Finding Allies in Pandemic Times: Documentary Film Festivals and Streaming Platforms

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter analyzes the collaboration between documentary film festivals and streaming platforms before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. Our study of collaborative practices revolves around the concepts of reciprocity and strategic alliances, developed within Anthropology and Management Studies. We focus on two pioneer streaming platforms, which are initiatives of documentary distribution created by or with film festivals. In our first case study, DAFilms (originated from an alliance of seven European documentary festivals), we analyze why a video-on-demand (VOD) platform born out of a festival alliance was not necessarily the preferred streaming option for all its partners during the pandemic. In our second case study, Tënk (an initiative born out of the French festival États généraux du film documentaire), we focus on curatorial strategies and explain how the shift to new collaborative models brought up by the pandemic didn’t work in the long term. By contrasting the discourses of the representatives of film platforms and festivals before and during the pandemic, we identify key factors that contributed to the success or failure of their alliances. We identify an increase in exchange between festivals and platforms, and a determination of many festivals to maintain hybrid online and onsite activities in the future, within their own and other VOD platforms.