Sheffield Docfest 2024 is in town from June 12-17. Attendees tell The Star why the festival is 'The Burning Man' of the documentary world.
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00:00Hi, so am I right in thinking that you're visiting Sheffield for the Dockfest?
00:06Yes, I'm visiting Sheffield for the Dockfest.
00:08Okay, and how's it all going so far?
00:11It's going pretty good. I think yesterday there was a great film to watch and that was Open the Night.
00:17So yeah, I'm here for networking, I'm here for meeting people, doing meetings.
00:23Have you been to the Dockfest before?
00:25Not to Sheffield, but I've been to other places before.
00:29Okay, and could you tell us a bit about why it's important to have festivals like this?
00:33I think documentary films are very important because for funding, for getting them greenlit,
00:41I think there has to be a platform where the filmmakers, the producers, the distributors, everybody wants to meet.
00:47And I think Sheffield is one of the best and the biggest film festivals for documentaries
00:52and I think it's very important for such a documentary film festival to exist.
00:58Amazing. And with you being from London, why do you think it's important to take, if you do think it's important,
01:06to take films away from London and out to other cities, particularly up in the north?
01:12I guess it's more about London is a bit commercial and I think it's a bit like everybody's rushing into things
01:20so this kind of takes it to a different city so everybody's focused on the festival,
01:25everyone's walking around the festival and Sheffield is a great city to be in.
01:30It's great programming, there's a real assortment of genres, of shorts, of feature-length films.
01:36It's a great chance to network, meet like-minded people, meet small studio people, collaborators,
01:44producers, directors, composers, all sorts. And there's amazing talks, there's everything.
01:51And there's parties with free drinks, so that's another plus.
01:54I describe the Sheffield Dock experience as a bit of Burning Man for documentary filmmakers.
02:00Everyone just comes from everywhere and you just get to experience the same atmosphere.
02:06Everyone's so into documentary, I can describe my story, make stories out of documentary and film and all that kind of stuff
02:14and it's great for watching docks as well.
02:17It's an incredible opportunity to find your tribe in an industry that can be quite isolated
02:25and you are on your own path, doing your own thing and you come to Sheffield
02:31and realise that there's a lot of other people doing the same and it's an opportunity to meet up
02:36and just like affirm what you're doing I think.
02:38Totally. And in an industry that I feel sometimes prioritises scripted stuff over docks,
02:44I feel like sometimes documentaries are sidelined a bit so it's nice to meet up and talk all things unscripted.
02:53The very last thing, with it being in Sheffield, I would imagine that there's quite a lot of film things going on in London.
03:02Is it important to take things away from London and up to the north?
03:07Yeah, definitely. I actually just moved out of London eight months ago which was terrifying
03:12but I think it is absolutely important.
03:14Sheffield's a great city to do it. London is too sprawled out to do something like this.
03:21This is a place where everyone can come from loads of different places and come together in quite a small area
03:27so it's perfect for it.
03:29I agree. We've got Edinburgh TV Festival but another great city to do it at is Sheffield
03:35so it makes sense to put it out there.