The New York Times: Nonfiction Films Turn a Corner

The New York Times > Movies > Nonfiction Films Turn a Corner: "OS ANGELES, July 4 - The record-breaking success of Michael Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9/11' may mark a turning point in the acceptance of documentaries by audiences as mass entertainment and by movie distributors as potential profit centers.

"A lot of times I'm looking at documentaries, and I have no idea of the credibility of the people putting together the information," said Joe Pichirallo, an executive at Focus Features who was formerly an investigative reporter at The Washington Post. "It's the responsibility of the distributor to evaluate and make judgments about the credibility of people putting the film together, but we're not set up to be fact checkers in the way news organizations are."

Either way, some industry professionals say that documentaries are going to continue to take up more space at the multiplexes.

"This is going to be the fastest growing genre over the next few years," said Paul Dergarabedian, the president of Exhibitor Relations, which tracks box office results. "We may not see more $20 million grosses. But audiences are always complaining that movies are dumb, or they talk down to them. Here you go. These movies are decidedly low-tech, and audiences are responding to that."



By SHARON WAXMAN
New York Times