Ruptly launches documentary division
Details
Joseph O'Halloran
| 05 May 2020

International news and media agency Ruptly has opened a global documentary division with a debut catalogue of over 170 documentaries featuring human interest stories centred around global themes.

The Ruptly Documentary Collection has been set up to allow global clients, with few territorial restrictions, to procure original documentaries with non-exclusive rights and a 30-day broadcast window, or a period of 30 days online, maintaining a flow of content for their audiences despite the current lockdowns caused by the Covid-19 crisis.

Headed by development manager Olivia Cole, the new division will also actively forge new partnerships with documentary production companies and content owners; acquiring distribution rights for newly produced documentaries as well as existing catalogues. Ruptly say that its debut slate will have a particular focus on human stories and unexplored communities, celebrating the stories of people and communities from around the world, from overcrowded cities and battle-scarred warzones, to the African savannah and deepest Siberia, no area of the human experience is left uncovered.

Among the key titles at launch are: The Coca Trap, which follows rural Colombians whose livelihoods rest upon growing coca leaf, under constant threat from predatory drug traffickers; Dying Alone, an exploration of the Japanese phenomenon of kodokushi (lonely death) now so prominent that there is an entire industry built on cleaning the apartments of the recently deceased who passed with no one to care for them; When an Elephant Smiles, the story of a woman who turned her family farm in the heart of Zimbabwe into a wildlife sanctuary, nurturing orphaned and injured animals back to health before returning them to the wild; Syrian Tango, an ode to the uniting power of arts, shedding light on the dancers, artists and musicians who formed an art collective in the midst of the Syrian war, channelling their creative passion in a time of extreme conflict; To be a Cosmonaut, an account following three candidates on the gruelling selection process to become cosmonauts, pushing their bodies to the limit in a bid to reach the stars and realise their dreams.

To mark the launch, Ruptly Documentary Collection will also be granting one free documentary licence per client in recognition of the difficulties faced by the broadcast industry as more and more productions shut down due to the current pandemic.

“We are proud to have gathered such an array of award-winning content to launch our own dedicated documentary division,” said Ruptly chief commercial officer Matt Tabaccos commenting on the launch.

“And we look forward to expanding our catalogue further, as we increasingly represent new content and bring it to clients across OTT, broadcast network media, production houses and online publishers. We realise we are launching Ruptly Documentary Collection, at a difficult time, where new content is set to become increasingly hard to come by – and it’s critical that we support one another as an industry. With this in mind, Ruptly will be granting one free documentary licence to every client, to help keep our peers afloat amidst an ever-stronger demand for high-quality long-format content that can engage viewers and retain audiences across platforms.”