Doc Society (formerly Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation and BRITDOC Foundation) is a

social entrepreneurship Social entrepreneurship is an approach by individuals, groups, start-up companies or entrepreneurs, in which they develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. This concept may be applied to a wide range of o ...

organisation created in 2005. They have supported the production of over 60 films that have won awards .

Development

Initially supported by UK broadcaster

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

to support British documentaries declined by broadcast commissioners, the BRITDOC Foundation has grown to receive further funding from

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

s, brands and foundations such as PUMA.Creative and the Bertha Foundation to invest in the support of documentary film. The Foundation also works in other areas of film funding by creating the pitching forum 'Good Pitch' and popular film torrent site

VODO VODO is an online media distributor offering films, books, games and music under pay-what-you-want pricing models. Founded by film director Jamie King, VODO has recently focused on bundle offers, bringing together a variety of creators under the ...

. Their mission is to support international

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

from production to distribution to outreach. The Foundation is headed by three directors: Jess Search, Beadie Finzi and Maxyne Franklin.

Documentary titles

Documentary titles the Foundation has supported include ''The Bengali Detective'' by Phillip Cox, ''

Hell and Back Again ''Hell and Back Again'' is a 2011 American-British-Afghan documentary film produced, shot, and directed by Danfung Dennis, about a sergeant in the United States Marine Corps who returns from the Afghanistan conflict with a badly broken leg and po ...

'' by

Danfung Dennis Danfung Dennis is a still photographer and documentary film maker. He graduated from the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. His images have been published in ''Newsweek'', ''Time'', ''The New York Times'', ''The Washing ...

, ''Self Made'' by

Gillian Wearing Gillian Wearing CBE, RA (born 10 December 1963) is an English conceptual artist, one of the Young British Artists, and winner of the 1997 Turner Prize. In 2007 Wearing was elected as lifetime member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. He ...

, ''

The Yes Men Fix the World ''The Yes Men Fix the World'' is a 2009 English language documentary film about the culture jamming exploits of The Yes Men. The film premiered in New York City and Los Angeles on October 23, 2009 and in other U.S. cities beginning on October 30. D ...

'' by

Mike Bonanno Igor Vamos (born April 15, 1968) is a member of The Yes Men (using the alias Michael "Mike" Bonanno), and an associate professor of media arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In 2000, he received the Creative Capital award in the disciplin ...

Andy Bichlbaum Jacques Servin (also known by the pseudonym Andy Bichlbaum; born 1963) is an American media artist and activist. He is one of the leading members of The Yes Men, a culture jamming activist group. Their exploits in "identity correction" are docume ...

& Kurt Engfehr, '' Erasing David'' by filmmaker David Bond (d.)

Ashley Jones Ashley Aubra Jones (born September 3, 1976) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in soap operas as Megan Dennison on ''The Young and the Restless'' and as Bridget Forrester on ''The Bold and the Beautiful''. She also had a recur ...

(p.), ''

Sounds Like Teen Spirit ''Sounds Like Teen Spirit'' (also known as ''Sounds Like Teen Spirit: A Popumentary'') is a 2008 documentary and debut feature film of Bafta-Award nominated director Jamie Jay Johnson. It was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival 2 ...

: a Popumentary'' by Jamie Jay Johnson, '' Moving to Mars'' by Mat Whitecross (d.) and Karen Katz (p.), ''The End of the Line'' by

Rupert Murray Rupert Murray (born 28 May 1969) is a film director working in London. Murray began by making television documentaries for Channel Four's Cutting Edge series including Playing For England and Seconds To Impact (cameraman and editor), and short films ...

, ''The Solitary life of Cranes'' by Eva Weber, ''

Afghan Star ''Afghan Star'' is a reality television show competition that searches for the most talented singers across Afghanistan. The program broadcasts on the TOLO channel. ''Afghan Star'' premiered in 2005, four years after the fall of the Taliban, w ...

'' by

Havana Marking Havana Marking is a British producer and director of documentary films. She is known for her first feature documantary in 2009 ''Afghan Star''. This film won Best Director and the Audience Award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Plot The f ...

, ''

We Are Together ''We Are Together'' (Thina Simunye) is a British documentary film about the orphanage "Agape" in South Africa. Children, who live here, lost their parents to AIDS. The film is full of songs, both native and English. Eventually the children get a ...

'' Paul Taylor (d.) and Teddy Leifer (p.) and '' Here's Johnny'' by Adam Lavis, Kat Mansoor and Will Hood. As a result of the long-term partnership initiated in 2010 between BRITDOC Foundation and PUMA.Creative, a growing number of international films concerned with the themes of

social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...

peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

and environmental issues have received funding and support. The following films were winners of the PUMA.Creative Catalyst Award: ''Speed Sisters'' by Geoffrey Smith, ''DRAGONSLAYER'' by Tristan Patterson, ''Teenage'' by Matt Wolf, ''Charlie PELE'' by F. Simiyu Barasa, ''Shadow Girl'' by Maria Teresa Larrain, ''Beyond the Wave'' by Kyoko Miyake, ''I, Afrikaner'' by Annalet Steenkamp, ''Femme à la Camera'' by Karima Zoubir. PUMA.Creative Mobility Award winners: '' Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry'' by Alison Klayman, ''Fish Fight Europe'' by William Anderson, ''Who is Dayani Cristal?'' by Marc Silver, ''

A Small Act ''A Small Act'' is a documentary film produced by Harambee Media and HBO and directed by Jennifer Arnold. The documentary chronicles Chris Mburu's search for his benefactor, whose sponsorship allowed him to continue secondary school in Kenya. He ...

'' by

Jennifer Arnold ''The Little Couple'' is an American reality television series on TLC (TV network), TLC that debuted May 26, 2009. The series features Bill Klein, a businessman, and Dr. Jennifer Arnold a neonatologist, who both have skeletal dysplasia. Arnold is ...

, ''Turkey Creek'' by Leah Mahan, ''

The Island President ''The Island President'' is a 2011 documentary film about the efforts of then-President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed to tackle rising sea levels resulting from climate change. Produced by Actual Films, an Oscar- and Emmy-winning American docu ...

'' by Jon Shenk, ''

Ping Pong Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

'' by Hugh Hartford, ''25 to Life'' by Mike Brown, ''Moving to Mars'' by Matt Whitecross (this film provided the inspiration for the song " Moving to Mars" by

Coldplay Coldplay are a British rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer Will Champion and creative director Phil Harvey. They met at University Col ...

Good Pitch

''Good Pitch'' is a documentary pitching platform established at the BRITDOC Film Festival in 2008. It is a partnership between The Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation and The

Sundance Institute Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by Robert Redford committed to the growth of independent artists. The institute is driven by its programs that discover and support independent filmmakers, theatre artists and composers f ...

Documentary Film Program. The international platform brings together filmmakers with NGOs, foundations, philanthropists, brands and media around leading social issues – to forge coalitions and campaigns for the benefit of all parties. To date, more than 90 documentary projects have been presented at Good Pitch events in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

. In that time more than 1,500 organisations have attended. Additionally in 2011, BRITDOC Foundation launched a satellite version of the forum, called Good Pitch² (Good Pitch Squared). With the same mission as their flagship events – to 'connect good films to good people'. The first Good Pitch² was held by the People to People (P2P) International Documentary Conference in Johannesburg on 13 September 2011. Good Pitch² events have been hosted in India, Argentina, Taiwan, Australia with events scheduled for Kenya and Southeast Asia. Recently the Bertha Foundation has partnered with the BRITDOC Foundation to launch two new funds for documentary feature films totalling £1.5 million over three years. The funds are available for journalism documentaries and documentary outreach campaigns.

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

* http://britdoc.org/ Television festivals Documentary film festivals in the United Kingdom Documentary film organizations Film festivals in England 2005 establishments in the United Kingdom Organizations established in 2005 Social enterprises Film organisations in the United Kingdom