Year-Round Screenings & Events

Sheffield DocFest Spotlights: Hotel Metalurg + Q&A

Screening + Q&A: Tuesday 26 September, 18:30 @ Bertha DocHouse, London

DocNights: Nascondino (Hide & Seek)

Pitched at our MeetMarket in 2018, Nascondino by Victoria Fiore, follows four years in the life of Entoni and his family in Naples, during a critical state crackdown on crime and gangs. Stunningly shot and featuring unparalleled access to the world of inner-city Naples, the film captures the spirit and soul of a neighbourhood that finds itself both maligned and glamorised. 

Screening: Monday 30 January, 18:00 @ Showroom Cinema, Sheffield

No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics

Presented at Sheffield Central Library, as part of their LGBTQ+ History Month programming, join us for a free screening of No Straight Lines by Vivian Kleiman. The film follows five pioneering cartoonists - Alison Bechdel, Howard Cruse, Jennifer Camper, Rupert Kinnard, and Mary Wings - who depicted everything from the AIDS crisis, coming out, and same-sex marriage, to themes of race, gender, and disability.

Screening: Thursday 23 February, 18:30 @ Carpenter Room, Sheffield Central Library

DocNights: Nelly & Nadine

Nelly & Nadine by Magnus Gertten reveals the extraordinary story of two women who fell in love whilst imprisoned in Ravensbrück concentration camp and whose relationship continued for decades. Nelly & Nadine is a remarkable story about war sufferings, mysteries, love against all odds, the healing power of music, well kept secrets, and the complicated family stories of concentration camp survivors, still trying to deal with the ghosts of the past. Showing as part of LGBTQ+ History Month: Behind The Lens.

Screening: Monday 27 February, 18:00 @ Showroom Cinema, Sheffield

SHU Future Film Programmers: Revolution Loading

Each year we help to facilitate The Future Film Programmers scheme, which offers Sheffield Hallam Film Studies students the opportunity to programme their own public film screenings. This year, the programmers have curated a diverse selection of documentaries which focuses on social change across the globe. Join us for a free screening of two films from their selection: I Am Somebody (1970) by Madeline Anderson, and I Am Samuel (2020) by Peter Murimi.

Screening: Wednesday 8 March, 10:00 @ Showroom Cinema, Sheffield

DocNights: Alis

Winner of our 2022 Youth Jury Award, Nicolas van Hemelryck and Clare Weiskopf’s documentary is the result of a five-year workshop they ran at Arcadia boarding school in Bogota. Having created a safe space, they asked a group of teenage girls to create Alis, a fellow student, giving her whatever attributes they want. Addressing the camera directly, the girls’ discussion of their new found friend soon becomes an opportunity for them to contemplate their own feelings about – and experiences of – the world they live in. The result is a moving testament to their hope of a better world.

Screening: Monday 27 March, 18:00 @ Showroom Cinema, Sheffield

DocNights: My Name is Andrea

Using archival footage and re-enactments, director Pratibha Parmar brings new light to the work of feminist writer and public intellectual Andrea Dworkin.

Dworkin presented a revolutionary analysis of the myth of male supremacy with a singular urgency and iconoclastic flair. Decades before #MeToo, she called out the pervasiveness of sexism and rape culture, and the ways it impacts every woman’s daily life. My Name is Andrea focuses on key moments from the life of this fearless fighter, who was shaped by the civil rights movement and its values of justice and equality. Performances by Ashley Judd, Soko, Amandla Stenberg, Andrea Riseborough and Christine Lahti - all of whom have spoken out against sexual abuse – are intercut with rare, electrifying archival footage of Dworkin.

Content Guidance: Film contains strong references and discussions on violence and sexual abuse.

Screening: Monday 24 April, 18:30 @ Showroom Cinema, Sheffield

DocNights: Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliche

Ahead of Tish opening this year’s Sheffield DocFest, revisit Paul Sng’s 2021 film, Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché.

The death of punk icon and X-Ray Spex frontwoman Poly Styrene sends her daughter on a journey across the world and through her mother’s archives to reconcile their fraught relationship in this new documentary feature, featuring Oscar nominee Ruth Negga as the voice of Poly Styrene.

Screening: Monday 29 May, 18:00 @ Showroom Cinema, Sheffield

Queerama

Presented at Sheffield Central Library, as part of their LGBTQ+ History Month programming, join us for a free screening of Queerama by Daisy Asquith. The story traverses a century of gay experiences, encompassing persecution and prosecution, injustice, love and desire, identity, secrets, forbidden encounters, sexual liberation and pride.

Queerama opened Sheffield DocFest in 2017!

Screening: Wednesday 19 July, 18:30 @ Central Library, Sheffield

Sheffield DocFest Spotlights: White Nanny Black Child + Q&A

A group of adults find solace in sharing their experiences of growing up as children of Black Nigerian immigrants who were fostered by white British families. White Nanny Black Child presents a personal, moving and sometimes unsettling meditation on identity, belonging and the nature of family.

Screening + Q&A with director Andy Mundy-Castle: Thursday 27 July, 18:30 @ Bertha DocHouse, London

DocNights: White Nanny Black Child

A group of adults find solace in sharing their experiences of growing up as children of Black Nigerian immigrants who were fostered by white British families. White Nanny Black Child presents a personal, moving and sometimes unsettling meditation on identity, belonging and the nature of family.

Screening: Monday 31 July, 18:30 @ Showroom Cinema, Sheffield

DocNights: 1001 Days + Online Q&A

Kethiwe Ngcobo and Chloe White’s immersive account of the first 1001 days of a child’s life is seen from the perspective of three South African healthcare workers. 1001 Days offers an insight into the joys, challenges and disturbing reality of everyday life for these brave individuals and the many women they help. It’s an intimate, challenging and unflinching portrait of motherhood and changemaking in modern-day South Africa.

Screening + Online Q&A: Monday 28 August, 18:00 @ Showroom Cinema, Sheffield

Sheffield DocFest Spotlights: The Price of Truth + Q&A

How far would you go to defend the idea of a free press? Russia’s only independent newspaper and its editor fight for democracy. Patrick Forbes’ searching documentary is a powerful and often suspenseful portrait of an extraordinary individual whose life and work embodies the importance of free speech and how essential the fourth estate is to the foundations of democracy.

Screening + Q&A with director Patrick Forbes: Thursday 17 August, 18:20 @ Bertha DocHouse, London

This screening will be Open Captioned, and the Q&A will be Signed - a British Sign Language interpreter will be visible on stage throughout the event.

DocNights: Hotel Metalurg

Screening: Monday 25 September, 18:00 @ Showroom Cinema, Sheffield