four docs

four docs is exemplary of the development of the World Wide Web as integrated, multimedia, multi-purpose communication. It is a distribution system for producers of documentary video: anyone who has complied with legal and technical guidelines can upload a documentary between three and five minutes in length. It is a school for training those producers, providing available online assistance as well as prepared instruction materials. It is an archive of outstanding documentaries. It is a repository of interviews with outstanding professional documentary-makers. In providing these resources and capabilities, four docs becomes the site of a community for like-minded individuals and groups. But it also becomes a site for enlarging the range of voices, the array of topics, the variations in technique that will enrich cultural and social understanding and engagement. For linking art, education, and explorations of the creative process, four docs receives a Peabody Award.