Canada's biggest documentary festival says it's dying. Documentarians worry they're next

If you go by overwhelmingly successful films like Blackfish, Bowling for Columbine and An Inconvenient Truth, it might seem like documentaries are everywhere we look, affecting and influencing how we perceive society and the world at large.

Alongside emailed entreaties as blunt as "I'll be completely honest with you: we're struggling," written by Hot Docs president Marie Nelson, a profile in the Globe and Mail hammered home the precarious situation faced by the festival.

As well, 10 festival employees recently resigned, blaming an "unprofessional and discriminatory environment" after a new artistic director was hired, resulting in a curtailed number of films over prior years.

And while streamers like Netflix do acquire critically acclaimed feature-length documentaries, Mullen says the overwhelming focus is on "edutainment" — true crime or celebrity series that "are maybe not as artistically sophisticated."

A primary example would be the shuttering of Participant, the company behind innumerable socially motivated documentaries and dramas such as An Inconvenient Truth, Citizenfour, The Cove, Moonlight, Spotlight and others.

"If we only rely on market interest to guide our public policy … we won't have these rich, long, complex stories that push the art form forward, that we've become really well known for around the world."