Documentary Filmmaking and U.S. Public TV’s Independent Television Service, 1989-2017

Abstract

Public TV has played a crucial role in shaping opportunities for documentary, and one of its units, the Independent Television Service (ITVS), has since 1989 played an important but largely unsung role in a generation of social-issue, point-of-view documentaries in the U.S. It is an unlikely creation, the product of activist efforts by documentarians who often found themselves excluded in post-1967 public broadcasting. It is an even more unlikely success, as an organization largely funded with tax dollars by the entity that documentarians protested against in its creation — Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In its thirty years, it has co-produced dozens of documentaries a year with independents and found public TV distribution for them. It has been not only incubator but broker between sometimes-obstreperous or even oppositional filmmakers and always-cautious station programmers and PBS. ITVS has evolved in playing this role, becoming a leading support and gateway to broadcasting for the kind of U.S. documentary that is most difficult to make in commercial environments: the independent, point-of-view work on issues of public importance. Understanding how ITVS has shaped opportunities for filmmakers illuminates evolution in form, as well as helping to explain the limits on public affairs programming in the distribution service that reach the greatest number of Americans. Finally, understanding ITVS’ often-hidden contribution demonstrates the importance of focusing on cultural production in understanding genre.