Despite popularity of such cable channels as National Geographic, Discovery and Animal Planet and a far more relaxed approach to the old “talking head” style of film, documentaries have yet to really catch on with small screen viewers here in Thailand. Audiences tend to be smaller too in the cinema, where several award-winning and popular documentaries, carefully chosen by the Documentary Club, have been screened over the last few years

Nation TV’s Channel 22 is hoping it can change public perception of the documentary through its “World Film” series, a programme dedicated to documentary films, which airs every Saturday at the primetime of 7pm.

The World Film programme started a few weeks back with “A Matter of Taste,” which follows the life of a young talented chef in the culinary world and followed up with “The Circle”, which tells the story of a gay community in Switzerland. The third week earned the best ratings so far with the entertaining documentary “Man on Wire”. Directed by James Marsh, the film chronicles Philippe Petit’s 1974 high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of New York’s World Trade Centre. It was later adapted into the Hollywood story “The Walk” in which actor Joseph Gordon Lewitt plays Petit.

Viewing went down in week four when “Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview”, a talking head documentary about the Apple founder was screened but picked up last Saturday for South Korea’s “Planet of Snail”, a mesmerising story about a deaf-blind man and the woman he loves, who share a rich life by communicating with a touch-based form of Braille.

“It’s too early to tell how successful we’ve been as the ratings each week have swung widely. We had good ratings for the more entertaining stories like “A Matter of Taste” and particularly “Man on Wire” but the “The Circle” and “Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview” drew fewer viewers than we would have expected” says producer Nattapong Okaphanom, who oversees the programme.

The World Film Festival of Bangkok director Kriangsak Victor Silakong is not surprised by the fluctuations in ratings, pointing out that audiences tend to choose documentaries based on their particular interests and the level to which they can connect with the subjects. “The Circle”, he says, is a good story but of little relevance to a large number of viewers while the adventurous “Man on Wire” is more fun to watch.

“‘The Circle’ is a good documentary but local people are not interested in a gay Swiss community in the 1930s. That said, showing a wide variety of documentaries is good though it will take more time to reach a bigger audience,” says Victor.

“It’s like when I select films for the film festival. I have to leave out many critically acclaimed films that I personally enjoyed and would love to screen but I know they are not stories local audiences want to see it.”

Nattapong adds that the programme aims to expand the channel’s audience to younger viewers, especially film fans and others in the Documentary Club target group.

“It’s new and more time is needed for viewers to become acquainted with the documentary style and also the show time,” he says.

The Documentary Club founder Thida Plitpholkarnpim who sold the TV broadcasting rights of 13 documentaries to Nation Channel, says she’s glad to see the films on television.

“I remember saying how much I hoped to see documentaries airing on different media so they could reach out to audience who live far from Bangkok and don’t have a chance to see them in the cinema. Now they can and that’s great,” she enthuses.

The Documentary Club started by distributing documentary films at selected cinemas, mainly SF World Cinema at Central World, but has now expanded to other cinemas as they think the audience is large enough to cover the screening.

“My dream is for viewers to be interested in watching documentaries on TV,” she adds.

Until the Nation launched World Film, documentaries had never enjoyed their own spot on TV. And viewers who dismiss them as being like the wildlife or news documentaries on other channels couldn’t be more mistaken. In recent years documentary makers have taken enormous aesthetic leaps away from the static, talking-head educational films to embrace a different of techniques and styles from animation to editing to bring energy to their narratives. Sometimes it makes the documentary comes closer to a feature film in terms of entertainment, which probably explains their popularity in the West.

Thida sold 13 documentaries to the channel for the first season, among them the upcoming “Iris” about fashion icon Iris Apfel, which shows this Saturday and the Oscar-winning “Citizenfour”, which looks at Edward Snowden and the US National Security Agency spying scandal.

“Some of the films have already been shown in local cinemas and other have not. Some really good films cannot unfortunately be aired on TV due to copyright restrictions,” says Thida.

She also helped the channel design the line-up and order in which the films should be shown. “The viewers are sitting comfortably at home with the remote in their hand so it was important to start with the most entertaining films so they wouldn’t just switch off..

“As each documentary has a different and very varied subject, it takes time to educate viewers. I believe documentaries benefit our society. We are always complaining about the failures of our educational system and documentaries are excellent educational tools that entertain at the same time,” Victor says.

Nattapong says that he will need three to six months to evaluate the results of the series but says it certainly won’t end after just 13 documentaries. “We will continue to select documentaries and some more world films that fit into the concept of programmes,” he insists.

Victor adds that perhaps in the future they will select some movies that have shown and are to show at the World Film Festival of Bangkok and also look at documentaries from around the world.

“There are lots of excellent documentaries and alternative films coming out of China, Japan or Taiwan that Thai people never get to see,” he says.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

• Upcoming documentaries include “1971”, “The Punk Singer”, “5 Broken Cameras”, and “Good Ol’ Freda.”
• The film shows in Thai with optional original soundtracks and subtitles. They can be seen on Nation TV’s Channel 22 every Saturday at 7pm.