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Sheffield DocFest · 2013

Sheffield DocFest 2013

Global Encounters

Programme

47 films · 12 reviews

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Apocalypse Now Redux (Apocalypse Now)

Review preview for Apocalypse Now Redux

Undoubtedly, a masterpiece, this three-and-a-half hour version puts body on the flesh of what was already a great movie.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 5 out of 5
Coppola adds 50 mins and re-edits his classic Vietnam war movie, based on The Heart Of Darkness.

(Country: US; Year: 1979; Director: Francis Ford Coppola; Writer: John Milius, Francis Ford Coppola, narration by Michael Herr; Stars: Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne, Christian Marquand, Aurore Clement, Dennis Hopper, Harrison Ford)

Full review

After Tiller

Review preview for After Tiller

Some of their patients' stories are so heartbreaking that they will test the mettle of even the most steadfast opponents.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A look at the work of late term abortion providers in the US.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Martha Shane, Lana Wilson)

Full review

Allergy To Originality

In this animated Op-Doc by Drew Christie, two men discuss whether anything is truly original — especially in movies and books.

(Country: United States; Year: 2012; Director: Drew Christie)

Americanized

High school is a tricky time, but in addition to the standard minefield of teenage insecurities, Navneet faces prejudice for his Sikh heritage.

(Country: United States; Year: 2011; Director: Abhi Singh)

Anosmia

Conjuring scents on screen, the filmmaker Jacob LaMendola profiles people with a rare condition that renders them unable to smell.

(Country: United States; Year: 2012; Director: Jacob LaMendola)

Blackfish

Review preview for Blackfish

Tilikum, whose last victim Dawn Brancheau died in 2010, is still performing at SeaWorld - after watching this documentary, you'll think long and hard about taking your family to see him.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
The plight of killer whales in captivity.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Gabriela Cowperthwaite)

Full review

Burden of Dreams

Documentary about director Werner Herzog struggling against desperate odds in the Amazon basin to make his epic feature Fitzcarraldo

(Country: United States; Year: 1982; Director: Les Blank)

Coral: Rekindling Venus

Immersive experience sends you deep underwater on an extraordinary journey into a mysterious realm of fluorescent coral reefs.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2012; Director: Lynette Wallworth)

The Crash Reel

The jaw-dropping story of one unforgettable athlete, Kevin Pearce; one eye-popping sport, snow boarding; and one explosive issue, traumatic brain injury. An epic rivalry between Kevin and Shaun White culminates in a life-changing crash and a comeback story with a difference.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Lucy Walker)

Dadaab Stories

Dadaab is the world’s largest refugee camp, home to half a million people. FilmAid is helping the refugees tell their stories through video, photography, poetry, music and journalism.

(Country: United States, Kenya; Year: 2013; Director: K.Ryan Jones)

Death Of A Prisoner

The filmmaker Laura Poitras follows the tragic return home to Yemen of a Guantánamo Bay prison detainee, Adnan Latif.

(Country: Yemen, United States; Year: 2013; Director: Laura Poitras)

Dirty Wars

Review preview for Dirty Wars

An intriguing documentary which contains some powerful interview material.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
When an Afghan family is attacked by US soldiers, a journalist sets out to investigate.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Richard Rowley)

Full review

The Exorcist (Director's Cut) (The Exorcist)

Review preview for The Exorcist (Director's Cut)

At 12, Regan was a helpless child in 1973; in today's world we instinctively grant her more agency so the territory between self and demon becomes more obscure.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A mother fights to save her child, who may be possessed by a demon.

(Country: United States; Year: 1973; Director: William Friedkin; Writer: William Peter Blatty; Stars: Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Max Von Sydow, Jason Miller, Lee j Cobb, Kitty Winn, Jack MacGowran)

Full review

Emptying The Skies

Review preview for Emptying The Skies

The broader perspective demonstrates the moral and legal disadvantage at which the volunteers are fundamentally placed.

Michael Pattison · 3.5 out of 5
Documentary about songbird poaching.

(Country: United States; Year: 2013; Director: Douglas Kass)

Full review

Exploding Cinema's Phone Made Films

London's longest running film club Exploding Cinema presents the new wave of short documentaries all made using mobile phones.

(Country: United Kingdom, United States; Year: 2013; Director: Exploding Cinema)

Female Trouble

A spoiled schoolgirl runs away from home to pursue her dreams, getting pregnant along the way.

(Country: US; Year: 1974; Director: John Waters; Writer: John Waters; Stars: Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Edith Massey)

A Fragile Trust: Plagiarism, Power, and Jayson Blair at the New York Times

The story of Jayson Blair, a former reporter at the world's leading broadsheet who shot to notoreity through plagiarism.

(Country: United States; Year: 2013; Director: Samantha Grant)

The Gatekeepers

Review preview for The Gatekeepers

And as Moreh probes the men, we, whether we agree with them or not, find ourselves drawn into their moral maze in all of its complexity.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
Six former heads of Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, discuss their nation’s past, present and future.

(Country: Israel, France, Germany, Belgium; Year: 2012; Director: Dror Moreh)

Full review See: Dror Moreh interview about The Gatekeepers

God Loves Uganda

Review preview for God Loves Uganda

The phrase "I don't want a theocracy but..." is used here.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Documentary exploration of the agenda of right-wing US evangelicals.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Roger Ross Williams)

Full review

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse

Documentary about the Apocalypse Now shoot.

(Country: United States; Year: 1991; Director: Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper, Eleanor Coppola)

I'm Yours

A frank and rapid fire exploration of the transgender experience.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2012; Director: Chase Joynt) , Official site

In Search Of The Unreturned Soldiers In Malaysia (Mikikanhei o otte/Mare)

Made as part of a TV series in the middle of Imamura’s documentary career, the director is again like a private detective tracking down ex-Japanese soldier, A-Kim, who has resettled in Malaysia.

(Country: Japan; Year: 1971; Director: Shohei Imamura)

In Search of the Unreturned Soldiers in Thailand (Mikikanhei o otte/Tai)

In Thailand, Imamura’s investigation brings him face to with a group of soldiers from different classes, each of whom has, in some way, committed war crimes while in the Japanese army.

(Country: Japan; Year: 1971; Director: Shohei Imamura)

I Am Divine

Review preview for I Am Divine

Does an impressive job of connecting with the man behind the myth.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A documentary about the film star, pop star and all round legend.

(Country: United States; Year: 2013; Director: Jeffrey Schwarz; Stars: John Waters, Ricki Lake, Tab Hunter, Divine, Bruce Vilanch, Mink Stole, David DeCoteau, Lisa Jane Persky, Edith Massey, Mary Vivian Pearce, Holly Woodlawn, David Lochary, Susan Lowe, Helen Hanft, Pat Moran)

Full review See: Interview with Mink Stole about Divine

A Journal of Insomnia

A collaborative experiment where the public is invited to mortgage part of their night to experience insomnia.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2013; Director: Guillaume Braun)

Karayuki-san, the Making of a Prostitute (Karayuki-san)

Kikyo Zendo was one of thousands of Japanese women forced into sex work during the war. It’s an experience she discusses with Imamura.

(Country: Japan; Year: 1973; Director: Shohei Imamura)

Lullaby

The filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky on homeless people sleeping near ATM’s in a bank, a growing phenomenon in Europe.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2012; Director: Victor Kossakovsky)

Makers: Women Who Make America

Discover how women have shaped America over the last 50 years through an unprecedented sweeping social revolution.

(Country: United States; Year: 2013; Director: Kunhardt McGee Productions)

A Man Vanishes (Ningen jôhatsu)

Thousands of Japanese disappear without a trace every year. Imamura and his crew investigate the disappearance of a young businessman and get more than they bargained for.

(Country: Japan; Year: 1967; Director: Shôhei Imamura)

Mobile Homestead

One of America's most influential artists of recent times, Mike Kelley's last project before his death in 2011 is a personal dedication to his hometown of Detroit.

(Country: United States; Year: 2011; Director: Mike Kelley)

Mothers (妈妈的村庄)

A glimpse into the bureaucracy and statistics that strip away a woman's rights to bear children in China.

(Country: China; Year: 2013; Director: Huijing Xu)

Muscle Shoals

Down in Alabama Rick Hall founded FAME Studios and gave birth to the Muscle Shoals sound. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Gregg Allman, Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Alicia Keys, Bono and others bear witness to the greatest untold American music story.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Greg 'Freddy' Camalier)

NCR: Not Criminally Responsible

Plagued by both OCD and schizophrenia, Sean Clifton had long been known as a harmless eccentric in Cornwall, Ontario. That changed in 1999 when Clifton brutally stabbed a stranger outside a Walmart. Declared 'not criminally responsible', he is sent to a forensic psychiatric facility - veteran Canadian director John Kastner takes look at the crime and its repercussions.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2013; Director: John Kastner)

The Network

Expat Afghanis returned to their homeland after the ousting of the Taliban, determined to bring culture and hope to a land where neither existed.

(Country: Australia, United Kingdom; Year: 2012; Director: Eva Orner; Writer: Eva Orner)

Pandora's Promise

A growing number of environmentalists are renouncing decades of antinuclear orthodoxy and have come to believe that the most feared and controversial technology known to mankind is probably our greatest hope.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Robert Stone)

Particle Fever

Documentary about the Large Hadron Collider, the search for the God particle and what happened as a result.

(Country: United States; Year: 2013; Director: Mark Levinson)

Plot for Peace

The story of French businessman Jean Yves Ollivier who dedicated himself to helping South Africa transition peacefully out of apartheid.

(Country: South Africa; Year: 2013; Director: Mandy Jacobson, Carlos Agulló; Writer: Stephen Smith)

The Public Square

In Times Square, protesters counter an anti-Islamic speech by pastor Terry Jones ... by singing the Beatles.

(Country: United States; Year: 2012; Director: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady)

Richard Pryor: Omit The Logic

Review preview for Richard Pryor: Omit The Logic

This may be a jet-ski ride over Pryor's life rather than a deep-sea dive but it offers a firm celebration that's likely to encourage those who have watched it to seek out more material from the man himself - and that can never be a bad thing.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Profile of the stand-up comedian.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Marina Zenovich; Writer: Peter Morgan)

Full review

The Road to Fame (成名之路)

Beijing, China. At the Central Academy of Drama, anticipation is running high. The prestigious school’s graduation production of Fame will be the first official collaboration between China and Broadway...

(Country: China; Year: 2013; Director: Hao Wu)

Rougarouing

Originating from the medieval ‘festival of begging’, a troupe of howling merrymakers in rural Louisiana perform wild muddy rituals.

(Country: United States; Year: 2013; Director: Michael Palmieri, Donal Mosher) , Trailer

Slomo

Dr John Kitchin abandoned his wealth-driven materialistic existence when he reconsidered his quality of life and now shines as an LA waterfront rollerblade legend.

(Country: United States; Year: 2013; Director: Josh Izenberg)

Solar Mama (Rafea: Solar Mama)

Documentary follows a Bedouin woman as she joins a programme that trains illiterate women to be engineers.

(Country: US, Denmark, Egypt; Year: 2012; Director: Mona Eldaief, Jehane Noujaim; Stars: Abu Badr, Umm Badr, Raouf Dabbas, Rafea)

The Square (Al Midan)

Review preview for The Square

As a reflection of the mood and struggles of those seeking democratic change it is immersive and visceral even if its up close and personal approach means that the political sphere is rendered in broad brushstroke terms.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Examination of the revolution in Egypt, from the perspective of a group of activists.

(Country: Egypt, US; Year: 2013; Director: Jehane Noujaim)

Full review

To Let The World In, Volume 1

India's rising influence on the contemporary art scene.

(Country: India; Year: 2013; Director: Avijit Mukul Kishore)

Which Way Is The Front Line from Here? The Life And Time Of Tim Hetherington

Review preview for Which Way Is The Front Line from Here? The Life And Time Of Tim Hetherington

The picture painted is one of a man who was dedicated to not just to capturing people's images on camera but to talking to them and finding out what made them tick.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Tribute to the photojournalist and documentarian who was killed in Libya in 2011.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Sebastian Junger)

Full review

Who Owns The Street?

The obscure perceptions of ownership and public property, art and vandalism, are probed as graffiti artist Peter Drew navigates the grey area of street art.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2012; Director: Frazer Dempsey) , Trailer