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Sheffield DocFest · 2012

Sheffield DocFest 2012

Howard Street Screen

An assortment of great documentaries from past and present, all available for free!

Programme

21 films · 7 reviews

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An Inconvenient Truth (A Matter Of Degrees)

Review preview for An Inconvenient Truth

If [Al Gore] was a school-teacher, no-one would have ever skipped class.

Chris · 5 out of 5
Al Gore investigates global warming.

(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Davis Guggenheim; Stars: Al Gore)

Full review

Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey

Review preview for Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey

You'd have to be a real Grouch not to enjoy it.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Documentary about the man behind the Muppet.

(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Constance Marks; Stars: Fran Brill, Joan Ganz Cooney, Whoopi Goldberg, Rosie O'Donnell) , Official site

Full review

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

Cave Of Forgotten Dreams (Caves of Forgotten Dreams)

Review preview for Cave Of Forgotten Dreams

If there is anybody who can provide insight into the lives of those long-vanished it must be Herzog.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
An exploration of the Chauvet caves in Southern France where the oldest known human paintings can be found.

(Year: 2010; Director: Werner Herzog; Writer: Werner Herzog; Stars: Charles Fathy, Werner Herzog)

Full review

Fabalous

In his flat, filled to the ceiling with the artefacts of his life, Michael J. Howells tells us his story. When he’s not caring for his cat or his MS-stricken wife, he returns to his art, determined to keep depression at bay.

(Country: UK; Year: 2012; Director: Ed Emsley)

The Globe Collector

Review preview for The Globe Collector

DeRoche has created a documentary that's both heart-warming and illuminating.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
Meet Andrew and his amazing collection of lamps.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2012; Director: Summer DeRoche; Stars: Andrew Pullen)

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

In The Shadow Of The Moon

Review preview for In The Shadow Of The Moon

One of the best documentaries I’ve seen in a long time.

Jeff Robson · 4 out of 5
The surviving members of the 1968-72 Apollo missions tell the story of the moon landings in their own words.

(Country: UK, US; Year: 2007; Director: David Sington; Stars: Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Eugene Cernan, Michael Collins, Jim Lovell, Edgar D Mitchell, Harrison Schmitt, Dave Scot, John Young) , Official site

Full review See: Sundance Film Festival 2006: Day 10

Jesse Owens

The story of the black Olympic athlete whose prowess humiliated the Nazis but who returned home to a life of opression and exclusion in racially segregated America.

(Country: United States; Year: 2011; Director: Laurens Gant)

Koyaanisqatsi

A movie with no conventional plot: merely a collection of expertly photographed scenes. Subject matter has a highly environmental theme.

(Country: United States; Year: 1982; Director: Godfrey Reggio)

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

The Love Competition

At Stanford University’s first annual love competition, no touching is allowed. It’s all in the mind for the contestants, as they spend five minutes in an MRI machine thinking about their nearest and dearest...and trying to trigger the most neurochemical activity.

(Country: United States; Year: 2012; Director: Brent Hoff)

Maya Deren's Sink

This evocative experimental film pays tribute to Maya Deren, the mother of avant-guard American film. In a kaleidoscope approach, director Barbara Hammer layers many images with recreations of scenes from Deren’s films, projected into the homes where they were originally filmed.

(Year: 2011; Director: Barbara Hammer)

MES

Cath Gamester has quite a story to tell. When her GP puts her on anti-depressants, she soon finds her waking hours accompanied by a surreal musical choir, as she recounts in this delightful short documentary made by her grandson, Ian.

(Country: UK; Year: 2011; Director: Ian Gamester)

Naqoyqatsi

A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.

(Country: United States; Year: 2002; Director: Godfrey Reggio)

One Breath - The Story of William Trubridge

It looks simple: you hold your breath and go as deep into the water as you can. But as William Trubridge has learned, triumphing in the dangerous world of free diving is all about mind over matter.

(Country: United States; Year: 2012; Director: Nicolas Rossier)

Paint the Way

A Saudi artist haunts the streets of her once beautiful neighbourhood in Jeddah – where the collapsed, neglected buildings give little testimony to those who once lived there. Spraying her graffiti and then quickly running away, she watches reactions from afar.

(Country: UK; Year: 2012; Director: Josh Bamford, Sebastian Feehan)

A Place We Call Home (Naslaitynas)

It’s a dog’s life, in the biggest no-kill animal shelter in Lithuania – an old abandoned house in the centre of Vilnius. Like a nursery school, the daily routines of meals, play and rest are familiar to the dogs, who are all dependent on the loving care of their human volunteers.

(Country: Lithuania, Estonia; Year: 2012; Director: Albina Griniute)

This Life That Chose Me

Bea, Carol and Jenny grew up as men, but experienced from early on the certainty that they were trapped in the wrong body. Each tells about her transformational journey from an unhappy male to the middle-aged woman we see today.

(Country: UK; Year: 2011; Director: Chloe White)

Tripoli Stories | Graffiti

“In every spray of the can you feel a part of your emotion is released from inside of you, to the wall to the people.”  After the Revolution, long suppressed feelings are appearing on building walls in Tripoli.

(Country: UK, Libya; Year: 2012; Director: Anas El Gomati, Ibrahim El Mayet)

Where Is My Mind

A letter through his postbox informs 42-year-old Lee Gilliland that he has been classed as “lacking mental capacity” and will lose most of his rights, including the right to decide where he lives. Lee is determined not to go without a fight, and barricades himself inside his home.

(Country: UK; Year: 2012; Director: Martin Ginestie)