Dear DFC Members, Allies and Supporters,
For the first time, members of the UK’s documentary film community have elected a national board of representatives. The eight filmmakers and executives below constitute the first elected board of trustees of the Documentary Film Council (DFC). Read on to meet them and for more information about the upcoming Annual General Meeting and Open Assembly at Sheffield DocFest. If you’re a voting member, or would like to sign up to vote during the AGM, please read our Trustees’ Report and Accounts below.
Announcing the DFC’s first-ever elected board of trustees
As a co-operative, the DFC is owned and run by its members, who elect its board every year. Since it launched at Sheffield DocFest last year, the DFC has been run by an Interim Board while its membership could be established and elections held. With a membership now comprising 706 people across all three membership tiers (Supporter, Ally, Member) – of which 264 are voting Members – the election was announced in March and closed on May 31. The election was hotly contested, with 31 candidates from across the industry putting themselves forward for eight seats available on the board.
The elected board of trustees for 2024-2025 are as follows:
- Olu Adaeze (Independent Director/Producer – Ikenga Creative Lab)
- Flore Cosquer (Scottish Documentary Institute)
- Fiona Fletcher (British Council)
- Roisín Geraghty (Independent Producer/Head of Industry & Marketplace – Docs Ireland)
- Jessi Gutch (Independent Filmmaker – Fig Films
- Emma Hindley (BBC Storyville)
- Andy Mundy-Castle (Independent Filmmaker – Doc Hearts Limited)
- Sandra Whipham (Doc Society)
The trustees were elected on a 58.2% turnout, and will formally take over from the interim board at DocFest at the DFC’s annual Open Assembly and AGM on Saturday June 15.
According to the Rules that govern the DFC, the elected members can appoint up to two trustees based on skills and experience and another to represent an external organisation. An ex officio seat on the board is also reserved for the CEO, a role temporarily held by two volunteers.
Filmmaker Andy Mundy-Castle, whose film, White Nanny Black Child won a BAFTA in February, said
“At a time when the independent documentary community faces grave challenges industry wide, it is vitally important to have a council that represents our overlooked and marginalised community. It is a great honour to be elected to a historic board of trustees and I look forward to pushing our collective agenda forward.”
Roisín Geraghty, Independent Producer and Head of Industry & Marketplace at Docs Ireland, who served on the Interim Board as Chair of the DFC, said:
“I am delighted to continue my role as a board member for the Documentary Film Council. I feel passionately about the important work of the DFC, and the organisation’s collective approach in engaging with independent documentary makers; setting an agenda for change and advancing solutions on the serious, and often existential, issues facing the industry.“
The challenges facing the documentary film sector are well-documented. The DFC emerged following an academic research project that found the sector to be chronically under-funded and lacking coherent policy support, and in October 2023 over 500 filmmakers and executives signed an open letter drafted by the DFC’s interim board calling for ‘urgent, coordinated interventions across the sector’.
While the problems facing independent documentary are acutely felt in the UK, they are compounded by a similarly vexed international landscape. This year has already seen the closure of Participant Media, the US studio responsible for titles from An Inconvenient Truth (2006) to All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022) while Hot Docs, Canada’s leading documentary festivals and one of the largest in the world, has been hit by mass resignations. Former Sundance Institute CEO, Keri Putnam, Writing for the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard, noted that streaming platforms are, despite a few exceptions, no longer acquiring independent documentaries and called for ‘a new PBS for the digital age’, arguing that streamers’ dominance is having ‘real ramifications for our culture and democracy’.
In the UK, the DFC itself has struggled to find financial support for its work. Seed-funded in 2023 with a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the DFC has so far failed to secure funding and is currently run by volunteers. Nevertheless, its two Joint Acting CEOs, Emily Copley and Steve Presence, remain optimistic:
“We all know there’s a need for a national membership organisation to represent UK documentary and this election demonstrates that. Though only 8 people could be elected, the calibre of all 31 candidates was outstanding and we want to thank everyone who put themselves forward.
We’re confident we’ll find the backing we need to run the DFC this year. There’s a real energy for change in this sector and a belief in what can be achieved when we work collectively, and as a co-operative, the DFC enables exactly that. We can’t wait to start working with our new board to build a brighter future for documentary in the UK.”
Preparing for the DFC’s AGM & Open Assembly
The Open Assembly takes place annually in partnership with Sheffield DocFest. This year, we will be holding our Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the beginning. This is a legal requirement that gives members oversight of the organisation, reviewing the trustees’ report and annual accounts, and confirming the elected board. Holding the AGM in-person at the Open Assembly at DocFest gives members a chance to meet one another, speak directly with the board and leadership team and shape the work of council.
In advance of our AGM and Open Assembly on Saturday June 15, we are sharing our annual trustees’ report and accounts. During the AGM, voting members will be asked to approve the documents in a vote, so please take the time to read them carefully ahead of time and send us any questions or queries in advance to [email protected].
Before DocFest, on Monday 3 June, we’ll be circulating the DFC’s first set of accounts for review and approval by the membership. The accounts will have been reviewed by the board but only DFC members can approve them; this vote will take place at the AGM at DocFest. Please do read the accounts in advance.
We look forward to seeing you at DocFest in June! In the meantime, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected].
In co-operation,
DFC Leadership Team
