Geoff Mulgan - 02.11.2011
A few days ago I went to the first Puma Creative Impact Award, organised by the remarkable BritDoc foundation, which is dedicated to promoting documentaries. I've been to a few of Britdoc's informal evenings, showing newly made documentaries, but this was a grander affair, reflecting the amazing renaissance of documentaries in recent years, from obscure late night slots on BBC2 to multiplexes.
There were five amazing finalists: documentaries dealing with everything from the International Criminal Court and Hurricane Katrina, to climate change (Pete Postlethwaite in The Age of Stupid). All are much more than just documentaries, but instead were shaped from the start to drive campaigns - with discussion groups, lobbies and events.
The runner up was Burma VJ, made undercover to document the state of the regime. It claims to have reached 30 million viewers around the world, which puts even The X Factor in the shade.
But the winner was 'The End of the Line', a film about the follies of the fishing industry, which can legitimately claim to have changed not just attitudes, but the behaviour of thousands of consumers, hundreds of restaurants and big companies as varied as Whiskas and Pret A Manger. One of its creators was Christo Hird who has probably done more than anyone in the UK to regenerate the documentary as a tool for changing the world, and to prove that there is no inherent reason why the media have to dumb down.
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