Sheffield Doc/fest 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

This year The BBC Interview invites choirmaster, presenter and populariser of choral singing, Gareth Malone to join them for an exclusive interview. Explore Gareth’s extraordinary rise to fame, and hear how his passion for music has reignited interest in choral music through the BAFTA and RTS award-winning BBC 2 series The Choir. His 2011 follow-up series The Choir: Military Wives led Gareth to not only beat the annual X Factor winner’s single to Christmas Number 1, but the single is the most pre-ordered music item of all time on Amazon in the UK   Taken from Doc/Fest 2012

In the changing world of print journalism, newspapers and magazines have to adapt quickly to the increasing demand of readers on television, on the net, and even on their phones. In order to address this widening gap between news and technology, traditional print media have begun to incorporate video and film work to heighten, enhance and even stand for their work. This panel will discuss how media outlets are commissioning and incorporating video and how filmmakers can find a place, and a voice in this medium.    Recorded at Doc/Fest 2011.   

A Masterclass with Bedlam Productions' Gareth Unwin, Simon Egan and Simon Breen as they celebrate the success of The Kings Speech (2010) and discuss their latest documentary projects. They will also examine how the demand for history films often results in documentaries that become dramas.  Taken from Doc/Fest 2011.    

Adam Curtis is a documentary maker with one of the most distinctive visual styles. Prolific in his blogging about some of the world’s most pressing issues, his films often reflect the opinions and arguments he has developed through meticulous research and rigorous planning. In various series commissioned by the BBC, Curtis has made extensive and imaginative use of their archive footage, often employing it as a visual accompaniment to his informative narrative. Recipient of Doc/Fest's inaugural Sheffield Inspiration Award and the winner of numerous other accolades, Curtis has built a reputation for consistently producing innovative output across different spectrums. His films can be broadly characterised by their thought provoking content, carried by twists of irony and laconic humour. His credits include The Living Dead, The Century of the Self and The Power of Nightmares, and span across a career stretching 25 years.    In this session from Doc/Fest 2011, Adam will be discussing the inspiration behind his la

Want to know the tricks of the trade for making your first documentary? Well this is the place to start. This session will cover the crucial areas for making your first feature documentary, looking at how to put your crew together, creative ways to raise a budget, how to make that all important taster video and how to gain access to that amazing story and pitch it. Hear firsthand from a range of young filmmakers who have managed to break through the industry.  This session was part of the Film Nation: Shorts scheme, a competition that invites young people to make, and vote for, films celebrating the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Recorded at Doc/Fest 2011.

British feature documentary hot shots come together to debate the space for docs on the silver screen. Every panellist will bring something different, from highlighting the importance of a story's international appeal, to enlisting a solid key crew, to using an authentic stylistic approach-feature producers, directors and distributors will be sharing their experiences with the audience.   

Recorded at Doc/Fest 2011. The mass media of the past century have been restrictive by nature, with audiences confined to a passive role- but that has now completely changed. The inclusive nature of the Internet invites open participation amongst storytellers and audiences alike, and that means putting the audience right and the centre of the action in a game-like fashion. Storytellers of every stripe will now have to learn a new grammar of storytelling, one that is only now being invented. The challenge for those working within the media industry is to keep up with these changes- and the question becomes, how can storytellers use the new possibilities at their disposal to their advantage?   

What does it take to be a successful indie? How to stay around long term? Come and hear from some different companies. KEO Films, Storyvault Films and Century Films work mainly in the UK and World of Wonder works mainly in the USA> All have been making prime time TV for years and have chosen to remain independent rather than get bought by a super indie. What are the pros and cons of not selling to a studio or a super indie? Hear how they stay alive and thrive in today's landscape. From Doc/Fest 2014.

  Join film legend Albert Maysles of Maysles Films in a conversation featuring selections from his unsurpassed body of work, which spans over 55 years of filmmaking. This masterclass is from Doc/Fest 2011. The inaugural recipient of The Sheffield Docfest Lifetime Achievement Award will take questions about his iconic work — from Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens to Muhammad and Larry and current projects — and share his philosophy as a documentary filmmaker. He was the guest of honor at the Friday Night Gala Dinner.