Mission Statement of Documentary Channel^®

Documentary Channel^® is the home of the independent documentary, showcasing new voices, new visions, and new perspectives. 

Documentary Channel streams the best documentaries, curated by the best documentary filmmakers. . .  and we invite the world to join the discussion.

Truth takes a front seat at the Documentary Channel.

LIFE. CAMERA. ACTION.^®

Preview Launch

The current platform you are seeing now is a PREVIEW LAUNCH. We are introducing to viewers the look and feel of the channel, as well as a sampling of the types of films the "Full Channel Launch" will include. The Preview Launch platform has 100+ documentaries; the Full Channel will have 1,000+ documentaries. The Full Channel will have much more robust interaction, and much greater depth of content, search capabilities, etc. 

The purpose of the Preview Launch is to gather viewer information data and to prove there is an audience for independent documentaries. We need subscribers and viewers to help us for this early stage! To encourage subscribers, we are offering for the duration (about a year) of the Preview Launch a one-time subscriber fee of $1.99. You are not obligated to continue any subscription. Subscribers during the Preview Launch will be FOUNDING SUBSCRIBERS, and receive a lifetime, 50% discount on subsequent yearly subscriptions.

Relaunch of Successful Linear Channel

Documentary Channel is a relaunch by Tom Neff and John Forbess of the prior, highly successful linear cable television channel of the same name. Documentary Channel aired nationwide to over 25 million U.S. households from 2006 to 2012 and was the first 24/7 cable/satellite network dedicated to documentaries. Participant Media purchased the network in 2012, but shortly thereafter abandoned the Documentary Channel name, trademark, brand and programming, thus providing Neff and Forbess the opportunity to relaunch the channel as a streaming service and to re-establish the brand and its dominance in the genre. 

Our Name Says It All

We are all things documentary.

Our channel has the definitive descriptive name, Documentary Channel. We have a 25-year-old, established, branded destination, DocumentaryChannel.com, with previous exposure to over 25 million households through its previous linear channel.

Curation, Context, and Value

The issue is not "Can we find documentaries to watch?", but rather "What are the best documentaries out there to find?"

At Documentary Channel, upon Full Channel Launch, viewers will see the best documentaries both created and curated by the best documentary filmmakers in the world. Using its extended network of documentary contacts, Documentary Channel will hire the filmmakers and afficionados themselves to help find the best documentaries that are out there for viewers to see. Documentary Channel will sift through the thousands of documentaries in the market to present the most interesting, engaging and groundbreaking documentaries, both recent and classic. 

With decades of experience and contacts at its disposal, Documentary Channel will reach out (think of news "stringers") to documentary filmmakers all over the world to ferret out the best, most captivating documentaries. This is a new approach to programming, and is better suited to a genre so deep and rich in variety and volume, that no one person or in-house group can be expected to know all the documentaries worth seeing. Documentary Channel will have a programming department, of course, but in addition to its superb in-house curation staff, this department will create a unique network of filmmakers and afficionados of the genre from and around the world to help find and deliver to the audience the best documentaries available.

Documentary Channel will whenever possible offer valuable context for the films with brief interviews by the filmmakers and producers, critics, and others. The channel will create or use existing interviews to supplement a documentary with valuable insight, which viewers can choose to watch or skip. A few small comments by the creators can give viewers fresh perspective, and they see a film with new eyes: even those which they may have seen before, or even many times. Classic documentaries can be given new life with just a small tidbit of discerning commentary and context.

As of today, there is no single programming service that showcases all things documentary. There is no portal for groundbreaking and cutting-edge artists; for voices drowned by the deluge of current media; for the rediscovery of those lost or forgotten classics; or for a retreat for community and discussion about media's liveliest art: the documentary.

Until now. 

Programming

The core of Documentary Channel programming is storytelling. Documentary Channel will transport us to a different world, and let us see with new eyes what may have been there all the time: we just hadn't looked at it quite that way.

Documentary Channel will tell us stories about a time, a life, a cause, an ambition, an adventure, a crime, a dream, a triumph, or a tragedy. Documentary Channel is a modern day campfire, and everyone is invited to the whispers and songs, the laughter and tears, the terra and the sky of the documentary filmmaker.

Documentary Channel will feature a wide variety of documentaries, and it will be neither "liberal" nor "conservative." The channel will give voice to any legitimate filmmaker and will not editorialize. We let audiences think for themselves.

Other networks and streaming outlets, because they are not dedicated to documentaries, are limited in the types of documentaries they air. Their programming must fit into a predetermined brand or agenda. They will show documentaries that are primarily salacious, or won't show political films, or nature, or history, or documentaries with a particular slant, or whatever fits into their brand -- which is not documentaries. 

Documentary Channel has 32 unique categories of documentaries, ranging from history to politics to war to women to social issues to environment to space. There simply isn't a category that won't be available to find. We show documentaries of all genres, lengths, time periods, subject matter, and origin. The single criteria is that the documentary be excellent.

Most of all, we celebrate the independent documentary. We celebrate the documentary made from the passion of the filmmaker, not the mandates of the corporate boardroom. 

If a documentary is good, you will see it on Documentary Channel.

Documentary Channel Management

Tom Neff, Co-Founder, President and Chief Creative Officer

• Over 35 years experience as a documentary filmmaker

• Created, directed, wrote and executive produced more than 200 documentary films

• Oscar Nominated, Emmy winning filmmaker

• Developed the earliest branded documentaries for organizations to use as an alternative to advertising

• Co-founded with John Forbess and was COO of the original Documentary Channel

• Associate Professor, Department of Media Arts, Middle Tennessee State University's College of Media and Entertainment in Nashville

John D. Forbess, Co-Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

• Over 45 years experience as a practicing attorney, specializing in entertainment and commercial real estate law

• Former partner at Rudin, Richman & Appel, whose clients included entertainers Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, Liza Minelli and Cher, and entertainment companies Warner Bros. Music, Fries Entertainment, and others

• Drafted and negotiated countless legal documents pertaining to motion pictures and documentaries, including rights acquisitions, production agreements, distribution agreements, intellectual property agreements, artist agreements, management agreements and others, as well as deep experience in commercial real estate.

• Co-founded with Tom Neff and was CEO of the original Documentary Channel