Documenting the Arts aims to encourage new and established film-makers to produce personal, creative and compelling arts-based documentaries that examine, in an exciting way, the diverse issues of arts and culture in a contemporary or historical context. Plans are that the fund will be used to finance five or six new documentaries per year. Between the two agencies, a maximum of €90,000 is available per documentary. Mary Cloake, Director of the Arts Council said: "The Arts Council is delighted to lead on this important initiative. We consider it to be a major step forward in chronicling the contribution of the arts and artists to our society and of capturing the excitement of our artistic life.” "Creative documentary film-makers can be empowered by initiating Arts Council funding to seek presales from broadcasters and thereby, for the first time, automatically trigger financing from the Irish Film Board,” said BSE/IFB CEO Mark Woods. The fund is a stepped fund whereby firstly, the Arts Council can provide an award of up to €40,000 (Stage 1) which can be used by the applicant to fully fund their project. Or the applicant may use this initial 'seed' funding as part-finance, in which case, the applicant may then choose to move on to Stage 2 whereby the Irish Film Board may provide further automatic funding of up to €50,000 per project, triggered by broadcaster commitment(s). Applications for Stage 1 funding will be assessed in one round per year. Applications for Stage 2 funding will be processed year round. The deadline for Stage 1 Arts Council applications is Tuesday 7 June 2005. For further information, CLICK HERE