Skip to main content

Sheffield DocFest — A–Z of films

2024

  • 0

  • Agent Of Happiness
    Review preview for Agent Of Happiness

    As the surveys continue, different ideas of happiness emerge along with moments of shared humanity.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    Amber is one of the many agents working for the Bhutanese government to measure people’s happiness levels among the remote Himalayan mountains. But will he find his own along the way?
  • The Battle For Laikipia
    Review preview for The Battle For Laikipia

    The documentarians invested several years in the project and it pays off in this impressively balanced assessment of a conflict over land that has been exacerbated by climate change and drought.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
    Unresolved historical injustices and climate change raise the stakes in a generations-old conflict between Indigenous pastoralists and white landowners in Laikipia, Kenya, a wildlife conservation haven.
  • Blur: To The End
    Review preview for Blur: To The End

    It's entertaining enough if you're familiar.

    Andrew Robertson · 3 out of 5
    Portrait of the band as they prepare an album.
  • The Boy And The Suit Of Lights
    Review preview for The Boy And The Suit Of Lights

    De Reyes film celebrates family bonds, while also noting how those ties can bind youngsters’ ambitions.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    Portrait of a young boy who dreams of becoming a bullfighter.
  • The Contestant
    Review preview for The Contestant

    An intriguing piece of work which probes the psychology of contestant, producers and viewers alike.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    The story of a Japanese reality TV star left naked in a room for more than a year, tasked with filling out magazine sweepstakes to earn food and clothing.

  • D

  • Daughters
    Review preview for Daughters

    For the most part the film comes across as a celebration of this moment as a light in the darkness, but it will likely leave some viewers additionally uncomfortable.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    Four young girls prepare for a special Daddy Daughter Dance with their incarcerated fathers, as part of a unique fatherhood program in a Washington, DC, jail.
  • Devo
    Review preview for Devo

    Most impressive for distilling mountains of archival footage, with the help of the trusty talking-head interview.

    Jeremy Mathews · 3.5 out of 5
    Born in response to the Kent State massacre, new wave band Devo took their concept of "de-evolution" from cult following to near–rock star status with groundbreaking 1980 hit Whip It while preaching an urgent social commentary.
  • Eternal You
    Review preview for Eternal You

    If it sounds like an uncanny valley from the start, Block and Riesewieck illustrate just how bizarre and, sometimes, downright creepy this can be using genuine exchanges that have occurred.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    Startups are using AI to create avatars that allow relatives to talk with their loved ones after they have died. An exploration of a profound human desire and the consequences of turning the dream of immortality into a product.
  • The Flats
    Review preview for The Flats

    The Flats gives voice to people who have lived most of their lives feeling silenced, but it’s all the little details it captures in passing that speak loudest.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    Joe and his Belfast neighbors reenact childhood memories from the violent Troubles era in their Catholic district, exploring the collective experiences that shaped their lives and community.

  • M

  • Made In Ethiopia
    Review preview for Made In Ethiopia

    As the directors patiently capture the lives of Workinesh, Motto and Beti, a shared theme of familial hardship emerges.

    Sergiu Inizian · 3.5 out of 5
    An exploration of the rapid industrialisation in modern-day Ethiopia and China's economic gamble in Africa, seen through the experiences of three women.
  • The Mother Of All Lies
    Review preview for The Mother Of All Lies

    Everything about El Moudir’s film is unusual, from the structure to the mood.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
    The filmmaker doesn’t have any pictures of herself as a child. This is the starting point of a documentary investigation that unfolds the secrets of a Casablanca family.
  • My Sweet Land
    Review preview for My Sweet Land

    Hairabedian patiently captures all this with an intimacy that stems from trust, with Vrej viewing her and the camera increasingly as a confidante as time passes.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    For 11-year-old Vrej, life in his homeland Artsakh is like a paradise, but when war starts again, can he carry a nation’s hopes on his young shoulders?
  • Nocturnes
    Review preview for Nocturnes

    By night, Shreyank Nanjappa’s inspired sound design captures the furious beating of wings and, layered on top of them, the shuffling and chirrupping and all the curious calls of the moths as they rush in to land.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    In the dense forests of the Eastern Himalayas, moths are whispering something to us. In the dark of night, two curious observers shine a light on this secret universe.
  • Nocturne For A Forest
    Review preview for Nocturne For A Forest

    There are extreme and moderate views here, which recall many a social media debate about everything from slavery street names to flags.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    The souls of women forbidden from entering a monastery debate the destiny of a painting inside it.
  • No Other Land
    Review preview for No Other Land

    No Other Land brings humanity and particularity to a topic that is too often discussed in the abstract.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    This film made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective shows the destruction of the West Bank’s Masafer Yatta by Israeli authorities and the unlikely alliance which develops between the Palestinian activist Basel and Israeli journalist Yuval.

  • R

  • Strike: An Uncivil War
    Review preview for Strike: An Uncivil War

    Powerful and thorough.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
    The Battle of Orgreave, recounted by those who lived through it, is contextualised through the history of the British mining union and a government that was hell-bent on breaking it.