Sheffield Doc/Fest is delighted to welcome close friends and long-term collaborators, acclaimed, award-winning writer and filmmaker Shane Meadows and producer and CEO Mark Herbert of award-winning Sheffield-based indie Warp Films (Dead Man’s Shoes (2004, This is England (2006 to 2015), and music documentary The Stone Roses: Made of Stone (2013)), for an informal conversation at the Doc/Fest Exchange on Tudor Square.
Sheffield Doc/Fest is thrilled to welcome world-renowned naturalist Sir David Attenborough to the Festival for the first time to discuss his long and celebrated career, and talk about the future of television and media.
Sheffield Doc/Fest in June is the place to be for anyone interested in where tech is taking the story. A focus on Artificial Intelligence and virtual reality at the Alternate Realities Summit on Sunday 12 June includes the world’s most social android Bina48, the brand new human archiving project, New Dimensions in Technology from USC Shoah Foundation, plus the Summit audience will be the first in the world to view the latest United Nations VR Film via a synchronised viewing on the Festival’s own custom cardboard viewers. A wealth of interactive and VR projects to excite early adopters will be available to try at two free-of-charge Alternate Realities Exhibitions across three venues: the Interactive Exhibition at the Millennium Gallery - including a prototype of an Augmented Reality documentary - and the UK’s leading Virtual Reality exhibition at Site Gallery, The Space and at Union St café a site-specific installation of Jane Gauntlet’s In My Shoes: Dancing with Myself .
The Alternate Realities: Interactive Exhibition with support from Arts Council England will showcase 14 interactive projects to play, touch and experience.
Co-curated with Site Gallery and with support from Arts Council England, experience twelve virtual reality projects in a space where art and interactivity rub shoulders.
Sheffield Doc/Fest is delighted to announce the addition of a further three names to the already stellar line-up for the 2016 festival, announced on 5 May. Rapper turned filmmaker Stephen Manderson, aka Professor Green, will appear at the Crucible talking about his deeply personal and revealing documentaries; New Orleans daycare worker turned YouTube phenomenon Samantha Montgomery, aka Princess Shaw, will perform a selection of her songs following the first screening of Presenting Princess Shaw and Adam Pearson, award-winning actor, presenter and campaigner will join the panel: A Reasonably Adjusted Debate: Disability On and Off Screen.
The Sheffield Doc/Fest industry line-up is revealed today, with Liz McIntyre, CEO & Festival Director announcing a dynamic and inspiring 23rd edition – showcasing a Film programme of the very best UK and international documentaries; a world-leading Alternate Realities programme of interactive media, virtual reality exhibitions and talks – this year, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence (including a keynote from an android); and a compelling and essential Talks & Sessions programme presented in association with Documentary Campus.
The Sheffield Doc/Fest Marketplace, managed by Anna Parker and executive produced by Karolina Lidin is the major funding, sales and distribution platform designed to unlock UK and international market opportunities, and facilitate creative collaborations, which last year unlocked £12.1m deals across the whole market, today confirms 64 documentary film project teams have been selected to pitch at the flagship MeetMarket, while 25 project teams are selected to pitch at the Alternate Realities Market. A total of 30 countries (an increase of 50% from last year) including Iran, Indonesia, Lithuania, Jordan and Mexico, will be represented across both markets, which will take place on 13 and 14 June at the new Marketplace venue, the Grade II listed Cutlers’ Hall in Sheffield.
Sheffield Doc/Fest today announces a line-up of original thinkers and sharp minded innovators, plus in Alternate Realities a major focus on artificial intelligence and related technologies: iconic polymath Tilda Swinton with co-director Bartek Dziadosz will close the festival with their affectionate and inspiring study of John Berger, The Seasons in Quincy; the individualistic snooker player Ronnie O’Sullivan will return to the Crucible Theatre - not to play 35 frames - but to reveal his love of documentaries and how they inspire his world class game; festival audiences at the Alternate Realities Summit and Exhibition will be the first in Europe to converse with a filmed, life-size image of a survivor of the Holocaust using natural language processing - New Dimensions in Testimony - developed by USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Education. This groundbreaking technology will enable future generations to have a realistic interaction with someone of historical significance, enabling them to build and enhance their understanding of past events. And lastly audiences can join Lord David Puttnam, who is currently chairing ‘A Future for Public Service Television Inquiry, to debate the future of the BBC and Channel 4.
Michael Moore, Joanna Lumley and the acclaimed and innovative feature film and immersive experience Notes on Blindness, based on the audio diaries of John Hull, will take centre stage at this year’s festival, Sheffield Doc/Fest announced today, with tickets on sale to general public from 18 March.
Sheffield Doc/Fest’s Alternate Realities strand – a leading forum curated by Mark Atkin for interactive and virtual reality projects that show how technology is changing the way that people tell stories – today announces two important initiatives designed to engage and attract diverse and emerging artists working in this groundbreaking field.
The Working with Archive programme, supported by Creative Skillset, offers a guided route through Sheffield Doc/Fest, for those working in and with archive.
Two of Sheffield Doc/Fest’s flagship Marketplace opportunities, MeetMarket and the newly named Alternate Realities Market (formerly Crossover Market), open for submissions on Tuesday January 5 2016 at 12.00 noon until Wednesday March 16 2016 at 17.00hrs.
Film agency Just So, in association with the Sheffield Doc/Fest, is launching a new online platform ‘Postcards’ and the Just So Film Fund to support the next generation of filmmakers and champion creativity and experimentation within short form documentary.
The Sheffield Doc/Fest Youth Jury, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2016, is now open to anyone aged 18-22 living in the UK who is passionate about documentary film and wants to be part of next year’s Sheffield Doc/Fest, which takes place from 10-15 June. Applications are open until Friday 15 January 2016.
Recently appointed Sheffield Doc/Fest CEO & Director Elizabeth McIntyre today announces opportunities for local, diverse, emerging talent to build their film or television careers, plus reveals the new look logo created by Sheffield-based design agency Peter & Paul, who were appointed following a nationwide tender process. This appointment builds on the significant contribution Doc/Fest makes to the local economy: in June 2015, for every £1 raised locally £3.45 was invested back into the local economy plus delegates spent almost £981,000 in Sheffield.
Sheffield Doc/Fest CEO & Director Elizabeth McIntyre, in post since September, today reveals the rebranded logo and announces new initiatives designed to increase accessibility, promote new on-screen factual talent, and foster cross-fertilisation of ideas and projects across the documentary, factual, virtual reality and interactive worlds.
What's the most amazing place you've ever taken your Doc/Fest bag? Where's the furthest you've travelled in your Doc/Fest hoodie? We want to see your amazing Doc/Bag and Doc/Hoodie pictures!
