Overview
Each year, the sessions at Sheffield Doc/Fest include keynote addresses and interviews with some of the world's leading documentary filmmakers and broadcasters. Many sessions introduce you to commissioners and business of docs; others explore the art of documentary making – in 2009 Doc/Fest presented many inspirational masterclasses and of course the hot debates that address the challenges facing documentary makers today.
Throughout the year, the Festival Advisory Committee meet regularly to discuss session ideas and donate their time to produce, moderate and speak on sessions and masterclasses. In 2009 we had over 200 speakers on over 50 panels! A big thank you to the committee and all session producers for all your help in creating the best session programme yet.
Our Cross Platform strand continued, and this year there is also a full day devoted to the Crossover Summit exploring the new business of media, opening with a keynote from Internationally renowned writer and commentator on popular culture, Steven Johnson.
BBC Question Time is always a not-to-be-missed panel at Sheffield and this year we discussed YOUR submitted recommendations to give to the Government as members of the Documentary community.
Friday’s highlights included ‘Campaigning Documentaries’ discussing how some documentary makers are driven by a desire not only to document the world but to change it, linking filmmakers to ‘change-makers’ like Greenpeace and Amnesty International.
Saturday kicked off with a panel discussing ‘How will the Copenhagen Climate Summit impact the Documentary Film Sector’. What are our responsibilities going forward in terms of our carbon footprints? ‘What Filmmakers Can Learn from Pirates’ brought speakers from both the UK and Swedish ‘Pirate Party’ together for the first time to talk about the burning issue of downloading films and how we might use this to our benefit!
Masterclasses this year included RJ Cutlerwith the making of ‘The September Issue’, Penny Woolcock on her latest, ‘1 Day’, Leslie Woodhead ‘How The Beatles Rocked The Kremlin’ and Franny Armstrong ‘The Age of Stupid’. Editor Nick Fenton and Producer Luke Morris gave an insight into the making of ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’ - A Warp Films Production.
Lots of pitch comps with chances to win great development and production funds - National Film Board were back with the Crossmedia Challenge , The Wellcome Trust Pitch , Current Pitch and CBA pitch were both on Newcomers Day and the Channel 4 Doc/Fest Pitch was back for the 8th year!
‘Cops on Camera’ had BAFTA award winning Patrick Forbes discuss Channel 4's recent documentary series, The Force, and offer up a fresh approach to cops on docs.
As part of our Crossplatform strand, ‘Games and Storytelling’ brought together the game commissioners, the developers, the producers and the commentators to showcase and discuss the future of storytelling and explore the opportunities for Documentary makers in the games world - there was even a workshop on games mechanics - see how your storytelling skills can be applied to the way games are put together.
Filmmakers all too used to putting themselves at risk in order to get the great shot and tell the story, came together for ‘Filmmaking on the Frontline’ and discussed how to prepare for a dangerous shoot.
In 2009, The Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation brought a little piece of the BRITDOC Festival to Sheffield in the form of a special BRITDOC Bar where they celebrated all things documentary and hosted the Doc/Fest daily chat show with AJ Schnack and Debra Zimmerman alongside some good old fashioned pub knees ups with piano and ukulele accompaniments.
We had four commissioning panels focusing on Docs ,Popular Factual, Specialist Factual, Digital.