Television or Cinema?

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 4 covers the 1990s, a period in which some documentaries, including Paris Is Burning (1991) and When We Were Kings (1996) earned higher grosses at the box office. But this escalation in commercial value led to a widening gap between powerful distribution companies that occasionally picked up documentaries and smaller distributors that distributed the majority of documentary films. The increasing commercial prospects also brought the conflict over documentary films as cinema or television to a head. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences tried to enshrine the distinction with a rule change, decreeing that documentary films must have a regular theatrical release in order to qualify for Academy Awards nominations. This led to HBO shifting its strategy surrounding documentary films.