Sheffield DocFest announces line up

Sheffield DocFest – the UK’s leading documentary festival and one of the world’s most influential markets for documentary projects – revealed its full Film Programme, Alternate Realities exhibitions, and public Talks.

DocFest firmly believes in the transformative power of documentaries to spark curiosity, engage audiences, and foster meaningful discussions and with this year’s theme Reflections on Reality the festival welcomes audiences and industry guests to engage in conversation – in Sheffield, 12-17 June 2024.

As previously announced, Sheffield DocFest opens on 12 June 2024 with the World premiere of Kevin Macdonald’s Klitschko: More than a Fight, screening in International Competition, about former heavyweight boxing world champion Vitali Klitschko and his brother Wladimir, who together dominated the sport for more than a decade. Now the longest serving Mayor of Kyiv.

Annabel Grundy, Sheffield DocFest Managing Director, says: “In planning this year’s edition of DocFest, we have reflected about where we can make a difference, how our programming can counteract false narratives and over simplification, and how we can support our ecosystem at a time when independent journalism, co-authored narratives and deeply reflective works are critical in helping us make sense of the world. I am deeply proud of the team who have created a careful, compassionate and balanced programme always with the filmmakers in mind.”

Diana Buckley, Director of Director of Economy, Skills and Culture at Sheffield City Council, adds: “Sheffield DocFest is a key event in our city’s cultural calendar and one that proudly puts Sheffield on the world stage. This year’s exciting programme of world premieres, artworks and special guests is fantastic to see – from stories of Ukraine to brilliant music documentaries and talks with incredible international guests. We are proud to support this globally renowned event, right here in Sheffield.”

Film Programme

Sheffield DocFest 2024 film programme totals 109 films (80 features and 29 shorts), drawn from over  2700 entries, including 48 World Premieres, 14 International Premieres, 17 European Premieres, 29 UK Premieres from 56 countries of production.

Titles screen in three competition sections – International Competition, International First Feature Competition and International Short Film Competition. In addition to previously announced Days of Reflection  and Guest of Honour Programme, the festival once again presents its Podcast Stories strand and  previews of television series episodes in its First Impressions strand. Further out of competition films screen in six strand sections: Rhythms, Debates, People & Community, Memories, Rebellions and Journeys.

Raul Niño Zambrano, Sheffield DocFest Creative Director, says: “Curating a programme is a collaborative effort, and I am incredibly grateful for the dedication and commitment of our international advisers, consultants, and staff who have invested their time in assessing all the films, artworks, and talks. The selection we have made together serves as an invitation for reflection, dialogue and empathy, and we can’t wait to share all these stories with our international audience.”

Films in Competition & Awards

The line-up for this years’ International Competition comprises eight films, up for the Grand Jury Award for the International Competition, eight films in International First Feature Competition supported by Netflix, and  nine  films in International Short Film Competition; five documentaries will be considered for the Tim Hetherington Award,  presented in association with Dogwoof; six  films will be considered by the Youth Jury, and the International Virtual Reality Competition will honour the best virtual reality non-fiction work. Winners will be revealed during an awards ceremony at Crucible Playhouse on 16 June.

• International Competition – includes Tilda Swinton’s feature directorial debut alongside filmmaker Bartek Dziadosz The Hexagonal Hive and a Mouse in a Maze (World premiere) pitched at the MeetMarket in 2018; as they travel the world to understand what it means to learn, and along the way uncover playful food for thought; and from Croatian director Goran Devic Pavilion 6 (World premiere) presents a portrait that offers some insight into a nation’s collective psyche, as the population clamours for the vaccination against the COVID-19 virus.
• International First Feature Competition – includes the awaited My Sweet Land (World premiere) How do you turn a child into a child soldier? This sensitive portrait of 11-year-old Vrej, who lives in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, attempts an answer; and Made in Ethiopia (International premiere) pitched at the MeetMarket in 2020. When a vast Chinese factory complex in rural Ethiopia undertakes ambitious expansion plans, the promises of industrialisation are brought into question.

Strands

Rhythms focuses on music documentaries and performances; Debates features films on wide-ranging important topics which need to be discussed; People & Community includes stories that celebrates togetherness through family, friendship and communities; Journeys includes transformations and explorations. Memories explores how the past informs the present; and Rebellions focuses on stories of people striving for social change and fighting for what matters.

• People & Community highlights – The Trouble With Mr Doodle (European premiere) is the story of Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, and how a seemingly benign activity has transformed his life, with startling result; and The Accidental President (UK premiere) is the story of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya who put her name on the ballot alongside authoritarian Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko having no idea she would win.
• Journeys highlights – Lucy Walker’s Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa (European premiere) documents the life of the first Nepali woman to successfully reach the peak of Everest, who as a working single mother in America leaves to climb the mountain once again; and Life is Beautiful (Al haya helwa) (UK premiere), a poignant portrayal of displacement, a young Palestinian filmmaker, stranded in Norway, documents his struggle for residency.
• Memories highlights – in Death without Mercy (World premiere) director Waad Al-Kateab (For Sama) captures the anguish of Syrian and Turkish communities as they reel from the devastation wreaked by a massive earthquake; and in Don’t Forget to Remember (International premiere), the winner of the Audience Award at the Dublin International Film Festival, an artist navigates his mother’s life and memories as they are being eroded by the advance of Alzheimer’s.
• Rebellions highlights – S/He Is Still Her/e – The Official Genesis P-Orridge Doc (International premiere) is a comprehensive, enthralling and aptly provocative portrait of the singer-songwriter, musician, poet, performance artist, visual artist and occultist known as Genesis P. Orridge; and The Cranes Call (European premiere) is a heart-pounding account of the relentless mission to secure accountability for the mass atrocities occurring in Ukraine.
• Rhythms highlights – the thrilling story of The Cimarons is told in Harder than the Rock (World premiere) from directors Mark Warmington and Don Letts, the story of the first UK band to embrace the thrilling new sound coming out of Jamaica. Directors and members of the band will introduce and discuss this joyous account, rich in archive and concert footage; Hakeem (World premiere) is a portrait of troubled eastender Hak Baker whose life takes an unexpected turn after he wins a guitar in a prison raffle.
• Debates highlights – In Plastic People: The Hidden Crisis of Microplastics (European premiere) one woman sets out on a daunting quest to understand just how much plastic has infused our environment, our bodies and our lives; while Eternal You (UK premiere) questions the limit to what might be possible when facing the seemingly boundless possibilities of AI, including bringing the dead back to life.

Other highlights and talks include: Eno with Live Mix the screening of this generative documentary, a portrait of producer, musician, artist, activist and all-round polymath Brian Eno, will never be repeated the same way again, and digital artist Brendan Dawes will be present to discuss why; blur: To the End (World premiere) director Toby L discusses his riveting portrait of the popular and critically acclaimed band, as they record ‘The Ballad of Darren’ and prepare for a sell-out tour; Anthony Crook will discuss his film Mogwai: If the Stars Had a Sound (European premiere) the perfect introduction to the acclaimed Scottish band and their work on their tenth album ‘As the Love Continues’, which was recorded during lockdown.

Additional film highlights include UK premieres of: Farming the Revolution (Inquilab di kheti) in which farmers in India organised a spirited national protest against the country’s new farm laws, leading to a momentous defeat for the State: Teaches of Peaches, Philipp Fussenegger and Judy Landkammer’s riveting portrait of Peaches celebrates the career of one of contemporary music’s iconoclasts; and Agent of Happiness in which a happiness surveyor in the Kingdom of Bhutan grapples with his own contentment in this light-hearted yet fascinating probe into how happiness can be measured.

The previously announced 2024 special programme Days of Reflection will present a daily reflection screening and moderated conversation, bringing together filmmakers across the programme to reflect on themes of Co-Resistance, Freedom of the Press, Ancestral Lands and Archiving the Present; with the premiere screenings of No Other Land, State of Silence, Yintah, and Witnesses: Captivity That Kills.

Podcast Stories

The festival is proud to support and celebrate all mediums of documentary and this year the programme again includes presentations of two live podcast events, welcoming creators for an in-person exploration of essential non-fiction audio narratives.

Podcast Live: The Last Witness with Michael Sheen – During this live event actor Michael Sheen and Buried hosts Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor will offer the audience the opportunity to listen and discuss their upcoming series and findings, moderated by BBC Radio 4 commissioner Dan Clarke.

Podcast Live: Time, Paper, Bone – Join the creators at this podcast live event, as they play the first episode of their forthcoming series. Their journey traces the story of one woman’s decades-long search for the remains of her father, a South African anti-apartheid activist arrested in 1963 and never seen again, with producers Catherine Boulle and Bongani Kona.

TV Series premieres – First Impressions

The festival is thrilled to host three exclusive (World premiere) previews of the first episodes for new documentary series. All events will include a conversation with the creators and special guests.

Four Kings – a riveting series focusing on the careers of four leading Black British boxers (heavyweights Frank Bruno, Lennox Lewis, and middleweights Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn), the rivalry that existed between them and the challenges they faced. An interview with Bruno and executive producers Rick Murray of Workerbee will follow this screening.

Cult Massacre: One Day In Jonestown – a comprehensive and thoroughly researched examination of the largest mass murder-suicide in American history and a portrait of the cult whose leader, Jim Jones, precipitated it. Two episodes of this Nat Geo series will screen, followed by an interview with its director Marian Mohamed.

In My Own Words: Hanif Kureishi – with wit, intelligence and honesty, the acclaimed playwright, novelist and filmmaker looks back on his work, the culture it emerged from and recent events that radically changed his life. A frank and intimate documentary portrait directed by Nigel Williams is followed by a live online interview with Kureishi and Williams.

Alternate Realities Programme

The Alternate Realities exhibition programme at Sheffield DocFest showcases innovative non-fiction and immersive documentaries in all forms, breaking the boundaries of traditional documentary practice and using cutting edge technology – including virtual reality, use of artificial intelligence, video gaming platforms, augmented reality, and interactive web documentaries.

This year’s programme will present five immersive works at Site Gallery and is co-curated with the International Documentary Association (IDA), an international collaboration supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

The Alternate Realities Exhibition is curated by Sheffield DocFest Creative Director Raul Niño Zambrano alongside the IDA’s Keisha Knight, Director of Funds, and Abby Sun, Director of Artist Programmes, supported by Alternate Realities Programme Producer Jack Rutherford.

Co-curators Abby Sun & Keisha Knight of International Documentary Association said: We are thrilled to present the Alternate Realities exhibition, with a new participatory and immersive gallery layout. These five incredible works remind us that in documentary, the relationship between reality and new technologies is neither new nor confined to a single headset—and that the most innovative, thought-provoking, and artful work is playful and critical, extending past the merely human while simultaneously diving into the most pressing questions of what it means to be human.”

The exhibition includes Nocturnal Fugue, a multi-sensorial installation that emulates the communicative complexity of bats by renowned artists Jiabao Li and Matt McCorkle. Alongside The Finger Rub Rug by Laura A Dima, a carpet of 1,300 lifelike silicone fingers, each a replica of cast from the artist’s partner. And Sister Sylvester & Deniz Tortum’s Shadowtime, a piece encased in a specially-built camera obscura, that questions our very desire to escape into virtual, enclosed worlds that only seem divorced from our physical, ecological one.

Alternate Realities Summit

The Alternate Realities Summit is an opportunity to come together with nonfiction media makers of all kinds to expand our conception of what it means to engage technology, old and new, to document and transform reality.

Through a day of talks exploring the world of immersive and interactive documentaries, both industry and public audiences can investigate the issues, developments and ambitions of non-linear forms. The event takes place at Sheffield Town Hall on Sunday 16 June.

Signature Talk: Jiabao Li – this signature talk will sit at the intersection of technology and humanity in order to explore the contours and conditions, the stakes, of immersive media practice. Expanding on her project Nocturnal Fugue (with Matt McCorkle), which is showcased in the Alternate Realities exhibition, artist and technologist Jiabao Li will offer insights from her interspecies collaborations in a practice that spans wearables, AR/VR, video installation, performance lectures, and scientific experiments.

Speaker: Jiabao Li (Artist, Creative Technologist, and Assistant Professor)

Impossible Projects: Working Session with the Institute of Decolonial Technologies – The Institute of Decolonial Technologies is dedicated to the generation of impossible projects. Drawing upon the themes and technologies explored during the summit we will loiter together and dream up a new collection of impossibility.

Chair: Greg de Cuir (Co-founder + Artistic Director, Kinopravda Institute)

Speakers: Grayson Earle (Artist), Zinha Morgan-Bennett (Filmmaker and Programmer)

Incorporating AI in Documentary – new generative AI tools have made headlines for their supposed ease of use, ability to create visual materials beyond the confines of an archive, and to help protect the identities of protagonists. But how much of this is true? In this session, experts will probe the challenges and opportunities of incorporating AI into nonfiction practice.

Speakers: Jorge Caballero (filmmaker and researcher), Anna Giralt (filmmaker and researcher), Eva Kozanecka (Filmmaker and Head of Artists + Machine Intelligence Program, Google).

Talks

Sheffield DocFest will present eight public talks which will all be held at the Crucible Theatre.

Vanessa Lobón Garcia Talks & Sessions Senior Producer says, “Our 2024 Talks encompass and celebrate exciting new voices alongside industry ‘legends’, impact and activism alongside sporting heroes and those striving for social change now and as we revisit our shared histories. We extend immense gratitude to our guests, sponsors, and partners whose support helps us to bring these unique speakers, subjects and talents to Sheffield.”

Guest of Honour Roger Ross Williams, the critically acclaimed and award-winning director, producer, and writer –and the first African American director to win an Academy Award® will attend the festival and present a selection of new documentary films from emerging filmmakers.

Williams will participate in two special talks: Social Impact Documentaries – an in-depth talk in which Williams will engage with the directors and producers of program titles Sugarcane, The Battles for Laikipia, Union, Daughters and Stone Mountain (full programme listings below); and an In Conversation in which Williams will discuss his career from his emergence as a filmmaker to his award-winning success and increasing breadths of subjects that span topics such as the black American experience, living with disabilities and the cultural ramifications of Western religion in Africa.

The 2024 Guest of Honour programme is supported by Netflix.

Broadcaster supported talks are BBC Interview with Simon Reeve the author, journalist, explorer and presenter whose career has taken him around the world and through various danger zones, and the previously announced Channel 4 interview with Leeds based award-winning filmmaker and creative director of Candour Productions Anna Hall who will discuss her wide ranging career as a filmmaker and producer from Edge of the City, Catching a Killer to The Push.

Doctor, scientist and broadcaster Chris van Tulleken will be discussing his genre breaking approach to making science and medicine accessible while producing real world change; Stand-out events include: a talk with the filmmakers and contributors to Channel 4’s landmark series Defiance: Fighting the Battle for British History about the hidden history of South Asian anti-racist activists in 1970s and 80s Britain; narrator Idris Elba and the creative team of Erased: WW2’s Heroes of Colour  explore a case study into the developing and production of the new Nat Geo series.

The award-winning film and sound editor Walter Murch joins the festival in a masterclass interview discussing the art of cutting film and the extraordinary body of films he has worked on.

Film + Conversations

Over at the Crucible Theatre, the festival will present fourteen film screenings followed by extended conversations with special guests and performances.

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of the battle of Orgreave, Strike: an Uncivil War (World premiere) directed by Daniel Gordon (Hillsborough) will be followed by a discussion revisiting events portrayed in this essential account of  one of the darkest days in recent British history. Ex-miners will be present at the events depicted in this powerful documentary, alongside director Daniel Gordon, journalist Morag Livingstone and musician Jon Mclure (Reverend and the Makers).

Musician Hak Baker, the subject of James Topley and Ivo Becket’s film of Hakeem (World premiere), an unmissable look at his life as an East London independent musician whose fate turned when he won a guitar in a prison raffle, will perform on stage after the film, and will discuss the documentary portrait with its directors.

The acclaimed playwright, screenwriter, novelist and director Hanif Kureishi will join for a live and remote conversation with director Nigel Williams following the screening of In My Own Words: Hanif Kureish (World premiere), a portrait of him and his career in both the arts and public sphere.