These documentary filmmakers know how to make a profit

Seven tips for success for artists and entrepreneurs

Growth Curve

At the recent Hot Docs Festival in Toronto, the three principals of Montreal’s EyeSteelFilm chatted with celebrity entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary about the dismal economics of documentary films. With less than two per cent of documentaries making a profit, all agreed the industry could not appear on Shark Tank to raise money anytime soon. Making matters worse, EyeSteelFilm eschews the conventional markets of made-for-TV docs and reality shows, preferring to focus on the rarest art: long-form, auteur-driven documentaries made to be screened in cinemas.

Yet EyeSteelFilm has survived and flourished, by following a unique mix of business principles and artistic values. Last month, EyeSteelFilm became the first company to showcase five new films at Hot Docs, Canada’s leading documentary festival. Real Screen magazine ranked two of those films among the festival’s top five titles. In addition, the company has eked out profits seven years in a row — and now it’s investing $200,000 to explore how virtual reality can enhance the film experience. It’s a bold bet by a company that’s learned how to balance courage, creativity and cash flow.

Here are seven principles Founders of EyeSteelFilm, a documentary filmmaker, had five films at Hot Docs in the 2017 season. that EyeSteelFilm developed to achieve sustained artistic and commercial success:

• Be your own producer. When founder Daniel Cross began making documentaries — gritty studies of homelessness and gang life — he despaired of the traditional filmmaking cycle. To make a documentary, you first had to find producers who could raise funds from investors, foundations and grants. Turning that cycle on its head, in 1998 Cross and aspiring filmmaker Mila Aung-Thwin tapped into cultural grants and broadcasting funds, not to make a film but to build their own production company. By staying lean and mean (even the name is a pun on Cross’s habit of scrounging raw film from others), EyeSteelFilm could learn, film by film, how to make great movies and pass along that knowledge. “I don’t think there’s another company like ours,” says Cross.

• Don’t compromise your vision. Cross and Aung-Thwin believe in high-quality, non-scripted cinema verité with no cozy introductions, narration or sappy endings. EyeSteelFilm upholds the social-change motif that fuelled Canada’s National Film Board in the 1960s. “We’re scrappy and inventive, and filmmaker-driven,” says Bob Moore, partner and CEO. “If the film you make is not a great film, there is no market for it.”

“The house style is storyfirst,” says Cross. He and his team have explored such issues as Inuit teens coming of age, the birth of “punk Islam,” and the search for fusion energy. They’ve won awards, and changed lives. For his 2001 film, Squeegee Punks in Traffic (S.P.I.T.), Cross handed a camera to homeless Montreal teen Eric “Roach” Denis, who is now a filmmaker and activist.

• Push the barriers: Giving the camera to a street kid was just the beginning. After S.P.I.T., Cross founded HomelessNation.org, which provided computers to shelters across Canada to help street people. The project won a prestigious World Summit Award in 2009 for Inclusion and Empowerment.

Now, EyeSteelFilm is partnering with MIT fellow Sandra Rodriguez on a virtual reality lab. “We feel we’ve found a way back into interactive storytelling,” says Moore. The firm believes virtual reality can create gripping experiences that help audiences better absorb the themes of its films. Says Moore: “We decided to invest to see if this is a better way to have different kinds of conversations.”

• Build the team: Beyond its three partners, EyeSteelFilm employs a staff of 10, including in-house postproduction specialists. The firm offers one-stop-shopping for production services.

• Don’t chase size; stay flexible. EyeSteelFilm enjoys virtual vertical integration by drawing on contract professionals, such as film editors. That lets filmmakers access known talent at reasonable rates. Otherwise, says Cross, “Subcontractors eat all your money.”

• Build the community. Some of EyeSteelFilm’s biggest hits have come from helping independent filmmakers finish their dream projects. Yung Chang’s Up the Yangtze, which chronicles the social upheavals generated by China’s Three Gorges Dam, became one of the highestgrossing docs of 2007.

More recently, the firm donated production services to help director Chris Kelly complete A Cambodian Spring, a decade-long project exploring oppression and resistance. “There’s a certain number of projects every year that have zero budget and no defensible financial motivation,” says Moore. “But there are some truths you see that you can’t not produce.” In turn, he says, this commitment attracts new filmmakers to EyeSteel, “and more marketdriven projects.”

• Diversify. EyeSteelFilm works hard to reduce the risk in its pursuits. Consider Cross’s newest film, I Am the Blues, an ode to the blues legends of the Mississippi, which aims to be a little more commercial. The firm is also diversifying its revenue sources by building distribution relationships in the U.S., forming broader production partnerships and selling more to global broadcasters.

And to fill more seats at the cineplex, EyeSteelFilm launched its own distribution company, which rents films to theatres across Canada. This not only offers a steady revenue stream, but provides valuable market intelligence. “As a production company, this helps us hedge risk,” says Moore. “It’s good to know what people will pay for.”