UWE Bristol is to play the lead role in the first major research project into the UK’s booming feature documentary film industry.
The research, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), will be led by Dr Steve Presence and Prof Andrew Spicer from the university’s Digital Cultures Research Centre.
It will be carried out in collaboration with the British Film Institute, Creative England and The Grierson Trust – which commemorates pioneering Scottish documentary maker John Grierson – along with several industry partners.
The project will map the operation and interaction of key players across the industry, trace the history of their development and explore the many challenges involved in the finance, production, distribution and exhibition of UK feature documentary films.
The project, which begins this December and will report in three years’ time, is funded with a £250,000 AHRC grant.
Principal investigator Dr Presence said: “The UK’s feature documentary film industry is now an established part of the broader film and television industries. Feature docs have experienced a major upsurge in popularity in recent years and as a result have become a potentially significant box-office attraction. 
“Yet several key challenges remain, including issues of low pay for documentary filmmakers and crews, poor industry diversity and changing modes of finance, production, distribution and exhibition brought about by digital technologies.
“This is the first project to analyse the documentary industry as a totality, from finance and production through to theatrical, broadcast and online exhibition. The research will map each of these subsectors, explore their interrelationships and study their historical development.
“In doing so, the project will result in an industry that is better understood and better able to address its weaknesses and play to its strengths. This is essential if we are to capitalise on the success of recent films such as [Edward Snowdown documentary] Citizen Four (2014) and The Look of Silence (2015), and maximise feature docs’ potential to contribute to an informed and critical public.”
