The backstory
The practice of independent documentary filmmaking is an essential, persistent and innovative form of creative expression and over the past couple of decades, small organisations have sprung up in every region of the world, to enable, protect and championthis influential practice and their makers.
DISCO is made up of such cultural organisations. We bilaterally collaborated on individual films, on film funds, on field interventions, including Good Pitch, Climate Story Labs, on distribution experiments like Doc Academy, on Impact Campaigns. And we attended one another's festivals and market events, danced at some fantastic parties, etc. But then in 2019 we were all invited to a meeting by the JustFilms team at Ford Foundation. The meeting was called: Sustaining Social Justice Documentary in Challenging Times. We talked about all kinds of systemic trends and challenges facing the independent film community.
We were struck by the similarity of our challenges. How each colleague held a different part of the puzzle to share and solve for. It felt tantalising - if we just had more time together, we could unlock a lot. After three days working together, we knew we wanted more.
We started an informal online group in early 2020 which took on a whole other meaning when the pandemic struck. Suddenly, we were a solidarity group. We kept meeting, checking in through a time of crisis. And not just a global health crisis. We were witnessing in real time the seizing up of the media ecosystem due to lockdown and economic shocks, but also watching longer-term trends unfold. A collapse in traditional distribution and funding models, a shuttering of critical institutions, a closing of the public square through rising autocracy. It was a tectonic moment in the field with implications that are still reverberating today.
Over time, DISCO was able to look beyond the crisis and turn to more future-facing conversations. How might the field look when we get through the portal of the pandemic? What could we imagine on the other side? What could we build together?
We agreed that nothing was off the table. There should be nothing too ambitious or too specific or too visionary. DISCO became a space to think and dream together. Drawing on one another’s experiences - both bitter and sweet - to do better work.
