Oprah Winfrey has announced that her cable network OWN will air at least one original documentary per month in what is termed the Documentary Film Club.
According to the press release on her website, “The Oprah Winfrey Network is producing five OWN original two-hour documentaries with Julia Roberts, Forest Whitaker, Goldie Hawn, Gabriel Byrne and Mariel Hemingway, OWN announced today.
The films will be presented as part of OWN’s monthly documentary film club, along with the original acquisitions Life 2.0 and Sons of Perdition. The documentary club will spotlight these films and the previously announced Family Affair, focusing on cinematic documentaries that encourage emerging creative voices to bring their stories to a mainstream television audience on OWN. ”
Some documentarians who do not have celebrities attached to their projects have questions how this series will help “emerging creative voices.”
What do you think? Does the Documentary Film Club bring much-needed attention to the documentary genre? Or, is the OWN documentary project just another vehicle for the famously established?
Docs and TV 