The discussion about how to create fairer and more equitable co-productions is increasingly central to today’s documentary industry. According to the report Building Inclusive Co-productions: Best Practices for Producers from the EAVE Think Tank 2025, ethical co-production is a framework that prioritizes transparency, equity, and mutual respect, ensuring tangible benefits for all partners, especially those from regions with lower production capacity or from marginalized communities. Conversations with producers from Asia, Africa, and Europe help illustrate how these principles are applied —or not— in practice.
For Indian director and producer Bipuljit Basu, trust was the starting point. His first feature documentary, Redlight to Limelight, was born inside a brothel in Kolkata, where a group of sex workers created a film about the lives of their children. The project managed to change the community’s perception of these women, and without realizing it, Basu was already engaging in impact-driven production. His encounter with Finnish producer John Webster at Docedge Kolkata helped him consolidate the project, although the demands of some funds, such as requiring 50% of financing before granting support, forced him to rely on private investors to keep filming.
Belgian producer Rosa Spaliviero, meanwhile, highlights the importance of working from the context. In Liti Liti, by Senegalese director Mamadou Khouma Gueye, the participation of local producer Aminata Dao proved essential, as did the support of the national fund FOPICA. Spaliviero argues that the strength of a co-production lies in the community surrounding the film and in supporting the filmmaker’s vision without imposing external structures.
Kenyan producer Sam Soko also stresses the need to strengthen local voices. In Matabeleland, by Zimbabwean director Nyasha Kadandara, he chose to work with African crews to reduce costs and reinforce creative autonomy. The film deals with the exhumation and reburial of civil war victims from an intimate perspective, but several funds pushed for a more confrontational narrative. Soko distinguishes between “agenda money,” which demands specific formats and content, and funds that take risks and trust filmmakers. For him, fostering diverse stories is indispensable to building a genuine industry.
Balancing institutional requirements with artistic vision also shaped Spaliviero’s work on other projects, where she relied on local experts to ensure cultural coherence. She criticizes the fact that many funds require spending money in their own countries or impose Western narrative models, and suggests that non-repayable grants would be a fair way to address historical inequalities.
French producer Victor Ede offers concrete examples of how to share ownership in practice. In The Mountain Won’t Move, shot in North Macedonia, employing a large local crew ensured real co-responsibility despite differing funding levels. In a later project, Ashes Settling in Layers on the Surface, he assigned economic value to Ukrainian director Zoya Laktionova’s personal archive to strengthen her ownership and comply with European fund regulations. Ede also highlights the usefulness of private revenue-sharing agreements that correct imbalances between financing percentages and the actual work contributed by each partner.
Regional collaboration emerges as another path toward more equitable co-productions. Although Matabeleland received no funding from Zimbabwe, it is considered a Kenya–Zimbabwe–Canada co-production, with a team including professionals from five African countries. For Soko, recognizing creative value —beyond financial value— is key, and fostering networks of funding and exchange within the Global South is essential for the future. His most recent experience with Concrete Land, by Jordanian director Asmahan Bkerat, underscores the challenges of developing projects that do not fit thematic structures favored by the Global North, but also shows the potential for innovating through alternative collaboration models.
The challenge, the producers consulted agree, is not only securing funding but transforming how international partnerships are conceived. Ethical co-production requires recognizing voices, redistributing power, and building long-term relationships that allow diverse stories to be told without compromising their integrity.
