Excessively Cautious Clearance Culture

It's very hard these days to do documentaries. Excessive caution on the part of the E&O folks and the lawyers invovled are killing good films and censoring those that survive. And the rights clearance process is costing a fortune that should otherwise be spent on real creativity. Much of this caution is unnecessary and simply wrong and much of the clearance expense is unnecessary. But it's deeply ingrained in what is commonly called the "clearance culture".

Here's an interview that I did with Kevin McMahon that may hopefully embolden some documentarians and some overly cautious colleagues in the legal profession...

This was originally published by the National Film Board of Canada in Focus Magazine, April, 2006 for distribution at the 2006 HotDocs Festival in Toronto.