When Fatima Salaria last appeared at the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) in 2021, she was six months into her role as managing director of Naked Television, having joined from Channel 4, where she was head of factual.
She returns to the conference this year nearing the end of her time at the Fremantle-owned company, following the announcement of her resignation in January.
In between, the former BBC commissioning editor has overseen the venture in the wake of its merger with factual label Boundless, making her responsible for a slate that features entertainment franchises The Apprentice and The Rap Game UK, as well as special documentaries Planet Sex; Ghislaine, Prince Andrew and the Paedophile; The Killer Nanny: Did She Do It and How the Other Half Live with Brian Cox.
Next Tuesday, she will conduct a masterclass on producing docuseries, including insights into delivering non-fiction series from concept through to delivery, creating factual formats for international markets, current global trends, and her ambitions for the future of factual.
Speaking to IF, Salaria said her perspective on creating documentary titles had been further shaped during her time at Naked, which “didn’t really have a documentary or factual proposition” when she arrived.
“We had already commissioned Planet Sex and that was starting to go into production, so to some extent, that was a factual proposition,” she said.
“But what I was keen to do was to try and bring the Naked values of edginess, disruption, and inquisitiveness to finding stories that people might recognise or know about, and bringing that viewpoint to it just, in terms of either how we tell a story, or with the people that we’re including.”
Hosted by model and actress Cara Delevingne, Planet Sex is a six-part exploration of gender and sexuality that showcases the experiences of different international communities, while also delving into groundbreaking research within the field.
Episodes include the Orgasm Gap, in which Delevingne endeavours to find out why men are having more fulfilling sex than women, as well as Pornucopia, a journey into the world of porn that takes her to Spain, Germany, Japan and New York.
Since being jointly co-commissioned by Hulu and BBC Three in 2020, the series has gone on to launch in more than 92 territories, including SBS in Australia.
A couple of months prior to its December premiere, Delevingne, a prominent LGBTQ+ advocate, made headlines when she said filming certain parts of series had caused her to reflect on her own attitudes towards sex, citing a segment where she visited a masturbation seminar as making her realise she “was a prude”.
For Salaria, giving the 30-year-old space to tell her own story within the parameters of a broad subject like sex formed the basis of its overall appeal.
“What we wanted to do with Cara was immerse her in the show and capture all the feelings she was going through,” she said.
“One [step] is through a master interview before and after sequence, and two is allowing her freedom.”
“We needed her to bring her viewpoints and what she was feeling in the moment. Luckily, having a really good team, mostly women, around her who she felt trust and could talk really openly with, really helped us with the success of Planet Sex.”
While she has worked to attract the likes of Delevingne in front of the camera, Salaria also identified the fostering of talent behind the camera as a key priority during her time at Naked.
She is no stranger to the rigours of rising up the industry, having spent nearly 15 years as a producer for the BBC before being promoted to a commissioner.
Speaking about her time at Naked, Salaria said she was “incredibly proud” of the culture she had helped create of getting people into the company that “may not have had chances somewhere else”.
“We have such a nurturing support system that we can get somebody in as a runner for six months, and then develop their career so they can then go off into something like production coordinating.
“When we’re getting people in entry-level, we’re plotting what their trajectory would be within the company.
“It’s not taking risks on people; it’s giving them a chance and nurturing them to do their best work and finding opportunities for them to be able to do that.”
AIDC runs March 5-8 at ACMI in Melbourne. ‘Fatima Salaria: A Masterclass in Doc Series Producing’ will be held 9-10am on Tuesday, March 7.