(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
In June, the international documentary film industry in the former steel industry Sheffield will gather in the middle of England for the annual Sheffield Doc / Fest. At the festival, considered among the most important in its niche, the industry and audience meet to sell finished films, present upcoming projects, attend seminars, listen to lectures – and of course watch lots of movies.
Two-piece opening. This year's opening film was The Look of Silence, Joshua Oppenheimer's sequel to the award-winning T. He even mentions the film as a "companion piece"To the previous one, and said during the opening that the two should be considered as one work – which, however, does not require one to see T first. Where the latter focused on the practitioners of the mass killings that took place in Indonesia in the 60 century, dishes The Look of Silence spotlight on the victims and their relatives. First and foremost follows the Indonesian Adi, who after seeing the killers describe what they did to his late brother in T, decides to seek out and confront these men. The highly grueling film has already won several awards, including the jury's Grand Prix at the Venice Film Festival, where it had its world premiere this fall.
However, the opening night in Sheffield also consisted of a party screening of The Greatest Show on Earth: A Century of Funfairs, Circuses and Carnivals, a commissioned work from the festival directed by Icelandic Benedikt Erlingsson (who previously made, among other things) About horses and men). He has gained access to a large number of recordings of circus, cabaret, vaudeville theaters and "freakshows" from the film's childhood up to the present day, which he has put together into a sugary music track signed by two of his compatriots from the band Sigur Rós. The view was definitely a contrast to that The Look of Silence, and undeniably added a cheerful touch to the festival's first night.
Main Competition. Twelve full-time documentaries competed for the Grand Jury Award, including Norwegian Solveig Melkeraaens Good girl – a stately selection that received surprisingly little attention in Norwegian media. The award went to British filmmaker Sean McAllister's new film A Syrian Love Story, where he has been following a Syrian couple for five years – that is, before the Arab Spring. Eventually, the protagonists are forced to flee their homeland, but the film is as much a portrait of the two political prisoners' love affairs as of their lives as refugees from Assad's regime.
The main competition was also the British-Swedish co-production The Confessions of Thomas Quick, directed by Brian Hill. This documentary follows a structure not unlike Malik Bendjellouls Searching for Sugar Man (2012), with its surprising turning point that the film's protagonist is actually alive. In the movie about Thomas Quick, you are first introduced to the story of Sweden's biggest mass murderer, before revealing to a good extent in the film that Quick's confessions had no root in reality. This grip undoubtedly has a greater impact on international audiences without the knowledge most people have about the case here in Scandinavia, but the film nevertheless gives a disturbing insight into the almost sectarian conditions among investigators and psychiatric professionals who made the buy of the attention-hungry man's lies. The film's portrayal of psychiatry may seem somewhat one-sided black-painting, and one can also question the rather naïve and sometimes uncritical portrayal of the protagonist himself. Sture Bergwall, as he is called today, said he was willing to co-star in the film, unlike many of the government officials one would like to hear from. Nevertheless The Confessions of Thomas Quick an interesting film that deserves an audience here at home – albeit not necessarily in cinema. But it should at least be shown on Norwegian television.
I A Jihad for Love (2007) interviewed filmmaker Parvez Sharma gay Muslims from twelve countries. Now he has made a kind of sequel in the form of A Sinner in Mecca, which was also featured in the main competition in Sheffield. The new film is a personal documentary depicting the director's pilgrimage to Mecca, where he seeks a kind of reconciliation between his religion and his orientation. As an openly gay man, it was by no means obvious that he should be allowed to visit the city that only Muslims have had access to for 1400 years. It is also not without danger for his own safety that he has documented the journey with his iphone and two small cameras he smuggled with him, as it is forbidden to film in the sacred areas. Accordingly, gives A Sinner in Mecca a unique and partly surprising insight into the important pilgrimage to the city in the closed and deeply conservative Saudi Arabia.
Strong testimonials. In addition to the titles competing for the grand jury award, Sheffield Doc / Fest offers a number of side programs where you can also find lots of exciting movies. The other Norwegian contribution of the festival, Tonje Hessen Scheis Drone, was shown in the politically oriented section Instigators & Agitators. In the same program was the Swedish Those Who Said No, directed by exiliran Nima Sarvestani. The filmmaker was one of the witnesses during the three-day trial in the Human Rights Court in The Hague in 2013, where details of the Iranian authorities' torture and killing of political prisoners in the 80s were first published in all its cruelty. Those Who Said No depicts this privately initiated trial, which was broadcast directly online – not least for information for the people of Iran. Hearing the testimonies of the abuses committed less than three decades ago by a regime that is still in power is an exceptionally strong diet. Two years after the trial, these incidents are still far too little known, while the international community is primarily focused on Iran as a potential nuclear power.
The new film is a personal documentary depicting the director's pilgrimage to Mecca, where he seeks a kind of reconciliation between his religion and his orientation.
Climate. Sheffield also shows a separate competition program consisting of films that deal with climatic mathematics. The winner of this section's Environmental Award was How to Change the World, British filmmaker Jerry Rothwell's film about the environmental organization Greenpeaces first year. The same program also displayed Merchants of Doubt – a thought-provoking film about the work of corporations and organizations to maintain the mistaken notion that there is ever-present doubt among scientists that climate change is man-made. Recently I wrote about the two documentaries Sugar blues og Sugar Coated, which explains how the food industry uses many of the same strategies – and even more of the same "spin doctors" – that the tobacco industry used to do to divert our attention from the real harmfulness of sugar. Robert Kenners Merchants of Doubt shows how similar approaches have been used to advance the cause of climate skeptics, through, among other things, establishing "independent" thinking tanks when you no longer find serious researchers who will join the team.
The Sheffield Documentary Festival also has its own program of music documentaries, appropriate enough for a city that has nurtured well-known bands such as Pulp, The Human League, Def Leppard and Arctic Monkeys.
From the same program, so should David Sington's License to Krill pulled forward. This film depicts a research expedition to the Antarctic, which will reveal why the area's krill population has gone down and what implications it has for the ecosystem. Krill is a necessary intermediary between microorganisms and the surprisingly rich wildlife and fish life in Antarctica, which in turn is dependent on the melting polar ice. License to Krill is a conventional but thought provoking documentation of how everything is connected to everything – which also contains some breathtaking images from both below and above the said ice.
Music Film. The Sheffield Documentary Festival also has its own program of music documentaries, suitable enough for a city that has nurtured well-known bands such as Pulp, The Human League, Def Leppard and Arctic Monkeys. In a magnificent setting you could see the documentary Mavis, about the still-active singer Mavis Staples from The Staples Singers, at the outdoor cinema in Sheffield's botanical garden. After viewing the documentary 808, about the pioneering drum machine Roland TR-808, one could – in some contrast to the aforementioned outdoor show – move to the legendary music club The Leadmill. Here, two of the former members of the Manchester band 808 State stood for the music, based precisely on the sound of "the 808". Like any good film festival, Sheffield Doc / Fest provides plenty of opportunity for meetings between festival participants, whether you are facing a potential financier and presenting your project at "the measurementmarket", Or you have a glass in your hand at one of the many informal events.
A festival report of this type can only provide superficial descriptions of a selection of films. However, many of the titles from the program will receive fuller coverage in future editions of Ny Tid.
Huser is a film critic in Ny Tid.
alekshuser@ Gmail.com
