Sheffield 2021

Spanish director Alba Sotorra talks to Business Doc Europe about her doc in which she she explores the plight of the so-called ISIS brides, including the divisive Shamima Beguma from the UK and the American Hoda Muthana.

Best Film in International Competition was 'Nũhũ Yãg Mũ Yõg Hãm: This Land Is Our Land!' while the Special Jury Award went to Equatorial Constellations. In UK Competition, 'Ali and His Miracle Sheep' won Best Film as 'Portrait of Kaye' (Ben Reed, UK) won the Special Jury Award. Audience Award to Charm Circle.

US experimental filmmaker, photographer and poet Lynne Sachs’ new short E•pis•to•lar•y: Letter to Jean Vigo (screening June 6 as part of Let’s Start Again at the Sheffield Doc Fest) offers an unusual meditation on the events of January 6, 2021, when protesters stormed the United States Capitol in Washington. The director explains to BDE.

The prolific Irish/Scottish director talks to Business Doc Europe about the joys of looking and the brilliance of selfies, Gertrude Stein’s equation on observation and construction and what it’s like, post-cataract op, to have Robert Altman living in one of your eyes.

It is 75 years since Pakistani freedom fighter Fatima Sughra clambered on to the top of a high building to pull down the British flag. Her example still inspires the Karachi feminists featured in Anam Abbas’ feature debut This Stained Dawn, screening as a world premiere in Sheffield this week. Abbas explains to BDE.

The BFI Doc Society Fund has partnered with FWD-Doc: Filmmakers with Disabilities to create an industry resource aimed at ensuring disabled-accessible and disabled-inclusive doc filmmaking and exhibition. Engagement Pack launches with ‘Reimagining Disability in Documentary’ talk at Sheffield 8 June (7pm today).

We may all want to forget the past year, but Songs For The River (with its strapline of ‘Reflections on a Pandemic’) serves as an important and unique, and at times hopeful, record of these dark times.

What do you do when a close friend disappears out of your life? This is a dilemma that filmmaker Christine Saab wrestles with in her short film In The Space You Left, which received its premiere in UK competition at Sheffield Doc Fest this week. The director muses further with BDE.

Ask British filmmaker Nick Green if he liked tycoon-on-the-run Carlos Ghosn, the subject of his new doc world premiering in Sheffield, and he gives an equivocal answer. “He has got an extraordinarily impressive brain…he has got extraordinary powers of recall but he is not an easy man to get on with,” the director tells Business Doc Europe.

Fifty-five projects have been selected for presentation to industry partners at the 16th edition of Sheffield DocFest’s flagship pitching forum, the MeetMarket (9-11 June). Furthermore, 22 projects are selected for Arts Talent Market, running in parallel.