Sheffield Docfest 2024 | Attendees say why festival is 'The Burning Man' of the documentary world - video Dailymotion

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.

Transcript

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.