Thanks to all who made it to The Matador last night, I certainly hope you enjoyed it. What attracted us to it is its excellent and engaging narrative, cinematography and musical score. To us, it was much more like a feature film than a 'made for TV' doco.

When handled in this way, documentaries can be an extraordinary art form. A movie 'based on a true story' naturally enhances the connection an audience has with it. But an audience witnessing something that is actually happening, captured on camera in a one-in-a-million chance, is an experience that can never be genuinely re-created.

A great example of this spontaneity can be found in a recent documentary we released called Billy the Kid. Director Jennifer Venditti runs a casting company as her day job, and their angle is to find 'real' people from 'real' places.  One job took them to a small town in Maine, where they came across this kid Billy.

Billy was so enamouring, she felt compelled to make the most of it. With his (wonderful) mum's permission, Jennifer followed him around for 12 days or so to see what happened.  The result is a delight. I first saw it at the Melbourne Film Festival in 2007 in a packed house. I loved it and I wasn't alone; it ended up winning the audience poll that year. We licensed the film and later screened it in Sydney as part of a co-promotion with the fashion label Lover Clothing.

But not enough people see documentaries in the cinema. What's worse, TV programming has also narrowed over the years. International docos are hurt the most, as they don't fit into the formula required by commissioning editors and/or funding bodies in Australia.

For those that love or even like the odd documentary you should see Billy the Kid. I've got a couple DVDs here which I'll be happy to part with.

If you went to The Matador last night let me know what you thought.

If not, but you went to see Billy the Kid and want a copy tell me what you thought.

If neither, tell me about your favourite documentary.

Check out the Trailer for Billy the Kid here