Sheffield DocFest Podcast

A seminal figure of activist and 'engaged' cinema, British filmmaker John Akomfrah has been leading the charge for over 30 years. As one of the founders of the Black Audio Film Collective, which sought to use documentary to explore questions of black identity in Britain, Akomfrah has continually pushed boundaries in both form and content. We are delighted to be featuring a retrospective of his work in this year’s Doc/Fest. In this session he will discuss his remarkable career with Francine Stock, the presenter of The Film Programme on BBC Radio 4.

With John Akomfrah and Francine Stock

Joshua Oppenheimer's films include the BAFTA award-winning and Oscar-nominated The Act of Killing (2012), and the companion piece The Look of Silence (2014) - winner of the Grand Jury prize at the 2014 Venice Film Festival. He is the artistic director of the Centre for Documentary and Experimental Film at the University of Westminster and has worked for over a decade with militias, death squads and their victims to explore the relationship between political violence and the public imagination. In this in-depth masterclass, BBC1 Film Programme critic Danny Leigh, unpicks Joshua's methods and motivations and explore the meaning of his controversial and boundary-pushing films.

Shorts are taking the world by storm. Find out how new funding and distribution opportunities are helping that success. We’ll screen some of the best shorts from around the web, hear about Channel 4’s latest ‘shorts’ strategy and meet some pioneers who are using shorts to make the world a better place. Whether you are making shorts to get your story out fast, as a stepping-stone to long form docs or because you prefer your content in bite-size chunks, this panel will prepare you for your next ‘shorts’ encounter.

How do documentary commissioners win our attention in a crowded marketplace? Are the days of worthiness dead, replaced by documentary as brand enforcer and marketing tool for a channel? To secure a place in the schedules does documentary subject matter have to be provocative - grabbing tabloid headlines? Are commissioners and producers bringing important issues to their audiences?

From climate change to medical emergencies to self-experimentation and radical cures, science is rarely immune to controversy. Join journalist and presenter Jon Snow and documentary makers, Ingvil Giske (Good Girl), Teresa Camou (Sunu) and artist, Brian Lobel, to explore how to turn political hot potatoes into groundbreaking and insightful science stories with the potential to change lives.

Join comedian Robin Ince to explore the uncharted territories of unthinkable, forgotten and dream commissions. Following a scene-setting talk, Robin is joined by academic, David A. Kirby, writer and campaigner, Alice Bell and Executive Producer, Tom Gorham to glean from the history of science, the silver screen and science fiction.

Sheffield Doc/Fest welcomes historian and TV presenter Lucy Worsley to the 2015 Festival. Lucy’s inimitable way of bringing English history to life has made her a firm TV favourite. Her most recent programmes for the BBC include; The First Georgians: The German Kings Who Made Britain (2014) and Dancing Cheek To Cheek: An Intimate History of Dance (2014) with Strictly Come Dancing judge Len Goodman. Lucy will share insights into her work as both a presenter and social historian, which focuses on where history meets human interest.

A masterclass with the celebrated American documentary filmmaker Brett Morgan. Dubbed the ‘mad scientist’ of documentary film by The New York Times, Morgan is best known for his films Rolling Stones: Crossfire Hurricane, The Kid Stays In The Picture, about the legendary Hollywood producer Robert Evans, and now Cobain: Montage of Heck, his portrait of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, billed by Rolling Stone as ‘the most intimate rock doc ever’.

A chance to hear BBC controller Kim Shillinglaw, who will discuss her ambitions for the future of factual on her channels, BBC 2 and BBC 4. Kim will be in conversation with the makers of the new BBC 2 series The Detectives, following a Greater Manchester Police specialist unit investigating sex offences. Kim will also talk about her wider ambitions for narrative and storytelling on BBC 2 and BBC 4.

Over the last few years Chris King has earned himself a reputation as one of the most creative and incisive documentary editors in Britain, bagging two Academy Award nominations, two BAFTAs, and numerous other awards for projects like Senna, Exit Through The Gift Shop, Our Way and Welcome To Lagos. In a conversation with Sam Anthony from BBC Factual Commissioning, Chris will share his unique take on storytelling, illustrated with numerous clips, as well as despatches from some of the most creative cutting rooms in the country