Spotlight: Sheffield Doc/Fest

Zed Nelson’s Shelter in Place

Docs Around the Globe
05/11/2009

Sheffield Doc/Fest kicked off on Wednesday night with the Gala screening of the new film by Mat Whitecross, Moving to Mars: A Million Miles From Burma. In addition to the director being present, actress Ramola Garai introduced the film with an impassioned speech about the plight of Burmese immigrants.

One of the strengths of Doc/Fest over the years has been its focus on the documentary tradition of individual countries. Japan in particular has proven fruitful in revealing a wealth of archive films. Critic and filmmaker Mark Cousins has been instrumental in championing the work of Japanese documentary filmmakers, claiming them to be ‘amongst the best in the world’. Having previously focused on the work of Noriaki Tsuchimoto and Shinsuke Ogawa, this year’s festival looks back to one of the founding films of ‘radical individualism’, Shohei Imamura’s remarkable Nipon Sengoshi: Madam Onboro No Seikatsu. Blending interview footage with reportage, Imamura’s film presents an unflinching portrait of a frank and honest Japanese woman, whose hardships have transformed her into a figure not dissimilar to those women who populated the director’s fictional work. At the same time, Imamura guides us through the traumatic post war years as Japan faced a shift in tradition and values. And thanks to his unwillingness to pander to political trends or tastes of the time, Imamura’s film has lost none of its freshness, humour or edge.

A very different societal overview can be found in Geoffrey Smith and Roberto Hernández’s Presumed Guilty, which details the shocking proportion of rough justice meted out in Mexico, through the story of one such case. Tonio Zuniga was imprisoned for a murder that he not only did not commit, but had a concrete alibi to prove that he wasn’t even within the close vicinity of where the murder took place. But with police officers offered bonuses for increasing their arrest rate, finding the guilty party is far from the top of their list of priorities.

Although the story of Tonio - and the many other tales of innocents convicted in order to massage official statistics - is one that demands it be told, the directors’ style often veers to close to that of a US TV cop drama, with distracting graphics thrown at the screen and an opening credit sequence that felt out of place with the rest of the film. However, as the story progresses and we feel more for Tonio’s plight, it is hard not to feel angered by such a callous and corrupt system.

Injustice dominates what is arguably the strongest competition line-up: the Green Doc Award. The first entries, screening on Thursday night, highlighted the urgency of the global environmental cause, approaching their subjects from very different viewpoints. Nick Broomfield’s impressive short As Time Comes - The Story of the Kingsnorth Six details the success through direct action of a group of Greenpeace activists, following the comandeering the main smokestack at one of the UKs major coal power stations. The operation, conducted as a protest against the Labour government’s decision to grant permission to the construction of a neighbouring station, resulted in a court case where those involved were accused of causing £30,000 damage, by painting ‘Gordon’ on the side of the smokestack. Their acquittal is seen as a major victory for direct action. Broomfield’s no-fuss style champions the work of the activists and makes for a compelling and moving documentary.

Shelter in Place is a bleaker take on environmental action from around the globe. The impressive directorial debut of Zed Nelson focuses on communities living next door to oil refineries in and around the Texas panhandle. The film details the health problems faced by these communities and the attempts of lawyers and activists to try to redress what they believe to be an unhealthy environment. One of the major problems are ‘upsets’ - the legally sanctioned emission of toxic chemicals into the air. Although originally permitted in order to avoid an even greater environmental catastrophy through the dangerous build-up of these chemicals, there are thousands of upsets every year.

Beautifully shot, Shelter in Place is an emotionally engaging portrait of a people without a voice, who are trapped by their economic circumstances in an area whose air quality is affecting every generation.

Doc/Fest opening night film, Moving to Mars: A Million Miles From Home

Sheffield Doc/Fest Opens on 4 November
03/11/2009

The UK’s most important documentary and non-fiction film festival opens on 4 November with a commitment to bringing ‘the international documentary family together to celebrate the art and business of documentary making’. Now one of the world’s leading specialised festivals, the programme this year is more expansive than ever, with a host of industry events, pitching sessions, round-table discussions and interviews, as well as some of the best documentary and non-fiction films from around the globe.

Outside of the competition strands, programmes include: Music Docs, Comedy Docs, Bent Docs, Russian Focus, Cross-Platform Docs, First Cut, Doc UK,Doc Europe, Doc International, Japanese Strand, Short Docs and special screenings.

Masterclass guests include Nick Fenton, Franny Armstrong, Leslie Woodhead and R.J. Cutler.

Crossover Labs

Crossover Labs, ‘an international programme designed to explore the creative and the commercial challenges of developing content and services for digital media’ will continue to be a major feature of the festival. Described as ‘a unique series of creative laboratories in which experienced and talented professionals from different sectors of the audio-visual industries work alongside international experts and mentors to develop ideas for innovative cross-platform programmes, products or services,’ they will run throughout the festival.

Competition Entries

The Special Jury Award ‘will honour a film selected from highlights of the Doc/Fest programme that displays excellence in style, substance and approach’.
Horses, directed by Liz Mermin (Ireland/UK)
I’m Dangerous with Love, directed by Michael Negroponte (USA)
Junior, directed by Jenna Rosher (USA)
Men of the City, directed by Marc Isaacs (UK)
October Country, directed by Michal Palmieri & Donal Mosher (USA)
Petition, directed by Zhao Liang (France/China)
Until the Next Ressurection, directed by Oleg Morozov (Russia)
Videocracy, directed by Erik Gandini (Sweden/Denmark)

The Innovation Doc Award highlights films with ‘originality in approach to form and radical manifestations in the delivery of [their] story’.
The Big Issue, directed by Olivia Colo & Samuel Bollendorff (France)
Elli - The Cross Art Documentary, directed by Antti Haase (Finland)
The Execution of Gary Glitter?, directed by Rob Coldstream (UK)
The Living Room of the Nation, directed by Jukka Kärkkäinen (Finland)
LoopLoop, directed by Patrick Bergeron (Canada)
Videomappings: Aida, Palestine, directed by Till Roeskens (France)

The Green Doc Award presents a selection that ‘best addresses major environmental challenges’.
The Blood of the Rose, directed by Henry Singer (UK/Japan/Germany)
The Cove, directed by Louis Pshioyos (USA)
Earth Days, directed by Robert Stone (USA)
Haynesville: The Relentless Hunt for an Energy Tomorrow, directed by Gregory Kallenberg (USA)
Petropolis - Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands, directed by Peter Mettler (Canada)
Shelter in Place, directed by Zed Nelson (UK)
A Time Comes - The Story of the Kingsnorth Six, directed by Nick Broomfield (UK)

The Youth Jury Award is made up of a panel of 16-21 year olds for a film ‘that appeals most to a youth audience’.
Moving to Mars: A Million Miles From Home, directed by Mat Whitecross (UK)
P-Star Rising, directed by Gabriel Noble (USA)
Sons of Cuba, directed by Andrew Lang (UK)
Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam, directed by Omar Majeed (Canada)
Voices from El-Sayed, directed by Odel Adomi Leshem (Israel/Switzerland)

The Student Doc Award
Arsy - Versy, directed by Miro Remo (Slovakia)
Bob, directed by Rosie Potter (UK)
Caught in the Mist, directed by Joseph Matthews (UK)
Cultural Revolution II, directed by Tian Ai Zhang (UK)
The Ferryman, directed by Alexandra Mattolie (UK)
Jaffawiye, directed by Dan Deutsch (Israel)
Presido Modelo, directed by Pablo Alvarez-Mesa (Canada)
Time Within Time, directed by Menno Otten (Netherlands)
Tsirk, directed by David Rounsfell Cairns (UK/Russia)
Waiting for Women, directed by Estephan Wagner (UK)

For more information on the festival go to: http://sheffdocfest.com.

IFG will be at the festival, reporting daily on events and screenings.

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