Streaming has not only changed the way we produce and consume TV, but, to hear our Meet the Experts: Documentary panelists tell it, the entire documentary field in general. In the past decade, as more platforms emerged, more documentaries have been made, becoming addictive viewing for fans (see: “Tiger King”) and legitimizing the genre as a form of entertainment.
“I’ve seen a huge change. I’ve been making documentaries for 25 years [and] it was a struggle. There were very few outlets and it wasn’t because there wasn’t an audience — it was just a question of how to reach that audience,” “Hillary’s” Nanette Burstein told Gold Derby (watch above). “So streaming was the answer. And it was the unexpected answer and it really changed the marketplace. I think there is, as we’ve seen, a hunger from audiences to see real stories, amazing stories and amazing filmmakers out there that can bring it to them. It’s changed the game. People see it now as a real way — it’s a real commerce. And you can have an idea and not think, ‘Oh my God, how do I actually get this made or financed or sold and seen?’ I didn’t actually expect that to happen in my lifetime, but it has, so it’s wonderful.”
Reginald Hudlin, who helmed Netflix’s “The Black Godfather,” agrees, pointing to his kids who don’t see a difference between documentaries and narrative films. “I think streaming has revolutionized the relationship of the documentaries with the audience,” he said. “My kids don’t put documentaries in that medicine box. They are seen as now a legitimate part of entertainment, like, ‘What do you want to watch?’ ‘I heard about this good documentary.’ ‘Oh, tell me about it!’ ‘Oh!’ It’s great.”
What’s also changed is the documentary series format, as more and more networks are willing to commit more runway to a project versus just a film. “I know with myself and ‘McMillions,’ in the past, that would’ve been a 90-minute film,” James Hernandez stated. “It would’ve been great, but to be able to dive into the motivations behind why people do things, it just would not have been able to been shown on a broader scale. It would’ve been far more, almost sensationalized, where with this or any of our projects, you start to look at the depth of why people are doing the things they do, which inherently are some of the reasons why TV shows have been popular in the first place.”
More importantly, no matter the length, audiences are clearly showing up for documentaries and keeping the conversation going for what could be weeks. “I made a show called ‘The Keepers’ for Netflix in 2017 and I think it was my fifth or sixth documentary that I had made, but it was my first series, and the popularity of that show compared to some of the films that I had made before, which were for great distributors and by documentary standards had done well, blew it out of the water,” “Visible: Out on Television’s” Ryan Whiteshared. “And I think we’re seeing that every year. There’s a handful of series that take the country by storm, and it’s proving that audiences are willing to sit down for five, six, seven hours of documentary content.”
Click on each name below to be taken to individual chats with the documentarians:
We spotlight the legendary artist’s legacy in comics and entertainment. Read a handful of Cowan’s stories for free today.
For the past four decades, Denys Cowan has been a celebrated voice in comic books as a skilled artist, a force of innovation, and a tireless advocate for creatively pushing the envelope. This month on marvel.com, we celebrate the career of Denys Cowan with spotlights on some of his seminal Marvel work with a look back at his unparalleled journey!
It’s December of 1980 and in the front half of PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN (1976) #49, writer Roger Stern and artist Jim Mooney pit the Wall-Crawler against the fearsome Smuggler. However, for our purposes today, we focus on the back-up story in this issue, also written by Stern, featuring the original White Tiger, Hector Ayala, and drawn by a relative rookie named Denys Cowan.
“It was nerve-racking,” exclaims Cowan of his initial effort at the House of Ideas, an assignment he got only months into his fledgling run as a professional comic book artist. “I sweated out the whole thing.”
Cowan would work sporadically for Marvel throughout the ‘80s, most notably drawing several issues of POWER MAN AND IRON FIST (1978) as well as providing art for the 1988 BLACK PANTHER limited series written by Peter B. Gillis. Luke Cage and T’Challa would be the first prominent Black characters the illustrator helped to shape, but not the last.
“From almost the beginning of my career I sought out and was given characters of color to draw,” Cowan shares. “This has always been important to me.”
After his contributions on the 1990 DEATHLOK revival acquainted Cowan with writer Dwayne McDuffie, the duo, along with Dingle and Michael Davis, founded Milestone Media, a comics imprint run by Black creators devoted to creating characters across a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. During this period, Denys met Reginald Hudlin who he would work on CAPTAIN AMERICA/BLACK PANTHER: FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS with in 2010.
“I remember sitting on the desks of [the Milestone offices], hearing great stories, like the time when Clarence Thomas was a fan,” recalls Hudlin, at the time already a successful screenwriter, director, and producer. “And talking about [how] rival creators, none of which are in the business now, were hating on them for being successful. I told them don’t worry about the haters, time will tell the story. And it did.”
Later, Cowan joined Hudlin, then the President of Entertainment for BET—Black Entertainment Television—as the Senior Vice President of Animation for the channel. In this role, he created a full slate of animated projects, most prominently the critically-acclaimed and much-beloved series The Boondocks. In recent years Denys has remained active in animation as well as comics.
“Denys was always a pleasure to work with both as a writer and a colorist for me,” praises Gregory Wright of his time working with Cowan on DEATHLOK (1991). “[He] has a powerful sense of story and his characters have deep presence. The body language, the facial expressions and the compositions of Denys’ work help tell the story better than words can.”
An example of Denys’ powerful composition from DEATHLOK (1991) #1.
With a catalogue of peerless work built up over 40 years and, undoubtedly, exciting initiatives still ahead of him, Cowan remains passionate for his mission to diversify the mediums to which he contributes.
“The entertainment industry as a whole has made some strides, comic books included,” he reflects. “However there’s so much more that has to be done. There has to be representation, not just creatively but also in editorial, marketing, sales, and at executive levels.”
Stay tuned to marvel.com for upcoming spotlights and deeper dives on Denys Cowan’s work, with the inside stories of how DEATHLOK (1991) and CAPTAIN AMERICA/BLACK PANTHER came to life!
Looking for more classic arcs and Marvel must-reads you can read for FREE? Read online here, or download or update the Marvel Unlimited app for iOS or Android at the Apple or Google Play app stores today.
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You may not have heard of the name Clarence Avant, but you’ve definitely heard of the people whose lives he’s changed and whose careers he’s launched. Known as the Black Godfather — from which the Netflix documentary about him takes its name — the 89-year-old is a legendary behind-the-scenes kingmaker who quietly brokered deals for and advised luminaries across entertainment, sports, politics and finance, taking on a mythic quality for those in the know.
“I heard about Clarence from the beginning of my professional career. I was doing music videos … and we were dealing with the record label and they said, ‘Yeah, but we also gotta talk to Clarence.’ And I was like, ‘OK, Clarence,’” Reginald Hudlin, who directed “The Black Godfather,” told Gold Derby during our Meet the Experts: Documentary panel (watch above). “And he was kind of referred to the same way you’d talk about Zeus.”
An Oscar nominee for “Django Unchained” (2012) and an Emmy nominee for producing the 88th Academy Awards, Hudlin eventually met Avant when he flew to L.A. to discuss a possible film starring Janet Jackson. “I got to know the man and I got to know others whose careers were due to him and I just realized how important he was,” he said. Avant’s daughter, Nicole Avant, who was the U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas from 2009-11, had wanted to tell her father’s life story since she was 8, suggesting a book, but Avant, who got his start in music, always dismissed the idea. That is until, Nicole pitched a documentary, after which Avant handpicked “Reggie” to direct it. “It was like drop everything and make the Clarence Avant movie, which was a dream come true,” Hudlin stated.
As Hudlin started doing interviews with high-profile figures from all walks of life and different fields, including Quincy Jones, Hank Aaron and Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, he started to realize that Avant’s incalculable influence and reach were greater than he even imagined. “We found that every time we interviewed someone, they would say three new names. ‘You know who you need to talk to?’ And the three names would have nothing to do with each other and seemingly nothing to do with Clarence. And I’d ask, ‘Why do I need to talk to them?’ ‘Just do it!’ ‘OK!’” he recalled. “It was like Russian [nesting dolls]. Each door opens another door opens another door. So you’re talking to Jim Brown and you’re talking to Bill Clinton and you’re talking to Snoop. And they all love Clarence. Clarence has made a difference in everyone’s lives.”
And the reason Clarence Avant has not been a household name is because this unsung hero wanted to be unsung — he didn’t even charge people for his services. “He’s so perfect for Hollywood because he doesn’t want fame. So everyone who wants fame feels comfortable working with him because it’s like, ‘Well, he’s not trying to get his shot. I want my shot!’” Hudlin declared. “He’s the guy who just wants things done. His disposition was perfect for his goal.”
