Sheffield Documentary Festival 2014!

The Sheffield Documentary festival began on Saturday the 7th June and what a perfect day it was for this event with fantastic weather, amazing films and an outstanding amount of visitors all queuing in and around the festival showrooms and city centre creating a real energetic buzz! The festival brings international documentary family together to celebrate the art and business of documentary making for five days.

Our first day was spent soaking up the exciting atmosphere with the arrival of fellow documentary film lovers. Where floods of people queued for passes, organised schedules, indulged in the cafe and mingled in the outside areas with drinks and BBQ. On the Saturday afternoon the first film we kicked the weekend off with was ‘Night will Fall’ an extremely harrowing piece of film which was actually introduced with a pre-warning that the footage we would be seeing was extremely graphic and may find disturbing. This documentary was made about the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps and masterminded by Sidney Bernstein the founder of Granada TV with involvment from Alfred Hitchcock. The film shows eyewitness archive footage taken from cameramen and troops that had encountered the liberation across various concentration camps. This is definitely a piece of film which isn’t to be taken light heartedly and will open your eyes to some powerful footage of what it was really like and demonstrate truly how close those living happy normal lives were to the camps. Between screenings there were plenty of other activities going on especially with the warm weather it was great to take a break from the indoor cinema and sit at the Howard Street Screen and watch the outdoor films.  It seems apparent that booking in advance is essential as many of the screenings sell out fast. The next documentary we watched that evening was ‘The case Against 8’ following the lives of two same sex couples who are seeking equality with the chance to marry just like any other couple in love. This gripping story is set over five years as the LGBT community and Ted Olson fight for same sex marriages to be legal in California and take the case to the Supreme Court. The film is extremely gripping as you become engrossed with lives of the two couples fighting for the right to marry, recognising the importance of what it means to them and Ted Olson’s genuine passion to win the case for equal rights.

One of the films which we indulged in on Sunday was ‘Vessel’ focusing on the activist – artist Dr Rebecca Gomperts on womens basic human rights to make their own decisions on what they should be allowed to do with their bodies. The group called ‘women on waves’ was established  to help women desperately seeking abortion in countries where it was illegal to do so as the terminations would take place on international waters. In the countries where women have been refused their rights to make these decisions the group were targeted with negative vile abuse from protesters who saw the activist group as ‘Nazi’ behaviour. The film demonstrates some interesting stories which women have to go through when the abortion is illegal in their country. The determination and efforts from Dr Rebecca and the group is captivating, a great demonstration of women coming together to fight for something which they strongly believe in.

Mondays film choice began with a hard hitting documentary delving into the cruel world of what goes on within some areas of Pakistan with ‘Pakistan’s hidden shame’ The film explores with interviews some sections of this society where it has become almost acceptable and common for men to prey on young boys ages as young as 8 for sex and paying them a small fee as little as 75p which often would go to feeding a drug habit. These men also go onto openly admit to rape with comments stating they had raped around 11 – 12 kids between ages 8-10, with excuses for their behaviour being down to having urges and needs.  The documentary opens your eyes to a whole new insight on this minority in Pakistan, the heartbreaking community of street kids and the astonishing realisation that throughout the whole film you don’t see women walking around. The documentary was followed with a fantastic in-depth Q+A with the director (Mo Naqvi) and producer (Jamie Doran) where they shared their story’s of making the film, what their intensions had been putting together this footage as well as the next steps for the film. Whilst making the film and interviewing these perverse men it was said that being behind the camera made it seem not real what they were witnessing. On one occasion the production team had been threatened to be killed if footage wasn’t destroyed.

Another film we caught on Monday was ‘Beyond Clueless’ following and exploring hundreds of movies that delve into the teenage psyche. Within this feature debut we were taken into a world of teen movies through a well scripted narration, broken down into various chapters that takes a look into themes of alienation and loss of self. Whats great about this movie is its stylish and unique approach that demonstrates the connection between teen movies and real life situations. The film has a dreamy original score by band ‘Summer Camp’ and the following day were making an appearance as the film was being played as a live event. The young film critic Charlie Lyne who Directed and produced the film gave a great Q+A afterwards showing his sheer enthusiasm and efforts into bringing together this film.

Sheffield Documentary Festival definitely has something for everyone with a whole range of different events and activities going on throughout the City! With various late night party’s, workshops, outdoor film screenings, live must events and much more! This is one festival not to miss out on and we are already looking forward to next year.