The first appearance of the Documentary Australia Foundation was a provocation. Ian Darling, a well connected documentary filmmaker, popped up in public to challenge creators with an idea: film and philanthropy is a natural fit. Can we learn to work together?
The idea resonated because a lot of filmmakers were feeling left out of a funding system which was reflexively hostile to ‘propaganda’, but documentarians are often driven by passion for a cause. While crusading was a vice in mainstream television, it was a virtue to philanthropists dedicated to cause-related expenditure.
