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Sheffield DocFest · 2019

Sheffield DocFest 2019

Doc/Vision

Programme

22 films · 3 reviews

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Absence

Review preview for Absence

A meditative twilight piece best seen late at night.

Sunil Chauhan · 3.5 out of 5
A lyrical portrait, inspired by Indian poet Shiv Kumasi Batalvi, of the people left behind when men leave to work in big cities.

(Country: India; Year: 2019; Director: Ekta Mittal)

Full review

UK premiere

Adversarial Feelings

The wild imagination of artificial intelligence.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2019; Director: Lorem (Francesco D'Abbraccio))

World premiere

Chinese Portrait

A personal contemporary portrait of a country, a population and a society.

(Country: China; Year: 2018; Director: Wang Xiaoshuai)

UK premiere

Closing Time

Portrait of Taipei.

(Country: Germany, Switzerland; Year: 2018; Director: Nicole Vögele; Writer: Nicole Vögele)

UK premiere

Earth

Observes people, in mines, quarries and at large construction sites.

(Country: Austria; Year: 2019; Director: Nikolaus Geyrhalter)

UK premiere

E-Ticket

From Hong Kong to India, a race through personal archives.

(Country: Hong Kong SAR China, UK; Year: 2019; Director: Simon Liu)

UK premiere

Fordlandia Malaise

Postcards depict the colonisation of the Amazon jungle to build Fordlandia, a land of rubber and recklessness.

(Country: Portugal; Year: 2019; Director: Susana Dias de Sousa)

UK premiere

Hermit

Study of a self-professed wood goblin, who has lived for more than 20 years deep in the forest.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2018; Director: Artem Moskalev)

UK premiere

The Hottest August

Review preview for The Hottest August

In the background, in the heavy air, one can almost hear the words of TS Eliot. Is this how the world ends?

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Seven months after Donald Trump assumes the US presidency, filmmaker Brett Story journeyed to all five boroughs of New York City asking people a simple question: what are your hopes for the future?

(Country: US, Canada; Year: 2019; Director: Brett Story)

Full review

UK premiere

Just Don't Think I'll Scream

The director recounts a personal crisis.

(Country: France; Year: 2019; Director: Frank Beauvais; Writer: Frank Beauvais)

UK premiere

Lemebel

Review preview for Lemebel

This is not conventional narrative, start to end, born in, schooled at, died documentary.

Jane Fae · 4 out of 5
A multi-layered portrait of one of South America’s most important and most provocative artists, a tireless fighter in dictatorial Chile and an uncomfortable gay activist who spoke out – right up to the end of his life.

(Country: Chile, Colombia; Year: 2019; Director: Lissette Orozco, Joanna Reposi; Writer: Manuel Maira, Joanna Reposi)

Full review

UK premiere

The Machine That Kills Bad People: O'er The Land

A meditation on the milieu of elevated threat.

(Year: 2009; Director: Deborah Stratman)

World premiere

The Machine That Kills Bad People: The Sky On Location

The film attempts to construct a geography of the land from north to south, east to west and season to season, through colors instead of maps.

(Country: US; Year: 1982; Director: Babette Mangolte)

World premiere

Mother, I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You.

A farewell letter, a furious lamentation to a mother, a land, a hero, a victim, a martyr.

(Country: Lesotho, Qatar; Year: 2019; Director: Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese; Writer: Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese)

UK premiere

My First Film

Autofiction about a director's attempt to make her first film

(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Zia Anger; Writer: Zia Anger)

European premiere

No Data Plan

In this unusual travelogue, filmmaker Miko Revereza is an unnoticed passenger crossing America on an Amtrak train. Through subtitles, his thoughts dwell on his mother’s difficulties back home.

(Country: Philippines; Year: 2018; Director: Miko Revereza)

UK premiere

Past Perfect

Consideration of the political implications of nostalgia.

(Country: Portugal; Year: 2019; Director: Jorge Jácome; Writer: Jorge Jácome, Pedro Penim)

UK premiere

Rushing Green With Horses

A collection of moments - private scenes at home and at play with family and friends.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2018; Director: Ute Aurand)

UK premiere

Sunrise With Sea Monsters

Follows a wandering desktop hard drive as it journeys through the British landscape in a quest to explore new ways to store and preserve human knowledge.

(Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Myles Painter)

World premiere

Westinghouse Three

The film showcases an old consumer product.

(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Kevin Jerome Everson)

International premiere

While We Are Here

Lamis and Wilson are migrants in New York. She's a Lebanese that just arrived, and he's a Brazilian that has lived there illegally, for 10 years. This hybrid doc tells their stories

(Country: Brazil; Year: 2019; Director: Clarissa Campolina, Luiz Pretti)

UK premiere

Wittnerchrome Notes I & II

A filmmaker's notebook.

(Country: UK; Year: 2018; Director: Nick Collins)

UK premiere