With 2019 marking its 26th year, Sheffield Doc/Fest is the UK’s premier documentary film festival. Under the tagline “Ways of Seeing” the festival prides itself in diversity, screening compelling stories from around the world. See our look at some of the films featured in 2019. Click on the film title to see our review. …
A Northern Soul
2018 A Northern Soul Director: Sean McAllister Words – Rhiannon Topham Sean McAllister returns to his native town of Hull in his new documentary A Northern Soul, a story which is reminiscent of the hardships depicted in his previous work A Syrian Love Story. McAllister brings the same kind of authenticity and sincerity to this…
Sheffield Doc/Fest 2018
With 2018 marking its 25th year, Sheffield Doc/Fest is the UK’s premier documentary festival, screening compelling stories from around the world. Taking place at a multitude of venues across Sheffield, here’s our look at a selection of films featured at the festival in 2018. click on the film title to see our review A…
In Fabric
2019 Director: Peter Strickland Starring: Marianne Jean–Baptiste, Fatma Mohamed, Leo Bill, Hayley Squires, Gwendoline Christie, Julian Barratt, Steve Oram Words – Nathan Scatcherd The latest film from Peter Strickland (Berberian Sound Studio, The Duke of Burgundy), In Fabric is a wonderful oddity – bizarre, horny, blackly hilarious in tone and one of my favourite cinema…
Searching Eva
2019 Director: Pia Hellenthal Words – Rhiannon Topham Social media sensation Eva Collé pronounced privacy a defunct concept when she was 14. By 17, she’d left her small Italian town and troubled family life behind in search of something more liberating. Now 25 and living in Berlin, she’s challenging expectations and dismantling the box our…
Seahorse
2019 Director: Jeanie Finlay Words – Rhiannon Topham Storytelling is at its most powerful when it contextualises macro societal topics in small but intimate ways. Making public the personal and private brings nuance and sensitivity to lived experiences that are otherwise only accessible via the not-always-sympathetic news media or – an even more terrifying space…
Let It Burn
2019 Director: Maíra Bühler Words – Christian Abbott “Everything around me is saved, but few can save me.” This is a line that comes from one of the residents of an apartment building in Downtown São Paulo, a building that is inhabited by people with a shared addiction – Crack Cocaine. The residents of this…
Dark Suns – director interview
Dark Suns is an unrelenting investigation into mass disappearances across Mexico, urging you to pay attention. See our feature review of the film >here<. We interviewed director Julien Elie following the film’s UK Premiere at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2019. Reel Steel: My first question really is where the motivation to make this film came from…
Once Aurora – director interview
Once Aurora is a coming-of-age music documentary that’s as uplifting as it is potent. See our feature review of the film >here<. We interviewed director Benjamin Langeland and producer Thorvald Nilsen following the film’s UK Premiere at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2019. Reel Steel: What’s the reception been to the film so far? Thorvald Nilsen: It’s…
Nomad: In The Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin
2019 Director: Werner Herzog Words – Christian Abbott For half a century now, Werner Herzog has been captivating audiences with his unique, humorous and acerbic perspective. He, like so few other filmmakers, draws you into the worlds he creates, the stories he shares and the lands he explores with a masterful eye and solemn tone….
MOTHER
MOTHER 2019 Director: Kristof Bilsen Words – Rhiannon Topham We often talk about documentaries being ‘personal’ and ‘intimate’, about their power and capacity to move us in unexpected ways. They are, after all, often based in the lived experiences of people across all walks of life – whether or not we are familiar with their…
Selfie
Selfie Director: Agostino Ferrente Words – Rhiannon Topham The ‘film within a film’ method of movie making, where the story is portrayed through the lens of a mobile phone camera as an eyewitness account, is at risk of becoming hackneyed. It does however, lend itself well (and make a lot of sense) to documentaries, especially…
A Bigger Splash
1974 Director: Jack Hazan Words – Rhiannon Topham I can imagine the wave of disinterestedness when A Bigger Splash originally came out. A semi-fictionalised docu-drama about the story behind David Hockney’s famous painting of the same name, it is essentially an hour plus of ‘beautiful’ people doing ‘interesting’ things as they go about their charmed…
