EPIC docs offers filmmakers, producers, broadcasters and funds
creative, strategic and financial
guidance to develop international documentaries.
EPIC docs is an independent consultancy founded by Barbara Truyen, a freelance Executive Producer with 35 years in the documentary industry.
She has produced or commissioned over 300 films. Many have been showcased at prestigious international festivals and received major industry recognition, including Academy Award and Emmy nominations and wins.
She also chairs the EBU Documentary Group, representing commissioning editors from 27 European public broadcasters.
Barbara loves to work on strong, epic, unforgettable stories
that directly link emotional impact to social relevance.
Executive Producer
With a career spanning more than three decades as a producer, festival and forum organizer, sales agent, financier, and for 18 years as commissioning editor for documentaries at Dutch public broadcaster VPRO, Barbara has experience in the documentary industry from every angle.
Barbara began her career as a producer with Heddy Honigmann's Metal & Melancholy and Peter Delpeut's The Forbidden Quest with Ariel Filmprodukties. Through Films Transit she sold classic films such as Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, The Corporation, and Salesmen. At her company BT Agency, she worked with Johan Van der Keuken on Amsterdam Global Village and with Jonathan Stack on many of his films.
She has guided more than 300 documentaries through development, financing, editing and distribution, combining creative insight with editorial judgment, strategic expertise and an extensive international network. This breadth of experience gives her a deep understanding of how documentaries are made, financed, positioned and brought to audiences across borders.
As an Executive Producer she defines her role as a Creator's Creator: a shaper of shapers.
She is the Chair of the EBU Documentary Group, which consists of commissioning editors of 27 European Public Broadcasters and a board member of Doc Society.
She is a founding member of The United States of Documentary, which connects the European and American documentary worlds for trans-Atlantic collaboration.
Barbara wants to work on documentaries that combine cinematic quality with the rhythm of television and revolve around emotional storytelling. Journalistic, geopolitical, or character-driven films with narrative urgency, plot points, and Shakespearean elements. And idea-driven films that push boundaries in subject, form, tone, and authorship.
Barbara has worked on documentaries that were selected for prestigious festivals such as Cannes, Berlinale, Venice, Sundance, TIFF, IDFA and CPH:DOX. Many of these films won awards or were nominated for the Academy Award, Emmy, Peabody, BAFTA, Grierson, Grimme, EFA, Prix Italia, Prix Europa. The list below is a selection and gives an idea of the scope. Check out IMDB for a more complete list of films.
By connecting public broadcasters, funds, producers, streamers and private investors, EPIC docs helps filmmakers to expand both reach and resources. In doing so, it contributes to a more connected, resilient and future-facing documentary ecosystem.
The documentary sector is being reshaped by declining public funding, fragmented platforms and growing pressure on independent producers. EPIC docs turns these challenges into opportunities by creating smarter transatlantic co-production models built on shared value, reciprocity and long-term collaboration.
EPIC docs champions a new model of shared ownership; a shift from guarding rights to growing value together. Through reciprocity, ownership becomes a tool for collaboration, not a barrier to it.
By connecting European public financing and broadcasting networks with European and American investment, EPIC docs helps filmmakers to access broader resources, audiences and markets. This approach replaces fragmented support with a stronger international foundation.
EPIC docs is positioned to help clients act on the changes reshaping the international documentary industry; not by reacting to a shrinking landscape, but by opening it up.
EPIC docs offers flexible consulting for filmmakers and funders at any project stage.
| Development | Advise on concept development, artistic vision, scripts, pitch decks, teasers and strategic positioning. |
| Financing | Advice on financing plans, co-production strategy, fundraising and contract negotiation. |
| Production | Advice during production and editing analyses for films. |
| Distribution | Advice on festival and distribution strategy, market introduction. |
| Filmmakers | Seeking substantive guidance for complex, international projects to navigate the full arc from initial idea to world premiere. |
| Production Houses | Seeking advice on strategic and financial co-production partners, individual editing consultancy and access to international financing and distribution. |
| Public Broadcasters & Streaming Platforms | Seeking ways to collaborate more, share costs and expand international reach. Or individual editing consultancy. |
| Funds & Private Equity | Seeking projects that create impact with audiences and make change in society. Or individual editing consultancy. |
EPIC docs works alongside clients as a partner and catalyst, rather than a competitor. It helps elevate their work, strengthen projects, build smarter alliances and expand reach.
| Hourly Rate | For targeted advisory conversations, assessments, and short sessions. |
| Daily Rate | For intensive workshops, development days and editing analyses. |
| Project Rate | For full guidance from development to distribution, with percentage finder's fees and backend fees. |
| Retainer | For long-term strategic advice to production houses, broadcasters and funds. |
EPIC docs works with leading institutions across the documentary ecosystem, including:
Further client references available upon request.
