Imagine Documentaries, the non-fiction branch of Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment, is looking to boost a new generation of documentary talent.
Speaking at a panel at Rome’s MIA Market, Imagine Documentaries president Sara Bernstein revealed that her company has signed a development deal with filmmakers Isabel Bethencourt and Parker Hill, whose teenagers-in-Texas portrait “Cusp” premiered to critical acclaim at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, while praising director Jackie Jesko, whose three-part, true-crime doc “Savior Complex” premiered on HBO last month.
“It’s important to champion and make room for the next generation,” said Bernstein, heralding Bethencourt and Hill’s film as “one of the best cinema verité style docs I’d seen in a long time.”
“I thought it was incredibly riveting,” Bernstein continued. “[And] we’re always looking at those filmmakers… [because] it’s exciting to think about the next generation, to ask who’s up and coming.”
Boasting a first-look deal with the Washington Post, Imagine is also looking to the funny pages when sourcing non-fiction content that could cut through the din.
“When we talk to commissioners [they always ask,] will this be a universal story? Will this resonate worldwide?,” Bernstein explained. “Because in today’s marketplace, [prizes and acclaim] are less and less important. What’s more important is will your film or series grab an audience?”
On that front, Bernstein suggested a people-first approach for documentarians covering the ongoing, heart-wrenching conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.
“The more you can allow a person, an audience, a viewer, to walk in someone else’s shoes, the more empathy they’re going to have,” said Bernstein. “Looking for the human side of such a story or situation or political issue is important. Thinking about those projects as narratives is important. If you’re going to make a documentary about a political situation, how can you think about it as a storyteller and not just as a journalist?”
“It’s so important to fund and champion those projects,” she added. “And I think trust is a huge part of it, because I think if you’re watching something unfold, you’re witnessing somebody’s pain and suffering.”
While Imagine has found recent streaming success partnering with National Geographic (which runs on the Disney+ platform) for Ron Howard’s José Andrés doc “We Feed People,” and with Apple TV for the pop-doc series “The Super Models,” which premiered last month, Bernstein also anticipates a renewed theatrical interest for select non-fiction titles.
“We’re at a reset moment across the industry,” said Bernstein. “So for documentaries, it’s time to think about the different avenues of distribution.”
“Companies like Neon and Sony Pictures Classics are still buying,” she continued, evoking recent titles like Laura Poitras’ Venice-winner “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” and Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal animated genre-bender “They Shot the Piano Player.”
“[And now] coming out of the strike and coming out of platforms purging their slates and buying fewer shows, the independent theatrical distribution companies are also thinking about how to diversify their slates. And documentaries have always played a part in that.”