Sheffield 24

Bosnian Maja Novaković sighs as she contemplates the immense effort it took to make her debut feature doc (sold by Lightdox and premiering in International Competition at Sheffield DocFest). This was a project shot over several years in often freezing conditions. “All I know is that I wanted to shoot a film about alienation and loss, grief, and this feeling of emptiness [experienced] by one man. I wanted to portray his inner silence and his inner world,” Novaković tells BDE.

The 2024 film programme includes 48 world, 14 international, 17 European and 29 UK premieres from 56 countries of production. The International Competition consists of eight world prems including Tilda Swinton’s feature directorial debut (co-directed with Bartek Dziadosz). The 31st Sheffield DocFest runs June 12-17. The complete Industry programme will be announced May 15.

In the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, 11-year-old Vrej is, in equal part, philosopher, dreamer and realist. He wants to be a dentist, but is fully aware that he is being prepared for combat, as are all the kids of his age, both and girls. “He was just a child full of wonder, full of dreams, but also very much older [than his years],” says director Hairabedian of her subject. “His personality was what really attracted the lens, and that's what kept us going.”

Sheffield’s Industry Programme and Market runs in conjunction with the Festival (June 12-17) and includes 22 Industry Sessions for delegates, five Marketplace Sessions, three Live Pitch sessions, the Filmmaker Challenge, Alternate Realities Summit, five marketplace Rough Cuts, Craft Summit (a day of five panels and masterclasses) as well as the MeetMarket pitching forum.

Relentless Memory, a film about indigenous peoples and human rights, world premieres in International Competition. Piropolis, telling the story of a firefighting company fighting simultaneous devastating fires in Chile, has its European premiere. Meanwhile in MeetMarket, A Troop of Bears is presented. The doc project tells the story of the encounter between the son of a disappeared detainee and the man who betrayed him during the Chilean military dictatorship.

The fifteen jury members will assess new works across the International Competition, First Feature Competition, Short Film Competition, The Tim Hetherington Award and International Alternate Realities Competition sections. The festival also announced details of masterclasses and a conversation with revered sound editor Walter Murch. The 31st Sheffield DocFest runs from Wednesday 12 – Monday 17 June.

For her debut feature, Scottish-based Spanish filmmaker Inma de Reyes follows the young would-be matador Borja as he prepares for a career in the bullring. “I have never been interested in bullfighting,” admits the director. “My family have never taken me to a bullfight or anything like that. I’m just completely oblivious to that world. But I think now you cannot be neutral in Spain. You’re either in favour or you’re against…”

Even in advance of its world premiere in Sheffield, Croatian director Goran Devic’s Pavilion No 6 (sold by Film Harbour) is already being billed as a Covid movie with a difference - a feelgood affair about a feelbad subject that approaches the pandemic in a humorous and surreal way. “I felt that every single individual I met [at the Covid vaccination centre] was happy to communicate. Even the shooting was some kind of communication,” Devic tells BDE.

The shocking and extraordinary story of Japanese reality TV star Tomoaki Hamatsu, nicknamed Nasubi, who was left alone naked in a room for 15 months and whose every move was watched on television by the Japanese public, is told in The Contestant, the startling new documentary by UK director Clair Titley, who talks to Business Doc Europe.

Back in the 1980s Genesis P-Orridge was described as “too shocking, even for punks,” this coming on the back of his sexually graphic performances at London’s ICA in 1976 together with his equally notorious then-girlfriend Cosey Fanni Tutti. But David Charles Rodrigues’ new doc reveals another side to Genesis. Yes, he was formidable and dangerous, but he was also a genuine intellectual and a philosopher years ahead of his time, as well as a loving dad. “You can live for your art and be this extreme artist and musician and thinker, but also part of your extremeness is living with unconditional love for your family,” the director tells BDE.