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Sheffield DocFest · 2012

Sheffield DocFest 2012

Behind The Beats

Look forward to five days of sex and docs and rock n' roll with this behind the scenes look at your music idols.

Programme

14 films · 4 reviews

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All Hail The Beat

Marvin Gaye used it to craft Sexual Healing. Its affordability turned a generation of kids around the world into pioneering musicians, and the genres of house, techno and electro wouldn’t exist without it. Yet most of the producers who use its sound have never seen the Roland TR-808 drum machine...

(Country: United States; Year: 2012; Director: Nelson George)

Buena Vista Social Club

Review preview for Buena Vista Social Club

The character of the players, the vibrant energy of the music, the faded grandeur of a city spared the vanity of restoration gives the film a unique quality.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 4.5 out of 5
Documentary about the Cuban stars who went on to become an international phenomenon.

(Country: Cuba; Year: 1999; Director: Wim Wenders; Stars: Luis Barzaga, Joachim Cooder, Ry Cooder, Julio Alberto Fernndez, Ibrahim Ferrer, Carlos Gonzlez, Rubn Gonzlez, Eliades Ochoa, Omara Portuondo, Compay Segundo)

Full review

Chopin Saved My Life

Paul, whose memory it restored after brain surgery, and Momoka, who used it to inspire his community after their town was destroyed by the Japanese tsunami of March 2011, celebrate Chopin’s Ballade Number One.

(Country: UK; Year: 2012; Director: James Kent)

From the Sea To The Land Beyond

Documentary about Britain's coastline.

(Country: UK; Year: 2012; Director: Penny Woolcock)

Glastopia

A spiritual Utopian vision on the fields of Shangri La, Arcadia, the Unfair Ground, Strummerville, Block 9 and the Common, at Glastonbury.

(Country: UK; Year: 2012; Director: Julien Temple)

Grandma Lo-Fi: The Basement Tapes Of Sigríður Níelsdóttir (Amma Lo-fi, Grandma Lo-Fi: The Basement Tapes Of Sigrídur Níelsdóttir)

Review preview for Grandma Lo-Fi: The Basement Tapes Of Sigríður Níelsdóttir

Sigríður is the kind of spontaneous interviewee documentarians dream of.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
The true story of the elderly woman who, by chance, started making experimental music with ordinary household objects, and became a cult star.

(Country: Denmark, Iceland; Year: 2011; Director: Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir, Orri Jónsson, Kristin Björk Kristjánsdóttir; Stars: Sigrídur Níelsdóttir) , Official site

Full review

Heima

Review preview for Heima

There have been bands-on-tour films before, but nothing can compare to the unbearable beauty of Heima.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 5 out of 5
The most original and successful Icelandic band travels the country giving free concerts.

(Country: Iceland; Year: 2007; Director: Dean DeBlois; Stars: Sigur Ros) , Official site

Full review

Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet

The story of the brilliant rock guitarist who didn't let his increasing immobilisation by motor neurone disease stop him from writing songs, entertaining his fans, or seducing beautiful women.

(Country: UK, United States; Year: 2012; Director: Jesse Vile; Stars: Jason Becker)

The Last Waltz

A film account and presentation of the final concert of The Band.

(Year: 1978; Director: Martin Scorsese; Writer: Mardik Martin; Stars: The Band, Rick Danko, Robbie Robertson, Richard Manuel, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, Ringo Starr, Paul Butterfield, Dr. John) , Official site

Lost & Sound

The interwoven stories of a music reviewer, a cellist and pianist, and a dancer who have all had to find new ways of experiencing the music they love after becoming deaf.

(Country: UK; Year: 2012; Director: Lindsey Dryden)

The Miners' Hymns

Experimental tribute to a long-gone era of UK working-class life.

(Country: UK; Year: 2010; Director: Bill Morrison; Writer: Bill Morrison)

The Punk Syndrome (Kovasikajuttu)

A documentary charting the rise to fame of a Finnish punk group whose members all have learning difficulties.

(Country: Finland; Year: 2012; Director: Jukka Kärkkäinen, JP Passi)

Quadrophenia: Can You See the Real Me?

The making of the rock opera Quadrophenia.

(Country: UK; Year: 2012; Director: Matt O'Casey; Stars: Pete Townsend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, Keith Moon)

Searching For Sugar Man (Searching For Sugarman)

Review preview for Searching For Sugar Man

A delightful experience for musos and the uninitiated alike, Searching For Sugar Man deserves to reach as wide an audience as its underdog hero eventually did himself.

David Graham · 4 out of 5
The true story of a brilliant yet forgotten musician and the revolutionaries he inspired on another continent.

(Country: Sweden, UK, Finland; Year: 2012; Director: Malik Bendjelloul; Writer: Malik Bendjelloul, Stephen 'Sugar' Segerman, Craig Bartholomew Strydom; Stars: Sixto Rodriguez)

Full review