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106-591: Sheffield DocFest (formerly styled Sheffield Doc/Fest ; abbr. Sheffield International Documentary Festival or SIDF ) is an international documentary festival and industry marketplace held annually in Sheffield , England . The festival revolves around film screenings, interactive and virtual reality exhibitions, talks & sessions, marketplace and talent for the funding and distribution of documentaries and development of filmmakers, live events, and its own awards . Since its beginning in 1994, DocFest has become

212-564: A historical record ". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in terms of "a filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception [that remains] a practice without clear boundaries". Early documentary films, originally called " actuality films ", briefly lasted for one minute or less. Over time, documentaries have evolved to become longer in length and to include more categories. Some examples are educational , observational and docufiction . Documentaries are very informative , and are often used within schools as

318-456: A British-French-German-Italian-Spanish film, starring US Orson Welles . To qualify as an Italian film a film needed either an Italian director or cameraman plus at least two Italian featured players and an Italian film laboratory to process the film. Actor and director Mel Welles recalled that in the 1960s and 1970s the government of Spain would give producers funds based on the budget of the film whilst Italy would give producers funds based on

424-591: A Metropolis (dir. Walter Ruttmann , 1927); Man with a Movie Camera (dir. Dziga Vertov , 1929); Douro, Faina Fluvial (dir. Manoel de Oliveira , 1931); and Rhapsody in Two Languages (dir. Gordon Sparling , 1934). A city symphony film, as the name suggests, is most often based around a major metropolitan city area and seeks to capture the life, events and activities of the city. It can use abstract cinematography (Walter Ruttman's Berlin ) or may use Soviet montage theory (Dziga Vertov's, Man with

530-421: A Movie Camera ). Most importantly, a city symphony film is a form of cinepoetry , shot and edited in the style of a " symphony ". The European continental tradition ( See: Realism ) focused on humans within human-made environments, and included the so-called city symphony films such as Walter Ruttmann's, Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis (of which Grierson noted in an article that Berlin, represented what

636-429: A Summer ( Jean Rouch ), Dont Look Back ( D. A. Pennebaker ), Grey Gardens ( Albert and David Maysles ), Titicut Follies ( Frederick Wiseman ), Primary and Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (both produced by Robert Drew ), Harlan County, USA (directed by Barbara Kopple ), Lonely Boy ( Wolf Koenig and Roman Kroitor ) are all frequently deemed cinéma vérité films. The fundamentals of

742-527: A broader perspective, as a reaction against studio-based film production constraints. Shooting on location, with smaller crews, would also happen in the French New Wave , the filmmakers taking advantage of advances in technology allowing smaller, handheld cameras and synchronized sound to film events on location as they unfolded. Although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, there are important differences between cinéma vérité ( Jean Rouch ) and

848-533: A co-production agreement may make available more resources, an international production risks being less relevant to its target audiences than purely local productions. Renaud and Litman developed the terms "co-production strategy" and "international co-production." The first is based on the US experience in the late 1970s and early 1980s where its film companies had minimized foreign input while preferring in-house production or coproducing films with domestic companies. Here,

954-461: A distinct challenge to local producers. In the face of such challenges, local producers need to learn "how to internationalise local film and television production in order to retain and hopefully build market shares; and how to develop new models of financing that combine both local and foreign sources." One approach has been to reconcile this tension by creating "local production with an explicit international orientation." But not everyone agrees this

1060-630: A documentary should not be); Alberto Cavalcanti's, Rien que les heures; and Dziga Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera . These films tend to feature people as products of their environment, and lean towards the avant-garde. Dziga Vertov was central to the Soviet Kino-Pravda (literally, "cinematic truth") newsreel series of the 1920s. Vertov believed the camera – with its varied lenses, shot-counter shot editing, time-lapse, ability to slow motion, stop motion and fast-motion – could render reality more accurately than

1166-437: A form of journalism, advocacy, or personal expression. Early film (pre-1900) was dominated by the novelty of showing an event. Single-shot moments were captured on film, such as a train entering a station, a boat docking, or factory workers leaving work. These short films were called "actuality" films; the term "documentary" was not coined until 1926. Many of the first films, such as those made by Auguste and Louis Lumière , were

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1272-763: A hybrid format online, physically in Sheffield, and in 16 partner cinemas across the UK. In-person film screenings in Sheffield took place in Showroom Cinema and in the historic 1920s cinema Abbeydale Picture House . Exhibitions took place across S1 Artspace , Site Gallery and the Sheffield Hallam University Performance Lab. The Festival opened with the European premiere of Summer of Soul by Questlove , and closed with

1378-412: A literal-minded definition of Australian culture has been 'antagonistic to the collaborative nature of film production, and in particular international co-production'. The Canadian study found evidence that, for television projects, domestic joint ventures performed better than international joint ventures. However, in the case of larger budget projects, domestic joint ventures were found not to be

1484-515: A major battle and re-enact scenes to film them. The propagandist tradition consists of films made with the explicit purpose of persuading an audience of a point. One of the most celebrated and controversial propaganda films is Leni Riefenstahl 's film Triumph of the Will (1935), which chronicled the 1934 Nazi Party Congress and was commissioned by Adolf Hitler . Leftist filmmakers Joris Ivens and Henri Storck directed Borinage (1931) about

1590-437: A minute or less in length, due to technological limitations. Examples can be viewed on YouTube. Films showing many people (for example, leaving a factory) were often made for commercial reasons: the people being filmed were eager to see, for payment, the film showing them. One notable film clocked in at over an hour and a half, The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight . Using pioneering film-looping technology, Enoch J. Rector presented

1696-506: A more poetic aesthetic approach to documentary. Examples of their work include Drifters (John Grierson), Song of Ceylon (Basil Wright), Fires Were Started , and A Diary for Timothy (Humphrey Jennings). Their work involved poets such as W. H. Auden , composers such as Benjamin Britten , and writers such as J. B. Priestley . Among the best known films of the movement are Night Mail and Coal Face . Calling Mr. Smith (1943)

1802-457: A new Northern Focus strand for 2021, curated by the Festival's then Industry Programme Producer Manon Euler, Film Programme Coordinator Owen Jones and Film Programme Producer Mita Suri. The strand spotlighted films and filmmakers from the northern counties of England and included amongst its selection Kim Flitcroft's Tales from a Hard City, a documentary set in Sheffield which first premiered at

1908-577: A new art form; that the "original" actor and "original" scene are better guides than their fiction counterparts for interpreting the modern world; and that materials "thus taken from the raw" can be more real than the acted article. In this regard, Grierson's definition of documentary as "creative treatment of actuality" has gained some acceptance; however, this position is at variance with Soviet film-maker Dziga Vertov 's credos of provocation to present "life as it is" (that is, life filmed surreptitiously), and "life caught unawares" (life provoked or surprised by

2014-428: A resource to teach various principles . Documentary filmmakers have a responsibility to be truthful to their vision of the world without intentionally misrepresenting a topic. Social media platforms (such as YouTube ) have provided an avenue for the growth of the documentary- film genre . These platforms have increased the distribution area and ease-of-accessibility. Polish writer and filmmaker Bolesław Matuszewski

2120-513: A retrospective of her work as well as the World Premiere of her short film Narratives ad Hominem. To complement the retrospective, the Festival also screened a selection of titles which offered different perspectives on Iran, including films by Mania Akbari and Mehran Tamadon. The Talks & Sessions programme welcomed guests such as Munya Chawawa , David Olusoga , Rose Ayling-Ellis , Laura Whitemore and David Harewood . Following

2226-622: A viable alternative to international joint ventures. In their later study of co-production in Australia, the authors identified financial pooling as the most important benefit and increased co-ordination costs as the greatest drawback. This suggests that co-production is more suited to larger budget productions, primarily film, which have greater capital needs but do not carry the same dollar-for-dollar coordination costs as smaller projects. Government bodies are keenly aware of these concerns. A review of Australian co-production rules acknowledged

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2332-514: A wordless meditation on wartime Britain. From 1982, the Qatsi trilogy and the similar Baraka could be described as visual tone poems, with music related to the images, but no spoken content. Koyaanisqatsi (part of the Qatsi trilogy ) consists primarily of slow motion and time-lapse photography of cities and many natural landscapes across the United States. Baraka tries to capture

2438-474: Is a separate area. Pathé was the best-known global manufacturer of such films in the early 20th century. A vivid example is Moscow Clad in Snow (1909). Biographical documentaries appeared during this time, such as the feature Eminescu-Veronica-Creangă (1914) on the relationship between the writers Mihai Eminescu , Veronica Micle and Ion Creangă (all deceased at the time of the production), released by

2544-567: Is also a central element of the festival with interactive exhibitions and commissioned works scattered across the city, and the Alternate Realities Summit taking place over an entire day of the festival. In addition to the festival days in June, Sheffield DocFest presents year-round workshops, screenings, labs and mentoring opportunities both in the UK and internationally. In 1990, Peter Symes of BBC TV Features Bristol had

2650-419: Is an anti-Nazi color film created by Stefan Themerson which is both a documentary and an avant-garde film against war. It was one of the first anti-Nazi films in history. Cinéma vérité (or the closely related direct cinema ) was dependent on some technical advances to exist: light, quiet and reliable cameras, and portable sync sound. Cinéma vérité and similar documentary traditions can thus be seen, in

2756-574: Is set in France and stars French actors, but many scenes were shot in a German film studio and the post-production work was undertaken by a German film company. International co-productions open new markets for films and television programs and can increase the output of high quality productions through the sharing of equity investment. Official co-productions are made possible by agreements between countries. Co-production agreements seek to achieve economic, cultural and diplomatic goals. For filmmakers,

2862-487: Is the best approach. For example, the idea that Australia should produce more 'deterritorialised' programming such as fantasy and science fiction has been met with disquiet in some sections of the industry. In Australia , some have suggested that a narrow definition of 'local content' has restricted Australia's ability to engage with international partners. Julia Hammett-Jamart reflects on the different approaches taken by France and Australia to this issue and argues that

2968-488: The BBC and Channel 4 , who were otherwise difficult to reach. Success at the Festival might mean landing a job for the coming year. In 2005, DocFest attracted more than 600 mostly UK delegates and enjoyed almost 9,000 screening and session admissions. However, with changes in the factual television marketplace, it was time for DocFest to move from a primarily craft-based event and increase its marketplace activity. The chairman at

3074-670: The Bucharest chapter of Pathé . Early color motion picture processes such as Kinemacolor (known for the feature With Our King and Queen Through India (1912)) and Prizma Color (known for Everywhere With Prizma (1919) and the five-reel feature Bali the Unknown (1921)) used travelogues to promote the new color processes. In contrast, Technicolor concentrated primarily on getting their process adopted by Hollywood studios for fiction feature films. Also during this period, Frank Hurley 's feature documentary film, South (1919) about

3180-597: The Eady Levy . At the same time, US citizens working outside the country for 510 days during a period of 18 months would not be taxed on their earnings by the Internal Revenue Service . Though this scheme was developed for the aid of American humanitarian workers redeveloping nations destroyed in World War II, agents discovered that Hollywood actors, directors, and screenwriters would qualify for

3286-666: The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was released. The film documented the failed Antarctic expedition led by Ernest Shackleton in 1914. With Robert J. Flaherty 's Nanook of the North in 1922, documentary film embraced romanticism . Flaherty filmed a number of heavily staged romantic documentary films during this time period, often showing how his subjects would have lived 100 years earlier and not how they lived right then. For instance, in Nanook of

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3392-714: The Karrabing Film Collective an indigenous filmmaking group from the Northern Territory , GUNDA by Viktor Kossakovsky, as well as a one-off 35mm screening of Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou's 1996 documentary Microcosmos . The Festival also developed its Community Programme in partnership with people, artists and organisations based-in or from Sheffield. The programme featured 9 dedicated community screenings, 3 live performances, 6 online workshops and 1 in-person workshop. The Festival partnered with Sheffield-based Migration Matters Festival,

3498-771: The Wellcome Trust . Fun is a key element, and the festival holds many parties. The festival has gained popularity steadily over recent years. DocFest screenings help many films to achieve a wider audience by attracting distribution and further screening opportunities for the films it shows. Sheffield DocFest's "Marketplace & Talent" segment is a major part of the festival, which includes the MeetMarket for films and series to achieve funding and distribution, "Alternate Realities Market" for interactive and virtual reality projects, live pitches, and other training initiatives. Interactive, immersive and virtual reality documentary

3604-884: The 1920s and 1930s. These films were particularly influenced by modern art , namely Cubism , Constructivism , and Impressionism . According to art historian and author Scott MacDonald , city symphony films can be described as, "An intersection between documentary and avant-garde film: an avant-doc "; however, A.L. Rees suggests regarding them as avant-garde films. Early titles produced within this genre include: Manhatta (New York; dir. Paul Strand , 1921); Rien que les heures /Nothing But The Hours ( France ; dir. Alberto Cavalcanti , 1926); Twenty Four Dollar Island (dir. Robert J. Flaherty , 1927); Moscow (dir. Mikhail Kaufman , 1927); Études sur Paris (dir. André Sauvage , 1928); The Bridge (1928) and Rain (1929), both by Joris Ivens ; São Paulo, Sinfonia da Metrópole (dir. Adalberto Kemeny , 1929), Berlin: Symphony of

3710-425: The 2015 Festival , before Liz McIntyre of Discovery Networks joined as CEO & Festival Director from 1 September 2015. During McIntyre's appointment, the Festival championed diverse and pluralist voices, inclusiveness and accessibility, for example creating a crèche service and introducing British Sign Language interpreted talks, Dementia -friendly screenings, Doc/Dinner for championing diverse talent within

3816-456: The 2022 Festival and work alongside the Board of Trustees to develop 'a new, long-term strategy for the Festival', which included the introduction of a new joint-leadership model, developing the roles of Managing and Creative Director to lead the Festival. Under Stewart's leadership, the Festival appointed Raul Niño Zambrano, previously Senior Film Programmer of IDFA , as Head of Film Programmes and

3922-647: The Alternate Realities programme, and 39 projects were pitched at the MeetMarket. The Festival saw the World Premiere of Werner Herzog 's The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katie and Maurice Krafft ; Yorkshire title A Bunch of Amateurs by Kim Hopkins won the Audience Award, Sansón and Me by Rodrigo Reyes took the top prize in International Competition, and Rosa Ruth Boesten's Master of Light which had previously pitched at

4028-489: The Alternate Realities programme, and 48 projects were presented in the MeetMarket pitching forum. The Festival expanded its offering to include a theatre production, live podcast events, as well as premieres of new TV series. The World Premiere of Paul Sng's Tish opened the Festival at Sheffield City Hall, the film had previously pitched at the 2021 MeetMarket. The Festival also celebrated the work of renowned Iranian filmmaker Rakhshan Banietemad as Guest of Honour, screening

4134-553: The Belgian coal mining region. Luis Buñuel directed a " surrealist " documentary Las Hurdes (1933). Pare Lorentz 's The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936) and The River (1938) and Willard Van Dyke 's The City (1939) are notable New Deal productions, each presenting complex combinations of social and ecological awareness, government propaganda, and leftist viewpoints. Frank Capra 's Why We Fight (1942–1944) series

4240-460: The COVID-19 pandemic, it was cancelled in its original form and some of the planned films and activities moved to an online format. The programme included 115 films, from 50 countries, representing 49 spoken languages; 31 world premieres, 15 international premieres, 5 European premieres and 40 UK premieres; 20% of the programme featured first-time filmmakers. Films were available to watch online on

4346-510: The Cosmos and a number of shorts also featured in 2015. This partnership continued, and in 2017 DocFest brought a selection of virtual reality projects to Latitude for the first time, alongside a curated programme of shorts. In 2014, there were some high-level staff changes. Deputy Director Charlie Phillips left to head up the documentary arm of The Guardian , with director of Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival Melanie Iredale taking up

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4452-424: The Festival and help filmmakers achieve this financing, Croall introduced the MeetMarket pitching forum, where filmmakers pitch their ideas to funders in one-to-one meetings. MeetMarket was developed with the help of Karolina Lidin, Marketplace Executive Producer since 2008. In 2003, she developed the very first MeetMarket with Croall at AIDC , which was later brought to Sheffield in 2006. Croall also introduced

4558-541: The Festival appointed Alex Cooke as Chair of the Board of Trustees. Cooke is CEO & Executive Producer and one of the co-founders of Renegade Pictures . From 1997 to 2001 she was the Festival Programmer for Sheffield DocFest, programming films and masterclasses. Despite the pressures of programming during a pandemic, the Festival returned to cinemas for its 28th edition in June 2021. Then in August 2021, it

4664-450: The Festival as Director. Regarding the move to charitable status, Gil said "To become a charity is an opportunity that will provide us with the space for public service, both in the interest of filmmakers, artists and the public...Sheffield Doc/Fest is a festival committed to the values of freedom, social engagement and collective development of the arts, therefore the purpose of our work becomes even clearer with this new status." Gil oversaw

4770-420: The Festival celebrated a predominantly in-person edition following the pandemic. After the 2022 Festival, Zambrano was promoted to Acting Creative Director, as the Festival began its search for a Managing Director. Following Stewart's term as Interim CEO, the Festival appointed Annabel Grundy, formerly of BFI, as Managing Director to work alongside Zambrano under the joint-leadership model developed by Stewart. In

4876-576: The Festival in 1995. Speakers in the Festival's Talks & Sessions programme included David Olusoga , Lydia Lunch , Mark Cousins , Betsy West and Julie Cohen amongst others. The DocFest Exchange programme, supported by the Wellcome Trust , explored the world through a non-human centred lens. The programme was curated by Jamie Allan and drew influences from the evolutionary theory that life evolved through symbiosis, organisms coming together to form other organisms. The programme included talks and workshops, as well as film screenings including titles from

4982-518: The Festival's video-on-demand platform Doc/Player for industry delegates, and a selection of titles were made available to UK audiences via the Sheffield Doc/Fest Selects streaming platform. The Festival's Q&As, panels and industry sessions all moved to a virtual format, and an Artist Spotlights series launched online to highlight makers and projects selected in the Alternate Realities programme. The Festival's pitching forums,

5088-512: The Film, Alternate Realities, and Industry programmes, and collaborated with local audiences to broaden engagement across the Festival. Amongst its events, the programme included a group walk and discussion on the right to roam and the UK's history of trespass, an art therapy workshop, and also saw the Festival support 12 first-time, local filmmakers with free passes to attend the Festival. The 28th Sheffield DocFest took place between 4–13 June 2021, in

5194-810: The Furnaces , from 1968), directed by Octavio Getino and Fernando Solanas , influenced a whole generation of filmmakers. Among the many political documentaries produced in the early 1970s was "Chile: A Special Report", public television's first in-depth expository look at the September 1973 overthrow of the Salvador Allende government in Chile by military leaders under Augusto Pinochet , produced by documentarians Ari Martinez and José Garcia. A June 2020 article in The New York Times reviewed

5300-528: The MeetMarket and Alternate Realities Talent Market, also took place online. During the Autumn of 2020, when cinemas temporarily reopened following lockdown, the Festival hosted a number of weekend screenings and Q&As to bring films from the official selection to audiences in Sheffield. Documentary A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining

5406-505: The MeetMarket in 2019, won the First Feature Competition award. Award-winning filmmaker Asif Kapadia was welcomed as Guest Curator for 2022, and curated a selection of films for the programme which had had significant impact on his journey as a filmmaker. Kapadia also spearheaded a talent initiative which challenged six filmmakers to make a short documentary in and around Sheffield, during the festival. The initiative

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5512-574: The North , Flaherty did not allow his subjects to shoot a walrus with a nearby shotgun, but had them use a harpoon instead. Some of Flaherty's staging, such as building a roofless igloo for interior shots, was done to accommodate the filming technology of the time. Paramount Pictures tried to repeat the success of Flaherty's Nanook and Moana with two romanticized documentaries, Grass (1925) and Chang (1927), both directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack . The " city symphony " sub film genre consisted of avant-garde films during

5618-680: The North American " direct cinema " (or more accurately " cinéma direct "), pioneered by, among others, Canadians Michel Brault , Pierre Perrault and Allan King , and Americans Robert Drew , Richard Leacock , Frederick Wiseman and Albert and David Maysles . The directors of the movement take different viewpoints on their degree of involvement with their subjects. Kopple and Pennebaker, for instance, choose non-involvement (or at least no overt involvement), and Perrault, Rouch, Koenig, and Kroitor favor direct involvement or even provocation when they deem it necessary. The films Chronicle of

5724-465: The Penguins , and An Inconvenient Truth among the most prominent examples. Compared to dramatic narrative films, documentaries typically have far lower budgets which makes them attractive to film companies because even a limited theatrical release can be highly profitable. The nature of documentary films has expanded in the past 30 years from the cinéma vérité style introduced in the 1960s in which

5830-581: The Romanian professor Gheorghe Marinescu made several science films in his neurology clinic in Bucharest : Walking Troubles of Organic Hemiplegy (1898), The Walking Troubles of Organic Paraplegies (1899), A Case of Hysteric Hemiplegy Healed Through Hypnosis (1899), The Walking Troubles of Progressive Locomotion Ataxy (1900), and Illnesses of the Muscles (1901). All these short films have been preserved. The professor called his works "studies with

5936-953: The Sea to the Land Beyond in 2012 and The Big Melt in 2013. From 2014, the Festival became recognised by the Academy Awards as an Oscar-qualifying festival in the Best Documentary (Short Subject) category with the DocFest Short Doc Award Winner eligible to enter for consideration. Many DocFest Short Doc Award-winning films have gone on to be shortlisted for Oscars. In 2014, DocFest presented films including Beyond Clueless and Love Is All at Latitude Festival , with Sigur Ros scored archive film The Show of Shows: 100 Years of Vaudeville, Circuses and Carnivals , Montage of Heck , Sounds of

6042-565: The UK's biggest documentary festival and the third largest in the world. Public service broadcaster BBC have described it as "one of the leading showcases of documentary films". Over the years, the festival has been held at more than 20 other venues across Sheffield and the surrounding area, including the Light Cinema , Sheffield Town Hall , Sheffield City Hall , and the DocFest Exchange on Tudor Square , developed with

6148-424: The UK's largest festival about Sanctuary and refugees, to bring free mobile broadband and online festival passes to refugees and those seeking asylum in Sheffield. The Community Programme offered free or discounted tickets to those who needed support to attend and from low-income background, in an effort to tackle social isolation. The 27th Sheffield DocFest was due to take place between 4–9 June 2020. However, due to

6254-592: The World Premiere of The Story of Looking by Mark Cousins which had previously pitched at the MeetMarket. The programme, led by Gil, included: 191 films from 2431 submissions, 49 world premieres, 20 international premieres, 10 European premieres, and 45 UK premieres across 64 countries with 47 languages represented. The film programme included a guest curated retrospective on Black British Cinema which saw curatorial contributions from Mark Sealy , We Are Parable, Campbell X (dir. Stud Life), Judah Attille, Karen Alexander and George Amponsah . The film programme also welcomed

6360-485: The advantage of documentaries lies in introducing new perspectives which may not be prevalent in traditional media such as written publications and school curricula. Documentary practice is the complex process of creating documentary projects. It refers to what people do with media devices, content, form, and production strategies to address the creative, ethical, and conceptual problems and choices that arise as they make documentaries. Documentary filmmaking can be used as

6466-407: The benefits as: Debate concerning international co-productions centres on the potential for productions to have little cultural specificity in any of its home countries. Internationalisation brings tensions in terms of cost, benefit and opportunity. In Australia , for example, O'Regan and Ward have argued that an influx of international productions to Queensland's Gold Coast in the 1990s presented

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6572-481: The box office results of the film, however the government could interfere with production if they chose to The first European nations to sign a film co-production agreement were France and Italy in 1949. Between 1949 and 1964 711 films were co-produced between the two nations. Due to the expense of filmmaking, many films made outside the United States are international co-productions. For example, Amélie

6678-474: The camera). The American film critic Pare Lorentz defines a documentary film as "a factual film which is dramatic." Others further state that a documentary stands out from the other types of non-fiction films for providing an opinion, and a specific message, along with the facts it presents. Scholar Betsy McLane asserted that documentaries are for filmmakers to convey their views about historical events, people, and places which they find significant. Therefore,

6784-498: The creation of a Film Archive to collect and keep safe visual materials. The word "documentary" was coined by Scottish documentary filmmaker John Grierson in his review of Robert Flaherty 's film Moana (1926), published in the New York Sun on 8 February 1926, written by "The Moviegoer" (a pen name for Grierson). Grierson's principles of documentary were that cinema's potential for observing life could be exploited in

6890-494: The curation of the 2020 Festival which was due to take place in June of that year, but was cancelled in its original form due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the film programme moved to online screenings with the Festival's pitching forums, the MeetMarket and Alternate Realities Talent Market, also taking place online. The Festival also committed to hosting a series of Autumn film screenings and community engagement activities in Sheffield, when cinemas reopened in late 2020. In 2020,

6996-480: The delivery of the 25th anniversary Festival, Liz McIntyre stepped down as CEO & Festival Director. Deputy Director Melanie Iredale stepped up as Interim Director to lead the 2019 edition, whilst the organisation began the search for a new director. Following the 2019 edition, Director of Film Programming Luke Moody resigned, challenging tensions between the board and the programme's internationalism in comments made to BFI's Sight & Sound magazine. In 2019, it

7102-429: The development of "reality television" that occasionally verges on the documentary but more often veers to the fictional or staged. The "making-of" documentary shows how a movie or a computer game was produced. Usually made for promotional purposes, it is closer to an advertisement than a classic documentary. Modern lightweight digital video cameras and computer-based editing have greatly aided documentary makers, as has

7208-581: The digital-focused Summit and Crossover Market, now Alternate Realities Talent Market, which – like the MeetMarket – pairs buyers and commissioners with game designers, technologists , producers, digital agencies and filmmakers, all looking to tell stories in the interactive realm. In 2007, Hussain Currimbhoy joined as programmer. DocFest was an early advocate of crowdfunding as a source of finance for documentary filmmakers, and in 2010 staged its first festival-based crowdfunding pitching event, which

7314-407: The director. The commercial success of these documentaries may derive from this narrative shift in the documentary form, leading some critics to question whether such films can truly be called documentaries; critics sometimes refer to these works as " mondo films " or "docu-ganda." However, directorial manipulation of documentary subjects has been noted since the work of Flaherty, and may be endemic to

7420-452: The dramatic drop in equipment prices. The first film to take full advantage of this change was Martin Kunert and Eric Manes ' Voices of Iraq , where 150 DV cameras were sent to Iraq during the war and passed out to Iraqis to record themselves. Films in the documentary form without words have been made. Listen to Britain , directed by Humphrey Jennings and Stuart McAllister in 1942, is

7526-536: The early part of the 20th century. They were often referred to by distributors as "scenics". Scenics were among the most popular sort of films at the time. An important early film which moved beyond the concept of the scenic was In the Land of the Head Hunters (1914), which embraced primitivism and exoticism in a staged story presented as truthful re-enactments of the life of Native Americans . Contemplation

7632-527: The entirety of a famous 1897 prize-fight on cinema screens across the United States. In May 1896, Bolesław Matuszewski recorded on film a few surgical operations in Warsaw and Saint Petersburg hospitals. In 1898, French surgeon Eugène-Louis Doyen invited Matuszewski and Clément Maurice to record his surgical operations. They started in Paris a series of surgical films sometime before July 1898. Until 1906,

7738-520: The films was so vital that they were often given co-director credits. Famous cinéma vérité/direct cinema films include Les Raquetteurs , Showman , Salesman , Near Death , and The Children Were Watching . In the 1960s and 1970s, documentary film was often regarded as a political weapon against neocolonialism and capitalism in general, especially in Latin America, but also in a changing society. La Hora de los hornos ( The Hour of

7844-643: The first predominantly in-person edition since the pandemic, and saw industry delegates taking meetings and participating in pitching sessions in-person for the first time since 2019. The Festival attracted 25,424 in-person admissions and 4,899 online admissions, and welcomed 2,188 delegates from 69 countries. The Festival opened with the UK premiere of Moonage Daydream by Brett Morgan at Sheffield's City Hall , where Ziggy Stardust performed 50 years prior. The programme included 135 films from 55 countries, 38 world premieres, 22 international premieres, 11 European premieres and 46 UK premieres. 29 projects were exhibited in

7950-533: The form due to problematic ontological foundations. Documentary filmmakers are increasingly using social impact campaigns with their films. Social impact campaigns seek to leverage media projects by converting public awareness of social issues and causes into engagement and action, largely by offering the audience a way to get involved. Examples of such documentaries include Kony 2012 , Salam Neighbor , Gasland , Living on One Dollar , and Girl Rising . Although documentaries are financially more viable with

8056-544: The form of foreign exchange out of European countries. As a result, several film companies started studios and production companies in nations such as the United Kingdom and Italy to use their "frozen funds". To use these profits in England, film companies would set up production companies using the required amount of British film technicians and actors to qualify as British Productions in order to take advantage of

8162-584: The former Iron Curtain offered producers lucrative deals. In exchange for a share of the profits or an outright payment the host country would pick up most of the local charges; with the film often credited as a co-production. In many cases, co-productions are a response to the challenges of internationalisation by countries with small production sectors, as they seek to maintain a viable production industry and produce culturally-specific content for national audiences. However, these dual goals also produce tensions within national film and television sectors. Although

8268-400: The great pulse of humanity as it flocks and swarms in daily activity and religious ceremonies. Bodysong was made in 2003 and won a British Independent Film Award for "Best British Documentary." International co-production Co-production also refers to the way services are produced by their users, in some parts or entirely. The journalist Mark Lawson identifies the first use of

8374-694: The help of the cinematograph," and published the results, along with several consecutive frames, in issues of La Semaine Médicale magazine from Paris, between 1899 and 1902. In 1924, Auguste Lumière recognized the merits of Marinescu's science films: "I've seen your scientific reports about the usage of the cinematograph in studies of nervous illnesses, when I was still receiving La Semaine Médicale , but back then I had other concerns, which left me no spare time to begin biological studies. I must say I forgot those works and I am thankful to you that you reminded them to me. Unfortunately, not many scientists have followed your way." Travelogue films were very popular in

8480-428: The human eye, and created a film philosophy from it. The newsreel tradition is important in documentary film. Newsreels at this time were sometimes staged but were usually re-enactments of events that had already happened, not attempts to steer events as they were in the process of happening. For instance, much of the battle footage from the early 20th century was staged; the cameramen would usually arrive on site after

8586-480: The idea of creating a forum for British documentary filmmakers to debate and discuss their craft. In 1993, he set up a festival board which included representatives from Channel 4 , United Artists , Discovery Channel , Central Independent Television and Granada Television . They chose to hold the festival in Sheffield , an English industrial town which was just beginning to develop a media and cultural sector. The first Sheffield International Documentary Festival

8692-471: The increasing popularity of the genre and the advent of the DVD, funding for documentary film production remains elusive. Within the past decade, the largest exhibition opportunities have emerged from within the broadcast market, making filmmakers beholden to the tastes and influences of the broadcasters who have become their largest funding source. Modern documentaries have some overlap with television forms, with

8798-631: The industry, and the From Door to Doc scheme, affording reduced rate entry to screenings for hard-to-reach areas of Sheffield . In 2016, there were high-level staff appointments. Luke Moody, formerly of BRITDOC (now Doc Society) joined as Director of Film Programming, replacing Head of Programming & Industry Engagement Claire Aguilar. Former Dogwoof Distribution Manager Patrick Hurley joined as Head of Marketplace & Talent, replacing Marketplace Manager Anna Parker. From BBC , Dan Tucker joined as Curator of Alternate Realities. In 2018, following

8904-754: The key attraction of a treaty co-production is that it qualifies as a national production in each of the partner nations and can access benefits that are available to the local film and television industry in each country. Benefits may include government financial assistance, tax concessions and inclusion in domestic television broadcast quotas. International co-productions also occur outside the framework of official co-productions, for example with countries that do not have an agreement in place, or projects that do not satisfy official co-production criteria. Dialogue director Mickey Knox recalled that in order to bring in American dollars and British pounds many countries behind

9010-665: The landmark 14-hour Eyes on the Prize : America's Civil Rights Years (1986 – Part 1 and 1989 – Part 2) by Henry Hampton, 4 Little Girls (1997) by Spike Lee , The Civil War by Ken Burns , and UNESCO-awarded independent film on slavery 500 Years Later , express not only a distinctive voice but also a perspective and point of views. Some films such as The Thin Blue Line by Errol Morris incorporate stylized re-enactments, and Michael Moore 's Roger & Me place far more interpretive control with

9116-513: The political documentary And She Could Be Next , directed by Grace Lee and Marjan Safinia. The Times described the documentary not only as focusing on women in politics, but more specifically on women of color, their communities, and the significant changes they have wrought upon America. Box office analysts have noted that the documentary film genre has become increasingly successful in theatrical release with films such as Fahrenheit 9/11 , Super Size Me , Food, Inc. , Earth , March of

9222-576: The position. Director of Programming, Hussain Currimbhoy, left for Sundance Film Festival , with former Executive Content Adviser at Independent Television Service (ITVS) Claire Aguilar becoming Head of Programming & Industry Engagement. Croall returned to Australia to become the Artistic Director and CEO of the Adelaide Fringe . Following Heather's departure, Crossover Labs Director Mark Atkin stepped in as acting director for

9328-530: The style include following a person during a crisis with a moving, often handheld, camera to capture more personal reactions. There are no sit-down interviews, and the shooting ratio (the amount of film shot to the finished product) is very high, often reaching 80 to one. From there, editors find and sculpt the work into a film. The editors of the movement – such as Werner Nold , Charlotte Zwerin , Muffie Meyer , Susan Froemke , and Ellen Hovde  – are often overlooked, but their input to

9434-528: The success of the 2022 talent initiative led by Asif Kapadia , the Festival welcomed filmmaker Kevin Macdonald as mentor for the Filmmaker Challenge 2023. The initiative challenged six early-career filmmakers to make a documentary in one day, drawing from the Festival's tagline for the 30th edition 'Sparking Curiosity'. The 29th Sheffield DocFest took place between 23–28 June 2022, and was

9540-508: The tax break by working outside the US for the same period. International film co-production was very common in the 50s, 60s and 70s between Italian, Spanish and French production companies, as exemplified by most of the Spaghetti-western and sword and sandal movies being Spanish-Italian co-productions, typically directed by an Italian, played fifty-fifty by Spanish and Italian actors and shot in southern Spain landscapes. Due to

9646-512: The term "international co-production" is used to highlight the fact that these US companies have worked with foreign companies as a way to address specific needs. Baltruschat introduces the concepts, "official" and "non-official" co-productions which can be distinguished by whether or not there is a formal inter-government agreement. As a response to internationalisation, co-production offers both benefits and drawbacks. A 1996 survey of Canadian international and domestic joint ventures identified

9752-708: The term, in the context of radio production, in 1941, although the programme to which he refers, Children Calling Home , "Presented in collaboration between the CBC of Canada, NBC of the U.S.A., and the BBC, and broadcast simultaneously in all three countries", was first broadcast in December 1940. Following the Second World War, US film companies were forbidden by the Marshall Plan to take their film profits in

9858-765: The time, Steve Hewlett , visited the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) where he met its director Heather Croall , who had a background in filmmaking and had founded the cross-platform storytelling event DigiDocs. He invited Croall to come and work for the festival, where she was subsequently Festival Director and CEO until early 2015, turning around the Festival's fortunes. The 1990s rise in international co-productions meant that British producers could no longer rely solely on one big broadcaster for their entire budget, and instead had to look abroad to piece together financing for their films. To internationalise

9964-432: The use of portable camera and sound equipment allowed an intimate relationship between filmmaker and subject. The line blurs between documentary and narrative and some works are very personal, such as Marlon Riggs 's Tongues Untied (1989) and Black Is...Black Ain't (1995), which mix expressive, poetic, and rhetorical elements and stresses subjectivities rather than historical materials. Historical documentaries, such as

10070-564: The weeks before the 2023 Festival, in which the organisation celebrated its 30th edition, Zambrano was promoted to the permanent role of Creative Director "following a successful year as Acting Creative Director". The 30th Sheffield DocFest took place between 14–19 June 2023. The Film programme comprised 122 films (86 features and 36 shorts), including 38 World Premieres, 19 International Premieres, 10 European Premieres, 47 UK Premieres and 8 retrospective films, from 52 countries of production with 43 languages represented. 15 projects were exhibited in

10176-407: The worldwide popularity of Hollywood stars they would be used to guarantee a respectable audience around the world as well as the United States. The relatively low production costs and high box office return of these films often led to direct Hollywood investment to the non-US studios and producers such as Dino DeLaurentis . An example of such pan-European co-productions was Treasure Island (1972),

10282-494: The year of his last film, Doyen recorded more than 60 operations. Doyen said that his first films taught him how to correct professional errors he had been unaware of. For scientific purposes, after 1906, Doyen combined 15 of his films into three compilations, two of which survive, the six-film series Extirpation des tumeurs encapsulées (1906), and the four-film Les Opérations sur la cavité crânienne (1911). These and five other of Doyen's films survive. Between July 1898 and 1901,

10388-687: Was a newsreel series in the United States, commissioned by the government to convince the U.S. public that it was time to go to war. Constance Bennett and her husband Henri de la Falaise produced two feature-length documentaries, Legong: Dance of the Virgins (1935) filmed in Bali , and Kilou the Killer Tiger (1936) filmed in Indochina . In Canada, the Film Board , set up by John Grierson,

10494-611: Was also an industry first. The campaign was launched on Indiegogo with a goal to raise $ 25k for the Festival to help stage special events. They exceeded their target. In 2011, the Festival moved from November to June, to better fit into the industry calendar and ensure better weather and lighter evenings for visitors. From 2012, selected highlights from the Festival have often played at the BFI Southbank in London. The Festival began producing its own film projects, including From

10600-479: Was among those who identified the mode of documentary film. He wrote two of the earliest texts on cinema, Une nouvelle source de l'histoire ("A New Source of History") and La photographie animée ("Animated photography"). Both were published in 1898 in French and were among the earliest written works to consider the historical and documentary value of the film. Matuszewski is also among the first filmmakers to propose

10706-469: Was announced that the organisation had successfully applied for charitable status. After 26 years operating as a subsidiary of Sheffield Media & Exhibition Centre (SMEC), the organisation became an independent registered charity. At the same time, it was announced that Chair of the Board of Trustees, Alex Graham, would step down following more than nine years of service and that former co-director of Portuguese film festival DocLisboa , Cíntia Gil, would join

10812-418: Was announced that, following two years as Festival Director, Cíntia Gil had stepped down. Director of Partnerships Sylvia Bednarz acted as Interim Managing Director as the Festival moved towards planning for the 2022 edition. Later in 2021 the Festival appointed Clare Stewart, former director of Sydney Film Festival (2007–2011) and BFI London Film Festival (2012–2018), as Interim CEO. Stewart joined to steer

10918-556: Was held in 1994, formatted as an international film festival and conference for documentary professionals. It included a film programme, one or two masterclasses, and a party. It lasted two days and mainly attracted London-based filmmakers and producers, plus several international commissioners and distributors. Over the next eight years, the festival continued, with around 475 to 700 delegates attending, and total audiences reaching around 2000. The Festival became an opportunity for London-based independent filmmakers to talk to commissioners at

11024-565: Was postponed due to the Russian invasion on Ukraine, a Docudays UA curated screening and talk, a delegation of 24 visiting Ukrainian-filmmakers supported by British Council , amongst film events. Notable guests featured in the Talks & Sessions programme included: Pratibha Parmar , Asif Kapadia and editor Chris King, Nainta Desai , Charlie Craggs , Ellie Simmonds , Will Young and Clive Myrie . The Community Programme made links across

11130-610: Was set up for the same propaganda reasons. It also created newsreels that were seen by their national governments as legitimate counter-propaganda to the psychological warfare of Nazi Germany orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels . In Britain, a number of different filmmakers came together under John Grierson. They became known as the Documentary Film Movement . Grierson, Alberto Cavalcanti , Harry Watt , Basil Wright , and Humphrey Jennings amongst others succeeded in blending propaganda, information, and education with

11236-493: Was supported by Amazon Studios, Canon and The Kurious. As part of its Special Programmes section, the 2022 Festival celebrated the work of Ukrainian documentary makers and kicked off the British Council and Ukrainian Institute's UK/Ukraine Season of Culture. The programme Ukraine focus: 'Password: Palianytsia' included a selection of films by Ukrainian filmmakers that were due to screen at Docudays UA festival, which

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