05-05-2025
At Chicago's Doc10, Filmmakers Say the Streaming Boom Is Over, and Governor Pritzker Talks Politics: ‘We Are Seeing Autocrats Exploit Those Who Struggle to Make Ends Meet'
The documentary streaming boom is officially over, according to Academy Award-winning producer and Impact Partners co-founder Geralyn Dreyfous.
'The market for streamers is not coming back,' Dreyfous said during a panel discussion at Chicago's Doc10 film festival over the weekend. 'To go into these film festivals like Sundance and think that you are going to get a big sale is la la land (thinking). The numbers are just not there. One of 20 films is being bought out of Sundance. When we started Impact Partners, eight out of 10 of our films were being bought. That's gone. Gone! We have to create new distribution models.'
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Dreyfous, whose credits include 'The Invisible War,' 'Won't You Be My Neighbor?' and 'Navalny,' helped launch Jolt, an AI-driven, direct-to-consumer streaming platform, in 2024. Meant to give a literal jolt to indie docs that might have been a success at festivals across the world but have not found traditional distribution, Jolt was created as a result of the doc distribution crisis. Recent Jolt titles include 'Hollywoodgate,' 'Zurawsksi v Texas,' and 'The Bibi Files,' a documentary from Oscar-winners Alex Gibney and Alexis Bloom.
Submarine co-president Josh Braun and Red Owl co-founder Alice Quinlan joined Dreyfous on the May 3 panel discussion titled '6 Radical Ideas: Disrupting the Documentary Landscape' to discuss the current state of the nonfiction marketplace.
Braun admitted that sales are taking longer than expected to make.
'Submarine went to Sundance this year with eight films, and we left without selling a single film,' said Braun. 'That's the first time that that ever happened. Now we have sold four of the eight. If those four had sold in February, we would have felt really great. Now that they are selling, and it's May, and we are afraid to feel really great because it's sort of like, was that evidence of anything? We don't know.'
In addition to creating a highly curated viable mechanism that will give audiences the docs they want to see, Dreyfous also suggested the creation of an Angel Studios for the left. The studio that often releases faith-based movies lets members of its Angel Guild choose which film and television projects the company will market and distribute.
'Why can't we have our own guild?' asked Greyfous.
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Heidi Ewing, whose doc 'Folktales' screened at Doc10 and recently sold to Magnolia, commented on the state of the industry.
'From a filmmaker's perspective, going to these festivals is a lead-up tour to a theatrical,' Ewing said. 'They actually become your evangelists. People will see the movie (at Doc10) and will tell their friends to come see it when it opens (theatrically) in Chicago. I'm not being an optimistic, pie in the sky, naivete, but people are really lonely and they want to gather. We have to reach them directly. So, I do believe in the theatrical. There is a way to get people to come.'
Ewing was one of several filmmakers with high-profile docs that attended the tenth edition of Doc10. Geeta Gandbhir ('The Perfect Neighbor'), David Osit ('Predators'), and Academy Award winner Mstyslav Chernov ('2000 Meters to Andriivka') were also in attendance. All three films debuted at Sundance 2025.
Chernov's '20 Days in Mariupol' offered audiences a visceral view of the first days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its civilian toll. In '2000 Meters to Andriivka,' Chernov turns his lens toward Ukrainian soldiers — who they are, where they came from, and the impossible decisions they face in the trenches as they fight for every inch of land.
During a Q&A with Doc10 head programmer Anthony Kaufman, the director explained why he made another film about Ukraine.
'When I'm going around the world, I keep hearing questions – 'What is going to happen next to Ukraine? How do the Ukrainians feel? How do they feel about the land?' Chernov said. 'I always want to give an answer, but I never know what to say, so I try to make a film about it. I really want those numbers of casualties, those kilometers that are just statistics, those names that are just names on the map to have meaning to them. That's why this film exists.'
The five-day festival concluded on May 4 with a screening of Michelle Walshe and Lindsay Utz's 'Prime Minister.' The doc about former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern won rave reviews after premiering at Sundance in January. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker introduced the film and the guest of honor, Jacinda Ardern.
'What you will see in this documentary is a thoughtful and compassionate person navigating the complexities of her private life while facing the tension and the pressure of public office,' Governor Pritzker said. 'It's the type of empathetic leadership that I truly admire, and we should demand it from all of our public servants. (Arden) should remind us of the enormous contrast between the hero of this tale and the politicians who choose to approach public service with cruelty and ignorance. Those elected officials go about their daily lives, facing the challenges that we all do. But instead of choosing empathy as a response, they decide to make those burdens heavier for other people.'He added, 'We are seeing autocrats exploit those who struggle to make ends meet. They think that showing strength means punching down on the most vulnerable. They are convinced that those who look or live or love differently from you don't experience the same joy or the same pain that you have. In this documentary and throughout (Arden's) premiership, we see that strong and effective leadership is founded upon empathy and kindness, especially in times of crisis. She shows us that strength comes from recognizing and acting on behalf of our shared humanity.'Doc10 fest was hosted by Chicago Media Project.
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