BBC, Irish Film Board ink docu pact

LONDON -- BBC's docu strand "Storyville" and also the Irish Film Board have inked a partnership for co-creating as much as five docus within the two areas within the next year. The collaboration, that will aim to increase docu co-production between Blighty and Ireland, aims to create docus with financing from both sides: IFB is a minority financier on several U.K.-brought documentaries which will offer Irish talent key roles within the productions, as the BBC will even partner on the slew of Irish-brought docus. The partnership will develop previous effective docu co-productions between IFB and BBC "Storyville" for example Ian Palmer's Irish fistfighting docu "Knuckle" and Liz Mermin's racehorse docu "Horses." IFP production professional Alan Maher noted the last 4 years have experienced a "marked increase" from our and worldwide success of Irish feature docus. "However, the must remain ambitious when it comes to growing possibilities for co-production finance and worldwide possibilities for the key creative talent, and that we believe this new partnership with 'Storyville' will achieve these two aims," he stated. Contact Diana Lodderhose at diana.lodderhose@variety.com