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The U.K.’s Documentary Film Council (DFC) is seeking funds to support the independent documentary sector, which is under “existential threat.”

The DFC was formed in response to a three-year study on the U.K. feature-length documentary film industry and co-designed by several organizations in the field, including Doc Society, Sheffield DocFest, the Grierson Trust, The Whickers, Scottish Documentary Institute, Docs Ireland and BBC Storyville.

An open letter to the U.K. screen industries compiled by the DFC states that the formation of the DFC is “based on the recognition that independent documentary in the U.K. faces an existential threat and that there is urgent need for coordinated, long-term interventions across the sector.”

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“Films at the independent end of the spectrum – creative, observational, character-led films, films that originate outside of a commissioner’s brief or which explore difficult-but-vital political or cultural questions – are increasingly hard to get made,” the letter adds. “Production funding for independent docs is chronically low and support for development, let alone distribution and exhibition, is practically non-existent. Sustaining careers in these conditions is all but impossible aside for a relatively privileged few, which has direct implications for filmmaker wellbeing and the docs sector’s devastating lack of diversity.”

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Luminaries of the U.K. documentary sector have signed the letter in their hundreds. They include Tina Gharavi, Ed Gibbs, Kim Longinotto, Simon Chinn, Sean McAllister, Mark Cousins, Orlando von Einsiedel, Saeed Taji Farouky, Elhum Shakerifar, Jeanie Finlay, Jerry Rothwell, Andre Singer, Andrew Kötting, Mike Lerner and many more.

The letter lists the bulk of all that ails the U.K. independent documentary sector and concludes that the primary need is that of funding. One of the steps the DFC has taken is to submit evidence earlier this week to the U.K. Department for Culture, Media and Sport in response to their ongoing inquiry into British film and high-end television.

“One of our main goals, should we get funding, is to lobby for more support on behalf of the sector,” Emily Copley, DFC operations manager and joint acting CEO, told Variety. The DFC’s development has been supported with a seed-funding grant from the U.K. Arts and Humanities Research Council.

“Everyone has been extremely positive about the DFC, but we still only have our members’ fees in the bank. Obviously, raising funding for a new national body is challenging in the middle of an industry downturn. But organizations like the DFC don’t come along every day, and with the seed-funding ending in December, it’s really now or never,” the open letter states. The DFC can be supported here.

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