Top film-makers rally to save BBC documentaries By Ciar Byrne, Arts and Media Correspondent Published: 08 September 2007 in The Independent British documentaries were once the gold standard, winning critical acclaim around the world. But leading documentary-makers are warning that the industry is now in crisis, with funding siphoned off to factual entertainment and reality-television shows. The struggle to persuade broadcasters to continue putting resources into documentaries is highlighted by a campaign to save the BBC's respected Storyville, which is threatened by cuts of 60 per cent to its already tiny budget of £2.2m. Kevin Macdonald, the director of The Last King of Scotland, this week became the latest to add his voice to the campaign against the cuts to the BBC4 international documentary strand. An online petition at www.savestoryville.org has already attracted more than 2,600 signatures. The campaign's founders are now preparing a detailed dossier to present to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to support their case. Macdonald, whose Oscar-winning documentary One Day in September appeared on Storyville last year, told Broadcast magazine: "I think it is totally outrageous that the BBC is so savagely cutting the budget of the one remaining strand of quality programmes on the whole network. It is nothing short of vandalism." Storyville's editor, Nick Fraser, said he was optimistic that a deal would be reached to preserve the series, which has won 200 prizes in 10 years. But he warned that a new series of 10 films about democracy that was launched this week could not have been made if the budget were cut by 60 per cent. Fraser blamed the lack of funding for documentaries on the trend for factual entertainment – shows such as Channel 4's Wife Swap and Supernanny and programmes ranging from DIY SOS to Ray Mears' Wild Food on the BBC. continues....

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