Bee’s Sheffield Doc Fest Diary – Day 1

Ey-up! Apparently, this is how you say hello in Yorkshire. I am currently at this year’s Sheffield Doc Fest. My first ever time coming to the wonderful city of Sheffield, and it’s such a friendly, welcoming place that I am sure I will return to! The train journey up was long but hardly painless. Thankfully, I had a good old cup of Yorkshire tea before I left home to keep me going throughout the day!

To those who haven’t heard of the Sheffield Doc Fest, it’s a 6-day festival event where they show nothing but documentaries (literally my idea of heaven). Sheffield Doc Fest is a world-leading documentary festival. It celebrates the art and the business of documentary filmmaking. Not only are there a range of excellent documentaries to be found, but there are talks with the likes of Paul Greengrass and Werner Herzog. Each year the festival welcomes over 25,000 festival-goers, including around 3,500 industry delegates from 55 countries.

Sheffield Doc Fest is a creative space for discovery, debate, collaboration, and inspiration. There’s Doc/Fest Exchange Breakfast every morning, where attendees can fuel up on coffee and croissants so they are ready for a day of documentary viewing. There’s the BAFTA masterclass with Asif Kapadia whose latest film ”Diego Maradona” is being screened at the festival. And, there’s the Market Place summit which will be an opportunity for all festival delegates to connect with industry representatives and find new collaborators.

The festival champions and pushes forward new talents, and new ideas for the industry. It is a fully open, and inclusive festival, bringing together veteran creatives, new voices and our city to share, shape and question stories of the world we live in.

So far, I have had a chance to see the excellent ”The Brink” which gives a unique insight into the very controversial figure Stephen K. Bannon. Female filmmaker Alison Klayman followed Bannon over a course of nearly 2 years as he tries to mobilize and unify far-right and neo-Nazi factions during the 2018 US midterm elections.

A full review will be coming after I have attended the festival, but I found this to be a very impressive and impactful film. I also had the pleasure of meeting the documentary’s producer Marie Therese Guirgis, who took the time to converse with me about the making of the film and the current political culture in the West. 

I have also seen Kristof Bilsen’s very moving documentary ”Mother” which tells the story of Pomm, a woman who works for a center for Westerners afflicted by Alzheimer’s. The center is based in Thailand, and the level of care that Pomm gives to these patients is astounding. This was a very touching documentary that told a very personal and human story. 

With 5 screenings planned for tomorrow, I am going to have a lot of writing to do! Wish me good luck!