We invited two Sheffield Hallam University students to explore the Sheffield DocFest 2024 programme.
First up we have Alice Montgomery, a BA Film Studies student, with her take on our Alternate Realities Exhibition, feature films and talks.
My Sextortion Diary (dir. Patricia Franquesa. Spain. 2024)
Director Patricia Franquesa’s My Sextortion Diary is a powerful and informative documentary that focuses on the filmmaker as she experiences online blackmail, which occurred after the theft of her laptop. It documents what Pati went through, through the lenses of her different digital devices, as well as her social media posts. Using the different computers and their screens to follow along her story, the audience is held in suspence as we wish the best for Pati. Before the screening began, Pati admitted that she wanted everyone to be aware of what to do should this happen to you.
Her documentary explores each important moment that happened within the months in which the hacker was holding her personal information. They use different screens and cameras for the viewer to watch these events from a variety of lenses. Every step of her journey was spliced together with different life events, such as spending time with her family, going on her day-to-day life and even attending her own film premiere. As the film reaches its end, it focuses more and more on how Pati is desperate to find out who is blackmailing her. While the blackmailer has not yet been found, she did take the power out of their hands by making a beautiful statement to her online followers.
BBC Interview: Simon Reeve in Conversation
The BBC interview hosted by the head of Specialist Factual Commissioning at the BBC – Jack Bootle – explored the way in which Reeves made his way from investigative journalism and onto the screen. The two men led a comedic, yet informative view of the author's time on his journeys around the world starting from his childhood. The conversation flowed easily, and both made it an entertaining watch, exploring how his life has panned out after his rocky childhood at home in west London. The talk ended with the wonderful reveal that his latest series Wilderness has more planned retreats and he is going to be exploring the different Scandinavian countries.
Throughout, Reeves talked about how his time as a child wasn’t spent exploring different countries and locations. In fact, he discusses how he really only went to one seaside village with his family – which is quite the contrast to what he is doing now. Reeves was continuously comedic when reminiscing about the times when he was in front of the camera. Most notably, when talking about the occasion when travelling around South Africa in which he walked straight into a drug den, or when they had to rush out of Butane to escape the military. While these are most certainly dangerous situations, Reeves looked back on the memory in a comedic manner, even stating that he was happy to have done so as it allowed him and his team to show the UK what it is like in different cultures who want their stories told.
Alternate Realities Exhibition
This exhibit was an interesting and whimsical experience that allowed me to fully immerse myself within the documentaries. The exhibit enabled me to feel a much more intense and physical response to art than I had ever felt before. Each of the different tales the art pieces focused on were showing the wide-ranging experiences others go through on the planet. ‘Our Ark’ was one of the documentaries that immersed the viewer fully as the headphones blocked out all outer sound and we were focussed only on the screen. Being so enveloped by the screen and sounds allowed the information which was being told to fully sink in. Another experience was ‘The Finger Rub Rug’ by Laura A Dima, which mimicked the feeling of human touch.
‘Emperor’ the virtual reality experience by Marion Burger and Ilan J. Cohen, explored the reality behind the pain which they are unable to express. The experience put the viewer in the mind of a father who is suffering with aphasia after having a stroke. Each of the different scenes placed the viewer into the unfortunate and uncomfortable position in which the father was forced into. We were left to navigate with only our actions and unable to voice our issues. While every memory was sewed with sadness, the laughter filled ending in which the daughter recounts him repeatedly shouting ‘emperor’ lifted the spirits and left me with a wider range of knowledge than I had before.
HAIYU – Rebel Singer Mariem Hassan and the Struggle for a Free Western Sahara (dir. Alex Veitch, Brahim B. Ali, Mohamedsalem Uered, Anna Klara Åhrén. Sweden, Western Sahara. 2024)
This is a documentary that follows the life of the political singer Mariem Hassan and the journey that her country went through to reach political freedom. The civil unrest that Western Sahara went through is filtered between snippets of the rebel singers’ powerful vocals and lyrics about how the people will not rest until they have true political freedom. The singer herself was moved out of her own country due to the military and active war happening during her childhood. Each of the songs the directors included in the documentary have powerful vocals and lyrics which express the groups distain towards the lack of freedom people had during the distressing time.
