I’m a little slow on the uptake here, but man-on-the-beat Scott Kirsner of Cinematech has a great resource on the ITVS site where he interviewed a number of documentary filmmakers about their experiences using new technology to reach an audience.  Scott told me:

Among the folks I spoke to were Tiffany Shlain (“The Tribe”), Katy Chevigny (“Election Day”), Hunter Weeks (“10 MPH” and “10 Yards”), Byron Hurt (“Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes”), and Curt Ellis (“King Corn”). Not everyone is a filmmaker who is funded or supported by ITVS… our sole criterion was to find folks who were experimenting.

He also came up with a list of 15 recommendations, many of which we’ve agreed on in the past.  The one cautionary addition I would make is to his suggestion to “Make sure DVDs are available when audiences are most interested in the film: during the theatrical run, during festival screenings and at the time of the first TV broadcast.” This is fine if you have no plans to work with a distributor and you’re not planning to work with quite a number of theatrical venues and TV Broadcasters- but you should be aware that at this point in time, distributing DVDs or placing the fim online will definitely endanger your deals with many if not most major players.

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