JOAN RIVERS OPENS SHEFFIELD DOC/FEST (05/10/2010)
On Wednesday 3 November the 17th Sheffield Doc/Fest opens with the UK premiere of Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, attended by Joan Rivers and award-winning filmmakers Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg (The End of America, The Devil Came on Horseback). Joan Rivers - A Piece Of Work exposes the private dramas of irreverent, legendary comedian and pop icon Joan Rivers as she fights tooth and nail to remain the queen of comedy. Filmed over the course of a year as a cinema verite documentary, the film reveals a rare glimpse of the comedic process and the toxic mixture of self-doubt and anger that often fuels it.
Sheffield Doc/Fest has announced a 132 strong line-up of features, shorts, student and cross-platform docsfor 2010, from 26 countries including 17 World Premieres, 26 UK Premieres, 5 European Premieres and 1 International Premiere, packed into five intense days, 3-7 November. New works by John Pilger, Penny Woolcock, Patricio Guzman, Kim Longinotto, George Gittoes, Werner Herzog are featured alongside fascinating new films that offer insight into the worlds of Ingmar Bergman, Alan Bennett, Rolf Harris, Andrea Dunbar, Elgar, Jean-Michel Basquiat, William S Burroughs, Hamed Abu Zayd, Nicolae Ceauşescu and Bin Laden's ex bodyguard, Abu Jandal in The Oath.
INDUSTRY OPPORTUNITIES AT DOC/FEST 2010
Doc/Fest brings over 80 commissioners and decision makers to Yorkshire in 2010. Screen Yorkshire has sponsored Doc/Fest for the last 8 years and we are proud to continue to be able to support the festival and conference, which have grown to become a major international market place. Don't miss out! Get your diary and download the list of industry sessions and key decision makers coming to Doc/Fest this year.
FILM TOOLKIT AT DOC/FEST
This year, Screen Yorkshire's Film Toolkit has joined forces with Doc/Fest to present an exciting programme of screenings and Q&A sessions aimed at those interested infinding out more about the specialist art of documentary making. The sessions run from 04 - 06 November. Programme details.
WORLD / EU / INTERNATIONAL / UK PREMIERES:
World Premieres include: John Pilger's The War You Don't See; Penny Woolcock's On The Streets; Adam Low's Alan Bennett and the Habit of Art; John Bridcut's Elgar: The Man Behind the Mask; Vikram Jayanti's Rolf Harris Paints His Dream; Laura Fairrie's Battle for Barking, Gemma Atwal's Marathon Boy, Jerry Rothwell's Donor Unknown and David Sington's The Flaw.
European Premieres: Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady's 12th & Delaware; Etienne Sauret's Dirty Pictures; John Kastner's Life With Murder; Robin Hessman's My Perestroika; and Eric Liebman's Sex, Magic, Manifesting Maya; Norma Marcos' Fragments of a Lost Palestine, whilst Davis Guggenheim's Waiting For Superman will receive its International Premiere at the festival.
UK Premieres include: Patricio Guzman's Nostalgia For the Light; Jeff Malmberg's Marwencol; Zeina Daccache's 12 Angry Lebanese; A Day In The Life - Four Portraits of Post-War Britain by John Krish; Doug Block's The Kids Grow Up; Olga Konskaya and Andrei Nekrasov's Russian Lessons, José Padilha's Secrets of the Tribe, Nic Dunlop, Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg's Burma Soldier, Michael Madson's Into Eternity; Floris-Jan van Luyn Rainmakers, and Stig Björkman's ...but Film is My Mistress about Ingmar Bergman.
Kim Longinotto will receive the second Inspiration Award, which was introduced last year to celebrate a figure who has championed documentary and helped get great work into the public eye. Her new documentary Pink Saris plays in the Special Jury Award (for excellence in style, substance and approach) section of the film programme and she will give a Director-Editor Masterclass with her long-time collaborator Ollie Huddleston. Other award categories include: Sheffield Innovation Award (for originality in approach to form and radical manifestations in the delivery of its story), Sheffield Green Award (that best addresses major environmental challenges), Sheffield Youth Jury Award (most engaging for young audiences, chosen by jury of Sheffield based young people ages 16-21 ), The Sheffield Student Doc Award (made as part of tertiary course work from UK and International universities), and Sheffield Doc/Fest Audience Award (voted by delegates and public audiences). Winners will be announced at the Award Ceremony on Friday 5 November.
DOC/UK
UK docs are particularly well represented in this year's programme with a total of 32 features, 13 of which play in the Doc/UK strand of which 7 are World Premieres and 4 UK Premieres. In her newest feature On The Streets (World Prem) (UK 2010 110min) director Penny Woolcock spent eight months on the streets with London's homeless building an intimacy that makes for powerful viewing. John Pilger uses his latest film The War You Don't See (World Prem) (UK 2010 80) to ask a question that is as relevant now as it was 60 years ago: how are wars reported in the media different from the reality? In Scenes from a Teenage Killing (World Prem) (UK 2010 120min) director Morgan Matthews investigates the impact of violent deaths of British teenagers on families and communities across the country; in When China Met Africa (UK 2010 75min) directors Marc and Nick Francis (Black Gold) turn their attention to China's investment in Africa to find out whether China is indeed the close friend, reliable partner and good brother of Africa that it claims to be. In My Kidnapper (UK Prem) (UK 2010 Dirs Mark Henderson, Kate Horne 82min) co-director Mark Henderson returns to the Sierra Nevada mountains, with three of eight kidnapped backpapers who were held for 101 days, to confront one of their captors Antonio, who during the six years since their release has been keeping in touch via email and Facebook. Jerry Rothwell's Donor Unknown (World Prem) (UK 2010, 80min) follows JoEllen and her hunt for her many half siblings and ultimately her father, who two decades earlier had been a sperm donor. In David Sington's The Flaw (World Prem) (UK 2010 80min) a range of talking heads combined with an imaginative blend of archive, animation and personal stories describe how, within a few months in 2008, several American financial institutions failed, dragging the rest of the world down with it.
A special focus on the Middle East comprises of 10 works from Lebanon, Palestine, Turkey, Israel, Iran and Tunisia .
A career retrospective and masterclass from India's most renowned documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan will feature 4 feature films curated by Mark Cousins.
Other programme strands include: Doc/International, Arts Docs, Bent Docs, Cross Platform Docs, First Cut, Music Docs, Scottish Documentary Institute and Shorts
DOC/INTERNATIONAL
Eight titles in the Doc/International strand shed light on seven preoccupations of our times: sex, drugs, the Taliban, modern-day Russia, social media, religion, murder, and the environment. In Eric Liebman and Jonathan Schell's hugely entertaining Sex Magic, Manifesting Maya (EU Prem) (US 2010, 80min) Baba Dez is a sexual shaman who claims its fabulous to love more than one woman at a time (1,000 at the last count) which isn't going down too well with Maya. But can he win her back through Sex Magic? In Etienne Sauret's Dirty Pictures (EU Prem) (US 2010 86min) we meet grey haired, crinkly eyed Alexander Sasha Shulgin who synthesized the drug MDMA in the 1960s and has devoted his (and his wife's) lives to tinkering with mind-altering drugs ever since. In veteran Australian director George Gittoes' The Miscreants of Taliwood (Australia 2009 90min) the director travels once more to a war zone in search of art and culture, this time to Peshawar in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier. He launches himself into the local film industry (cheesy overblown films which make Bollywood look tame) and self-funds two dramas which take him and his frightened crew into the mountains were Bin Laden apparently lurks. Robin Hessman's My Perestroika (UK Prem) (UK/US 2010 88min) skillfully weaves stories of history teachers Borya and Lyuba, last of the Iron Curtain children, with three of their young students, growing up in capitalist-driven Moscow. Sundance hit Catfish (USA 2010, USA, 86min, Dir(s) Ariel Schulman & Henry Joost) is a dark and wildly weird look at the altenate side to the social media phenomenon. In Tyler Measom and Jennilyn Merten's Sons of Perdition (US 2010 87mins) we meet a group of teenage boys who have escaped the long arms of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the most extreme sect of the Mormans, controlled by cult leader Warren Jeffs. But welcome into the wider community is not forthcoming and they miss their extended families. In John Kastner's Life With Murder (EU Prem) (Canada 2010 95min) Brian and Leslie Jenkins face a shattering dilemma - how do you, and should you, forgive your son who has murdered your daughter. In Vapour Trail (US 2010, 264min) John Gianvito gives uncensored voice to Filipinos living with contamination left around abandoned US airbases.
ARTS DOCS
Five films this year focus on the arts, ranging from Rolf Harris to an extraordinary chapter in Brazilian's cinematic history to artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Award-winning director Vikram Jayani follows 80 year old Rolf Harris' latest work-in-progress in Arena: Rolf Harris Paints His Dream (World Prem) (UK 2010, 90min); in Noa Bressane and Bruno Safadi's Belair (UK Prem) (Brazil 2009 Dirs 80min) the story behind the unreleased films of the Belair production company reveal a body of work audacious in both style and content that were too much for the times; in Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child (UK Prem) (US 2010 90 mins), Tamra Davis portrays one of the most enigmatic and accomplished artists of the 1980s, who died aged 27. Combining a rare and remarkably candid interview filmed at the height of his fame together with archive and input from many of Basquiat's admirers, including Julian Schnabel, and Fab 5 Freddy.
BENT DOCS
The six films in this year's Bent Docs strand dealing with gay and lesbian themes and issues include Adam Low's multi-layered Alan Bennett and the Habit of Art (World Prem) (UK 2010 54min) which looks at the long time collaboration between Bennett and Nicholas Hytner while they, in turn, interogate the making of Bennet's latest play, The Habit of Art which is about the relationship between poet W.H. Auden and composer Benjamin Britten. Yony Leyser's William S Burroughs - A Man Within (US 2010 90) features footage of Burroughs and exclusive interviews with some of his closest friends including John Waters, David Cronenberg, Iggy Pop, Peter Weller, Anne Waldman and many others. In Tomer Heymann's very personal I Shot My Love (UK Prem) (Germany, Israel 2010 56mins) the German director charts his fall for Israeli dancer Andreas Merk and their subsequent move to Israel to live with Merk's mother, herself of German descent. While welcoming to Heymann, Merk's mother is also cautious and outspoken about what she wants for her son. Michael Stock's extraordinarily personal Postcard to Daddy (UK Prem) (Germany 2010 86min) talks about the sexual abuse he experienced for many years at the hands of his own father. In intimate conversations with friends and family he begins to peel back the clouded memories.
MUSIC DOCS
There are 6 music docs this year which travel the world from Warsaw (Beats of Freedom Poland 2010 Dir Leszek Gnoinski, Wojciech Slota 73 min) to Democratic Republic of Congo (Benda Bilili! France 2010 Renaud Barret, Florent de la Tullaye 86min), to Albany Projects in Brooklyn (Player Hating: A Love Story, World Prem, US 2009 Dir Maggie Hadleigh-West 95min) to Sheffield (Now As It Was Then - Heaven 17 The Story of Penthouse & Pavement (UK 2010, , Dir: James Strong, 60min). John Bridcut's Elgar: The Man Behind the Mask (World Prem) (UK 2009, 90min) reveals how one of Britain's greatest composers became an early image-conscience celebrity in his middle-ages while in Garry Beitel's The "Socalled" Movie (UK Prem) (Canada 2010 86min) Josh Dolgin, better-known as ‘Socalled' is after a different kind of image, "I want to be the Mahatma Gandhi of hip hop, but not so skinny".
DOC/EU
The Doc/EU strand includes four features and one Werner Herzog short which tell international stories, produced or co-produced in Europe. Highlights include Nic Dunlop, Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg's Burma Soldier (UK Prem) (Ireland, US 2010 70min) which tells the story of Myo Mint who entered the Burmese army as a teenager, was discharged when he lost an arm and leg to a mine and then began to educate himself illicity through banned books to become an outspoken activist, campaigning against the regime he used to represent. Stig Björkman's ...but Film is My Mistress (UK Prem) (Sweden 2010 66mins) takes us behind the scenes of eight Ingmar Bergman films revealing the atmosphere of adventure and bonhomie on his sets. With interviews from Liv Ullman, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen and Lars Von Trier. Plus 4 minutes of Werner Herzog's powerful and equivocal fusion of film and opera La Bohème (UK 2009 4min) featuring incredible imagery of the Mursi people of south-west Ethiopa and Puccini's love duet ‘O Soave Fanciulla' (Oh Gentle Angel) from La Bohème.
MIDDLE EAST FOCUS:
In 12 Angry Lebanese (UK Prem) (Lebanon 2009 Dir. Zeina Daccache 78 min) an all-male group of inmates residing in Lebanon's notorious Roumieh Prison, take part, over a 15 month period, in pioneering drama therapy, led by female theatre (and now film) director Zeina Daccache. Dual French and Palestinian passport holder Norma Marcos demonstrates, through wide-ranging conversations with friends and family in Fragments of a Lost Palestine (EU Premiere) (France 2010 75 min), how people try to live normal lives despite the inescapable tense political environment. In Moran Ifergan and Anat Schwartz's KMS - Jewish Negros (World Prem) (Israel 2010 48 min) three black Israeli teenagers, aka KMS, are determined to make a success of their rap group. They are Ethiopean jews, descended from the lost tribe of Daniel. In the Israeli town of Kiryat Moshe, the prejudices they encounter leave them feeling like second-class citizens, treated as they rap, 'like monkeys'. In Waiting for Abu Zayd (UK Prem) (Lebanon 2010 82min) this all-access portrait by Mohammad Ali Atassi captures six years of the late Nasr Hamed Abu Zayd (who passed away in July this year), a brilliant and brave liberal theologian who created a name for himself for his modern and challenging interpretations of the Qur'an and Islam.
Other Middle East Focus features: Hope (UK Prem) (Turkey 2010 Dir Rodi Yüzba 47min); Koul Fareh (World Prem) (Iran 2010 Dir Mahvash Sheikholeslami 42min), Once Upon Our Time (UK Prem) (Tunisia 2010 Dir Hichem Ben Ammar 85min).
Sheffield Doc/fest is currently recruiting for volunteers. More
A masterclass, The Making of Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work , will take place on Thursday 4 November followed by a further screening on Friday 5 November at Sheffield Doc/Fest. All screenings and events will be attended by Joan Rivers and filmmakers and are open to public and delegates.
Sheffield Doc/Fest is the UK's premier documentary film event. It is the place to see world and UK premieres of the best creative documentaries from the cinema, television and online arenas, and to hear from and meet filmmakers at Q&A sessions.Now in its 17th year, Doc/Fest will be held 3-7 November 2010 and will be partnered with the Media Guardian. Highlights of the film programme, which last year featured over 120 features and shorts, are honoured with an award-programme including the Sheffield Special Jury, Innovation, Green, Youth Jury, Inspiration, International Student Doc, and Audience Awards. All films are open to the public and a limited number of free standby tickets are available to students and senior citizens (excluding opening night). Some industry sessions and masterclasses will also be available to the public. Sheffield Doc/Fest is supported by Screen Yorkshire through Grant In Aid Funding.
Sheffield Doc/Fest tickets go on sale 4 October 2010. For full programme details and booking, go to: www.sheffdocfest.com
