Feature-length documentary is back with a vengeance.

"Without doubt," said Peter Kalhan, senior vice president, home entertainment and archive sales at Fremantle International Distribution, "there is a resurgence of the feature-length documentary as a genre." It would seem he has a point. In May, Fahrenheit 9/11 became the first documentary since 1956 to win the Palm D'Or, and also took $104 million at the U.S. box office alone. And, already, the Michael Moore polemic has serious rivals in Regent's Hunting the President, Harry Thomason's portrayal of the right's "crusade" against the Clintons, and Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism.

Michael Mosley, executive producer, special factual at the BBC, said "we are witnessing a rebirth of the genre," and pointed to a number of other recent successes in the genre. "The French film Etre Avoir was successful and did very well in the U.K. too and then there was Touching the Void, which was a big success on both sides of the Atlantic," said Mosley.

Channel 4 International's Patrick Roberts questioned whether there is a revival underway: "Feature-length documentaries were never off the agenda; they certainly weren't at Channel 4," averred Roberts. Although he did concede that "over the past few years theatrical potential has become more important to the genre."

3DD's CEO Dominic Saville was less sanguine. "Releasing a Michael Moore film is a bit like releasing a Tarantino film. There's already an established audience, so Fahrenheit 9/11 is not a barometer for a trend towards theatrical documentaries. Its success comes down to a combination of the 'Moore brand' and a well-timed release in light of recent political events."

Annie Roney, managing director Ro*Co Films International, agreed that "Moore definitely benefited from a bit of serendipity," and said that "a presidential election and a war really turns the heat on the hype!" But despite this, she still believed that "this is the beginning of an exciting, worldwide trend towards high-profile, audience attracting, feature-length documentaries."

Conversely, Esther Van Messel, managing director of Swiss distribution house First Hand Films, questioned whether one can call Fahrenheit 9/11 a documentary. According to Van Messel, people have always looked for "a good story," and though storytelling is at the heart of documentary-making, the genre has only recently shaken off the stigma of being boring. She is prepared to concede that "Michael Moore has played his part in achieving that."

Ro*Co's Roney said that another reason the genre is finding favor "has a lot to do with the mass audience's frustration with traditional news sources. When shown without interruption on a movie screen or a pay platform, a feature-length documentary, by the very nature of its length, won't patronize its audience. It also exudes a gravitas and credibility that is missing from our TV news and from most newspapers. People are just sick of the way Journalism is conducted and suddenly, by contrast, feature-length documentaries appear attractively pure, honest and credible."

In this respect, Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, produced and directed by Robert Greenwald, became a theatrical feature after a rapid debut at the top of Amazon's DVD bestseller list.

According to Fremantle's Kalhan, "the reason it has started to happen now is there's a lot going on and a lot of conspiracy theories knocking about. Also, it has been happening for a while in publishing, for example, with books detailing the relationship between the [Presidential] Bush family and the Bin Laden family, so it's a natural progression for it to start happening in the audiovisual fields as well."

Esther Van Messel saw an entirely different reason. She explained, "in our culture, which is where these documentaries are successful, we have easy access to the information, which can create a feeling of being lost in a vast amount of data." A feature-length documentary "can make a true story which is well told seem very easy to digest."

At the BBC, Michael Mosley took a more prosaic view. "There is a momentum which, to a certain extent, is self-feeding," observed Mosley, adding, "Touching the Void was a big success, and this stimulates interest in the genre. Then when Michael Moore came along with Fahrenheit 9/11, everyone thought it was a good idea. And everyone will probably go on thinking [documentaries] are a good idea until someone makes a complete turkey."

There are a number of feature-length documentaries in either development or production. 3DD recently released theatrically, Nobody Someday with Robbie Williams, and it is currently in production with Fremantle on a history of punk, provisionally titled Punk: An Attitude.

Channel 4 International is distributing two feature-length documentaries: Biggie and Tupac and Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer. Nick Broomfiled made both films, and, said Patrick Roberts, "the filmmaker attached to the project would play a significant part in our decision to get involved."

The markets for these films are the U.S., the U.K., Australia, France and Germany, and predominately for TV. Indeed First Hand Films' Van Messel insisted her company, "could not afford to pick up documentary films that only have a feature-length version," and continued, "without the one-hour broadcast version we lose about 90 percent of our market."

3DD's Saville agreed, noting, "Europe as a whole has traditionally been quite supportive of intelligent documentary making, but it remains the case that TV and DVD co-production deals [and not theatrical] normally form the bulk of the finance."

Ultimately, Ro*Co's Roney put her finger on why these films get made. "The films have to have international appeal, sure," said Roney, "but we are very selective and for us to get involved with a project, we also have to have personal passion, we have to love what we distribute."