Skip to main content

Sheffield DocFest · 2012

Sheffield DocFest 2012

Shorts

Find out for yourself if it's true what they say - that the best documentaries come in small packages.

Programme

27 films · 2 reviews

Jump to a film

Ala-Too

We are on the central square of Bishkek, the capital of the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, with its soldiers keeping watch, its street sellers and its families out on the town - a scene of daily life in a country that is only twenty years old. From time to time, the square witnesses revolutions. Nearly two years ago, dozens of demonstrators and passers-by were killed, in the hope of a better life.

(Country: Kyrgyzstan; Year: 2012; Director: Chingiz Narynov)

Ali - The Student Revolutionary

Ali was a student in Manchester when a nationwide rebellion broke out in his native Libya. He headed back home to take up the fight – and soon found himself holding a gun for the first time, determined to do his part to end 42 years of misery for his people.

(Country: UK; Year: 2011; Director: Fil Kaler)

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)

Blames & Flames (Falgoosh)

The history of the Iranian revolution as the history of cinema.

(Country: Iran; Year: 2011; Director: Mohammadreza Farzad)

Burmese Butterfly

A young transgender women talks about the flowering of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in her country.

(Country: Myanmar, Germany; Year: 2011; Director: Hnin Ei Hlaing; Stars: Phyo Lay)

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

The Honor Code (The Honour Code)

Review preview for The Honor Code

Argues that what is needed is not a change in the law but a change in the way of thinking.

Val Kermode · 3 out of 5
An animated exploration of the tradition of honour killing, asking how it might be brought to an end.

(Country: United States; Year: 2012; Director: Katy Chevigny)

Full review

If It Weren't For You (Als ik jou niet had)

In their old rusty campervan, a couple from Amsterdam seek warmth and comfort, away from the pain and sorrow that marks their home.

(Country: Netherlands; Year: 2011; Director: Anne-Marieke Graafmans)

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)

Mostar

The most fought over city in the Bosnian war, Mostar remains home to Nedzad Kasumovic. He was a shopkeeper with a young family when the conflict began; twenty years on he looks back on the war that was fought on his doorstep.

(Country: UK; Year: 2011; Director: Josh Bamford, Sebastian Feehan)

My Neighbourhood

“My father built that house and an Israeli judge came and closed it.” Angry young Mohommed lost his innocence when his family’s home was violently taken over by Israeli settlers. But support for their plight comes from an unlikely corner: Israelis, horrified at what is being done in their name.

(Country: Israel, Palestine, United States; Year: 2012; Director: Julia Bacha, Rebekah Wingert-Jabi)

No Regrets

Voluntarily signing up for the armed forces seemed like a good idea at the time to Max Woods. Now back from Afghanistan, having seen a lot at a young age that he really shouldn’t have, he and his friends tell us how the experience has impacted everyone’s lives.

(Country: UK; Year: 2012; Director: Jim Smith)

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)

Paradise

Every day they take their lives in their hands in the Windy City – by cleaning the windows of Chicago’s skyscrapers. As they go about their jobs, invisible to the middle class workers on the inside, three Mexican window cleaners reveal their thoughts about life and death.

(Country: United States; Year: 2012; Director: Nadav Kurtz)

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)

Saloon

This beautiful short doc pays tribute to the mecca of male pampering that is the Indian barbershop. Beyond the windows of the saloon, male barbers work their magic on their customers, in very public displays of grooming and preening.

(Country: UK; Year: 2011; Director: Tom Pietrasik)

Sassie's Gran

Once she got over the shock, Belfast native Jean wasn’t too surprised when her grandson Scott came out – after all, he’d always liked dressing in her clothes and jewellery. In this warm hearted short film, their story is told through still images.

(Country: UK; Year: 2011; Director: Derville Quigley)

Solar Roadways

Half think they’re geniuses, half think they’re crazy. You can decide for yourself as you learn about Idaho couple Scott and Julie’s big idea: Why not use the highways in America to make solar powered roadways that will move us away from coal dependence?

(Country: United States; Year: 2012; Director: Michele Ohayon)

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)

The War Next Door

Follow director Ferdinand Haberl to Tunisia, where hordes of Libyan refugees have fled, as the end nears for Muammar Ghaddafi. Haberl finds himself on a bizarre and cynical journey, caught in the middle of a hopeless humanitarian aid mission, random superstars and 100,000 suffering people ignored by the media.

(Country: UK; Year: 2012; Director: Ferdinand Haberl)

We Were Here

Invited to upload their experiences of summer 2011, Australians responded in droves. Through their footage, director Amy Gebhardt tells the story of a nation enjoying its downtime – and suffering at the hands of Mother Nature. An exuberant, colourful, communal portrait of Australia.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2011; Director: Amy Gebhardt)

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)