Despite the global pandemic, Sheffield Doc/Fest will deliver on its promise to filmmakers and industry representatives, exceptionally holding its flagship pitching initiatives, MeetMarket (for features and series) and Alternate Realities Talent Market (for new media creatives), via virtual video-conferencing from the 8th to 10th of June 2020.
Director Will Hazell came up with an ingenious filming technique in order to capture people’s feelings, worries and musings on the Covid-19 outbreak while maintaining a safe distance in his car. He speaks to friends, members of a London Covid-19 Facebook page, and captures balcony and window performances by Desree and Mazaika.
Tam is a self-confessed true crime junkie (like so many of us), naming "The Jinx" as her most wtf documentary and "Who Killed Little Gregory?" as one that made her cry. And the last documentary she watched? The addictive Tiger King that pretty much everyone is talking about...
Part hallucinatory exploration of Bucharest’s street life and its medley of personalities, part biography of a boy denied a childhood, Vandebrug’s eye-catching picture is as raw as it is beautiful.
For our fourth episode, Tihana talks us through her latest watch: What Happened Miss Simone?, the most sinister documentary series she’s ever seen: Killer Women with Piers Morgan and Knock Down the House, the inspiring Netflix hit featuring Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.
FREE OF THE WEEK
To create her latest documentary film, Giulia Gandini lent an iPhone to Lily for three days. At the time, Lily had been sleeping rough for a year and a half.
Alice picked "Touching the Void" as her most WTF documentary (one of our favourites too), she was inspired by The Ponds and was inexplicably fascinated by Channel 4's "The Family" as a kid. You can find details on all the films mentioned, as well as links to watch them, below.
Did you know that IDFA has a huge online collection of free documentaries? There’s never been a better time for you to find out. But to help you navigate the 300 films available, we’ve picked out 3 fantastic pictures that you can start your binge with.
FREE OF THE WEEK
Everyday for the the last 10 years, Betty has fed the 'outside animals'. Feeding everything from house cats to raccoons and coyotes, she places her 30 bowls of lovingly prepared food outside everyday, through rain, sleet or snow.
CPH:DOX, Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, is one of the biggest documentary film festivals in the world and just the latest one to have fallen victim to the global Coronavirus outbreak.
For our second episode we met Lucie while in Coronavirus quarantine at her parents’ house. She suggests listening to the BBC's "Tunnel 29" podcast, reckons she was unduly manipulated by the "Kony 2012" documentary and most of the documentaries she's seen have made her cry.
Released online early following the Coronavirus outbreak, Alla Kovgan’s “Cunningham” is a trance-like experiential 3D ode to the legendary American choreographer Merce Cunningham. Blending contemporary artistic performance with archival footage, interviews and excerpts from letters, this is a film that stretches the boundaries of its genre.
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Every morning Grand Master Chan Hui performs Tai Chi to cultivate his mental energy and calm his mind. What makes him even more unusual, is that he chooses to do so under the bridge in Canning Town, London.
But fear not! The organisers have got you covered with plenty of fantastic docs available to watch online. In partnership with Mediapart, you can now discover Cinéma du Réel’s thirteen “Premières Fenêtres” selections for free.
The 42nd edition of Cinéma du Réel kicks off in Paris this week and we can’t wait to dig in to this year’s selection. Doc Weekly will be in attendance, keeping an eye out for future classics, interviewing directors and keeping you all updated on social media along the way. But first, here are our top picks from this year’s line-up.
In honour of International Women’s Day, we’re featuring an episode of the brilliant Visible Farmer film project in our Free of the Week series! Melissa is a small holds market-gardener implementing techniques and processes that regenerate her land, ensure a strong bond with her local community and completely cut out the need for a supply chain.
FREE OF THE WEEK
Director Matt Hopkins of the Progress Film Company takes us on a journey to meet Douglas McMaster, the fearless pioneer at the heart of Silo, the UK's first zero-waste restaurant. We interviewed Matt to learn more about his England Your England series and his plans for the future.
For our first episode of “What Are You Watching?” we met Matt, who had his mind blown by the ‘Zeitgeist’ movies as a kid, was inspired by the cult film ‘American Movie’ and reckons ‘The Greatest Movie Ever Sold’, a film about product placement that is funded by product placement, is the most “WTF” doc he’s ever seen.
46 states abide by a felony murder rule, under which felony murder is generally considered first-degree murder. It means an offender can be imprisoned for a murder that occurred while the crime was being committed, regardless of whether the offender directly caused the death. This was the nightmarish circumstance of the ‘Elkhart Four’.
