ms. Nevins said. "The concept of going theatrical, we'd never think of. That world has changed. Now HBO is very theatrical-release friendly. Thanks to new technology there's now so much product to buy and make." But Ms. Nevins said that 50 percent of HBO's films still air there first.
While HBO is still the first financing stop for most nonfiction filmmakers, the new documentary heat wave brings with it a host of hungry competitors. More and more specialized distributors and cable channels, like Arts & Entertainment, Lifetime, Sundance and the Independent Film Channel, are jumping into the documentary fray. The reason, not surprisingly, is financial. In 1998, documentaries brought in $7.6 million at the box office, according to Nielsen EDI. Last year, the total was $49.2 million.
"I want to be in that business," said Nancy Utley, marketing president of Fox Searchlight Pictures, a top-ranked art film distributor. "The popularity of reality TV reminds us that there's nothing more fascinating than real human beings. So many movies are mining the same territory that has been mined before. Docs are fresh and give you something different."
Ms. Nevins praises Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival for helping to raise the profile of the documentary. This past January at Sundance, distributors jostled over a spate of shock documentaries: the McDonald's fast-food exposé "Super-Size Me" was snapped up by Roadside Attractions and Showtime (not a traditional haven for documentaries); Lions Gate gave $2.5 million for worldwide rights to "Open Water," a docudrama about two scuba divers left behind in the shark-infested Caribbean; and Sony Pictures Classics paid $2 million for American rights to the surfing documentary "Riding Giants," to be released by this summer.
Several film distributors cite Michael Moore for changing the tone of what is considered acceptable by pumping his documentaries, like the Oscar-winning "Bowling for Columbine," full of entertaining, sassy attitude. Mr. Moore is seeking a new distributor for his "Fahrenheit 9/11" after the Walt Disney Company refused to allow its subsidiary, Miramax, to release the movie, which is critical of President Bush. "Fahrenheit 9/11" will make its debut this month in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. "The new documentary is populist, the story of an interesting subject, has auteur style, and doesn't follow the rules of the 60's and 70's strict documentary authority," says Tom Bernard of Sony Pictures Classics, which released "Winged Migration," an $11 million French import, last year, and financed Erroll Morris's 2004 Oscar winner, "The Fog of War."
"Sheila Nevins is the world of the past, of the Maysles brothers, Barbara Kopple and D. A. Pennebaker," he said. "Thanks to reality television, the American public is comfortable with documentary style now, and will easily travel from the TV screen to the theater."
To stay competitive, Ms. Nevins has adapted. After Andrew Jarecki's home-movie exposé "Capturing the Friedmans" made its debut at Sundance in January 2003, HBO snapped it up. Magnolia Films released the film in theaters last May. After it took in $50,000 in one week at Angelika Theater in New York, the Landmark theater chain booked it nationally on its 185 screens. (To date it has made $3 million.) The movie was released on DVD in January 2004, with the addition of a short film about one of its subjects, but will not be shown on HBO until this July. "HBO Video is part of the action," said Ms. Nevins. "We invented a piece for TV to make it viable, to give TV viewers a new element, a way to catapult them to take a new look at the film."
Ms. Nevins had always used small-scale theater releases to qualify a worthy standout, like the Spanish TV film "Balseros," for an Oscar nomination. "HBO knows how to play the Oscar release game," said Alex Gibney, a documentary producer whose films include "The Blues."
"Sheila Nevins is aware of both delivering raw meat to hungry dogs, and at the same time, knowing when a film comes along that will be an award winner," he said. "Filmmakers are interested in having their films shown theatrically. She has to decide whether that undermines what pay-channel subscribers get at HBO."
Ms. Nevins said: "Until four years ago, I wasn't in acquisitions. ThinkFilm gave me a tape of a Mongolian docudrama that looks like it was made on Mars about a camel who cries. I said to Mark, 'What, are you crazy?' It was so sweet, I wept." Ms. Nevins acquired "Story of a Weeping Camel" for HBO.
"I know how to make and market documentaries. I don't understand the business of film distribution," she said. "Now we have to make a quick decision whether it's TV or theatrical. Will it be so noisy that it will be good for HBO even after it shows in theaters, like 'Spellbound' or 'My Architect'? It's an exciting new market to be in."
By ANNE THOMPSON
Published: May 10, 2004
ver the last 25 years, few people have done more to propel documentaries to popularity than Sheila Nevins, executive vice president of HBO and Cinemax for original programming, documentaries and family. But in nurturing and releasing films ranging from "Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt," to the 2004 Oscar nominees "My Architect," "Balseros" and "Capturing the Friedmans," Ms. Nevins has unwittingly made her job a much more difficult one.
HBO and Ms. Nevins no longer have the field pretty much to themselves, as movie studios and rival cable outlets rush to feed the audience's craving.
To adapt, Ms. Nevins has had to overhaul the way she does business. When buying a documentary, HBO, a unit of Time Warner, no longer insists that it be shown on HBO first before a lengthy release in theaters. Ms. Nevins has to spend more to acquire projects, and more to finance them. And she finds herself collaborating with theater exhibitors, a group she could once ignore.
Mark Urman, distribution president at ThinkFilm, a distributor of independent films, has witnessed the shift first-hand. Four years ago, when he worked at Lions Gate Entertainment, he called Ms. Nevins about release plans for "The Eyes of Tammy Faye," a documentary detailing the life of Tammy Faye Bakker. She did not want to talk to him. "She said, 'You open the movie, get all the attention, and when it's time for the movie to air, there's nothing left to say,' " he said.
Ms. Nevins's new thinking is on display with "The Agronomist," Jonathan Demme's portrait of a murdered Haiti activist. After ThinkFilm acquired the film, which is currently in theaters, Ms. Nevins bought the broadcast rights. This time, Mr. Urman recalled, "She said, 'We love you, you'll make noise with the movie, it has to be on HBO.' "
Last year's sleeper hit "Spellbound" is the new documentary model, a movie about real people that borrows cinematic fiction techniques. The movie about a national spelling bee took in $5.7 million in theaters before showing on HBO. "We embarked on 'Spellbound' jointly," Mr. Urman said. "We split rights, working together so that everybody got what they needed. We opened in May 2003, HBO aired in November and the video went out in January."
Traditionally, in exchange for financing a documentary feature, cable channels like HBO claimed full credit in an on-air premiere. "It used to be a hard and fast rule that you had to be on HBO first, then DVD or video," Ms. Nevins said. "The concept of going theatrical, we'd never think of. That world has changed. Now HBO is very theatrical-release friendly. Thanks to new technology there's now so much product to buy and make." But Ms. Nevins said that 50 percent of HBO's films still air there first.
While HBO is still the first financing stop for most nonfiction filmmakers, the new documentary heat wave brings with it a host of hungry competitors. More and more specialized distributors and cable channels, like Arts & Entertainment, Lifetime, Sundance and the Independent Film Channel, are jumping into the documentary fray. The reason, not surprisingly, is financial. In 1998, documentaries brought in $7.6 million at the box office, according to Nielsen EDI. Last year, the total was $49.2 million.
"I want to be in that business," said Nancy Utley, marketing president of Fox Searchlight Pictures, a top-ranked art film distributor. "The popularity of reality TV reminds us that there's nothing more fascinating than real human beings. So many movies are mining the same territory that has been mined before. Docs are fresh and give you something different."
Ms. Nevins praises Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival for helping to raise the profile of the documentary. This past January at Sundance, distributors jostled over a spate of shock documentaries: the McDonald's fast-food exposé "Super-Size Me" was snapped up by Roadside Attractions and Showtime (not a traditional haven for documentaries); Lions Gate gave $2.5 million for worldwide rights to "Open Water," a docudrama about two scuba divers left behind in the shark-infested Caribbean; and Sony Pictures Classics paid $2 million for American rights to the surfing documentary "Riding Giants," to be released by this summer.
Several film distributors cite Michael Moore for changing the tone of what is considered acceptable by pumping his documentaries, like the Oscar-winning "Bowling for Columbine," full of entertaining, sassy attitude. Mr. Moore is seeking a new distributor for his "Fahrenheit 9/11" after the Walt Disney Company refused to allow its subsidiary, Miramax, to release the movie, which is critical of President Bush. "Fahrenheit 9/11" will make its debut this month in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. "The new documentary is populist, the story of an interesting subject, has auteur style, and doesn't follow the rules of the 60's and 70's strict documentary authority," says Tom Bernard of Sony Pictures Classics, which released "Winged Migration," an $11 million French import, last year, and financed Erroll Morris's 2004 Oscar winner, "The Fog of War."
"Sheila Nevins is the world of the past, of the Maysles brothers, Barbara Kopple and D. A. Pennebaker," he said. "Thanks to reality television, the American public is comfortable with documentary style now, and will easily travel from the TV screen to the theater."
To stay competitive, Ms. Nevins has adapted. After Andrew Jarecki's home-movie exposé "Capturing the Friedmans" made its debut at Sundance in January 2003, HBO snapped it up. Magnolia Films released the film in theaters last May. After it took in $50,000 in one week at Angelika Theater in New York, the Landmark theater chain booked it nationally on its 185 screens. (To date it has made $3 million.) The movie was released on DVD in January 2004, with the addition of a short film about one of its subjects, but will not be shown on HBO until this July. "HBO Video is part of the action," said Ms. Nevins. "We invented a piece for TV to make it viable, to give TV viewers a new element, a way to catapult them to take a new look at the film."
Ms. Nevins had always used small-scale theater releases to qualify a worthy standout, like the Spanish TV film "Balseros," for an Oscar nomination. "HBO knows how to play the Oscar release game," said Alex Gibney, a documentary producer whose films include "The Blues."
"Sheila Nevins is aware of both delivering raw meat to hungry dogs, and at the same time, knowing when a film comes along that will be an award winner," he said. "Filmmakers are interested in having their films shown theatrically. She has to decide whether that undermines what pay-channel subscribers get at HBO."
Ms. Nevins said: "Until four years ago, I wasn't in acquisitions. ThinkFilm gave me a tape of a Mongolian docudrama that looks like it was made on Mars about a camel who cries. I said to Mark, 'What, are you crazy?' It was so sweet, I wept." Ms. Nevins acquired "Story of a Weeping Camel" for HBO.
"I know how to make and market documentaries. I don't understand the business of film distribution," she said. "Now we have to make a quick decision whether it's TV or theatrical. Will it be so noisy that it will be good for HBO even after it shows in theaters, like 'Spellbound' or 'My Architect'? It's an exciting new market to be in."
