The films will be commissioned from independent filmmakers all over the world. They will be made with an eye to international distribution. We have a model for the commissioning of these films, and it comes from the experience – outlined below – of the Steps for the Future project.

The STEPS project told us that it is possible to make films from countries in transition that can be broadcast internationally, and have a long life.

Between October 2004 and May 2005, filmmakers have been submitting their proposals for films on democracy. They are sent via email, proposed in person, and discussed at workshops and meetings in centres around the world. The Steps International working group and our broadcasting partners read the proposals and consider them in terms of the project’s overall aims and objectives.

Each of the films will examine a separate aspect of democracy through a single question. Watching them all – in any order – will provide an extensive view of what the d word means. Each film will have some ‘universal’ content – it examines something we know or don’t know, or may or may not be sure about – but that we can all share about the state of democracy.

The films are not about the state of democracy – but how it works, or why it doesn’t. They are not didactic. They offer no single model of democratic practice or behaviour. And they are not intended – always – to be sombre, on the grounds that one should be able to laugh about democracy.

Themes that will be examined include – democracy and religion, the role of media, corruption, new democracies, dying democracies, inequality and power, governing and multi-nationalism.

The focus of most films will be on countries ‘in transition’ – where the practice of democracy is recent, where it may be endangered, or where the dilemmas of contemporary democracy are most apparent. We will deal with those in power and those who are powerless. We feel that this is the best way of examining the reality of democracy in an emotionally and intellectually challenging way.

But at the same time, countries that have experienced long periods of democracy will be included, to learn and to look at where democracy has worked or is not working, or why it is now changing.