Sheffield Doc/Fest 2018: A Northern Success Story

The 25^th Edition of the Sheffield Documentary Festival took place from the 7^th to 12^th June and, a quarter of a century later, it’s still the greatest place to watch documentaries in the UK.

The Doc/Fest has always been very fortunately situated by taking place in the middle of the year. This means the programme included films with previous festival buzz such as: Sundance favourite Hale County This Morning, This Evening; terrific Congo politics doc Kinshasa Makambo, which initially played at Berlinale 2018 and won an award at Sheffield; and Khalik Allah’s immersive Black Mother, first shown at True/False Film Festival.

On the flipside, there was a boatload of world or European premieres. These included: Under the Wire, a harrowing adaptation of war correspondent Paul Conroy’s memoir and his work with the esteemed Marie Colvin; The Gospel of Eureka, a marvellous look at the colliding worlds of evangelical Christians and drag queens in Eureka Springs, Arkansas; and Too Beautiful: Our Right to Fight, a dazzling bio-pic of Namibia, a female Cuban boxer aiming to be the change her country needs in terms of allowing women to compete at a professional level ahead of the Rio Olympics.

The opening night saw the premiere of Sean McAllister’s thought-provoking new documentary A Northern Soul, which looks at Hull as it’s nominated the City of Culture by following a warehouse worker who attempts to live his creative dream by hosting a hip-hop workshop for kids. With some parallels to McAllister’s own life in Hull before his career took off, it was the Northern story that Sheffield needed to kick things off.

Director of programming Luke Moody did an excellent job of curating the amazing range of films. Lots of special events accentuated the festival’s cultural significance. Guest speakers included legendary newsreader and journalist Sir Trevor McDonald, media entrepreneur Jamal Edwards, and transgender activist and model Munroe Bergdorf. The discussions revolved around mental health, gender equality, and filmmaking in general. For the latter topic, there was seldom anyone more necessary to listen to than Matthew Heineman, Oscar-nominated filmmaker of the extraordinary Cartel Land and City of Ghosts, who delivered this year’s BAFTA Masterclass.

Various alternate reality experiences continued to point towards virtual reality and augmented reality as the future – or even the present – of innovative cinematic storytelling.  Michelle Gabel and Michaela Holland are the creators of Face to Face, a highly poignant profile of Michelle Fox, a woman who lost her eyesight after an accidental gunshot by her ex-husband and now wears a prosthetic mask in place.

The installation is the best example of incredible alternate reality experiences offered at the Doc/Fest this year. It’s the culmination of every art form in tandem with one another – first, there’s a room to explore with photography, objects and illustrations (from Michelle’s children), followed by the VR headset experience where Michelle recalls her life before and after the accident. Phantasmagorical sounds and visuals help us understand how she perceives the world now.

The following were some of the film highlights at this year’s Doc/Fest:

McQueen (Ian Bonhôte & Peter Ettedgui)

Following A Northern Soul, the festival transitioned down south for a special preview of the affecting story of Lee Alexander McQueen. Charting his journey from young Lee to the fashion giant Alexander McQueen, the eponymous documentary is heartfelt and heart-breaking in equal measure.

Using a classic, chronologically sound, structure of archive footage combined with talking heads, Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui’s formation of McQueen’s biography is candid and intriguingly novelistic with five of his major shows demarcated into each chapter. Each chapter is bookended by an ever-changing image of the iconic skull that’s expanded upon through inventive modification designed to reflect each stage of his life.

The score can be overbearing at times and the narrative structure could have benefitted from bolder creative decisions to parallel the man’s creative risks but where McQueen is really in sync with McQueen is in the devilishly funny anecdotes provided by many of the contributors, particularly regarding his relationship with muse Isabella Blow. Though we will never fully understand the psyche of McQueen, the interviews with various family members are crucial in helping us delve into the mindset. One of the things we learn is the disturbing personal significance of his controversial 1993 show The Highland Rape.

Sadly, Lee’s life was derailed by the drugs he used after gaining international fame, and the fame itself that was resultant of the enormous talent, evidenced by his otherworldly fashion shows. Despite the emotionally taxing third act, this documentary is an inspiring account of perseverance and proving people wrong – Bobby Hillson, founder of the St Martin’s School of Art MA Fashion course, admits to initially judging him by his appearance – and McQueen’s upbringing as an East End boy born to a cabbie established it as the perfect double bill with Sean McAllister’s portrait of a working-class hero in A Northern Soul for the festival’s first night.

Three Identical Strangers (Tim Wardle)

When producer Grace Hughes-Hallett brought development executive Tim Wardle the story of three brothers separated at birth who discovered the disturbing secrets behind their disconnection, he knew he had to be the one to make the documentary. Tim Wardle has taken the golden premise of Three Identical Strangers and has turned it into one of the year’s best thrillers in his execution.

With the suspense of a Bourne movie, Three Identical Strangers is a remarkable documentary about identity and how deep one must go to discover the truth about themselves. That was the case for Eddy Galland, David Kellman, and Robert Shafran, the three long-lost brothers adopted into different families around New York. Everybody pointed out their similarities, but nobody asked about their differences. Their entire lives are affected by the revelations of their origins, which raise major questions about human nature.

The Bourne comparison is apt not only for the theme of the movie but the gripping style of it too – Wardle employs an investigative, populist Hollywood form of storytelling to tell the insane tale and it’s perfect for a narrative where every unpeeled layer is stranger than the last. The tantalising, perfectly selected quotes from each talking head have powerful pay-offs. Occupying a similar world as recent mystery docs Tickled and The Imposter, Three Identical Strangers is unmissable for any fans of the genre. It’s an astonishing rabbit hole to go down and the less you know about the real history, the better your viewing experience will be.

No Greater Law (Tom Dumican)

Ooft. Arguably the most provocative documentary to play at the festival this year, No Greater Law follows the Followers of Christ, a Christian sect based in Idaho’s Treasure Valley, who don’t believe in modern medicine. One father, Dan Sevy, is a prominent figure in the church and has lost two children to illnesses. They’re one of many children buried in the grave sites nearby. The sad part is, most of the illnesses afflicted upon these children were easily preventable and the sadder part is that Sevy and the fellow elders of the church believe only God should have control over the human body.

Sevy’s opposition is in the form of local activists, two of them being former church members Linda Martin and Brian Hoyt. They’re catalysts in the Canyon County Police’s investigation into the Followers of Christ, circled around child protection. Half the documentary is Sevy’s side of the story, an inner look into a devout mind and the abnormal philosophies within it. The other half is thankfully the side of the activists and law enforcement, because if the focus was solely on Sevyand the Followers then the film may have been too unbearable. Testimonies and hard facts, such as three children dying in the space of four months force Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue to take the lead but, ultimately, policy must be decided in the Senate.

Filmmaker Tom Dumican is there to capture every step along the way and is given his subjects’ personal feelings throughout (“How many children will it take to die before people say this is not acceptable?” pleads the sheriff to the camera). The lingering discussions yield chilling responses from many sympathetic individuals who believe in religious freedom before anything. Audience members, both sat in the council and those watching the movie, were obviously shaking their heads. No Greater Law is a powerful work that will enrage anybody with a heart.

Minding the Gap (Bing Liu)

The winner of the festival’s Audience Award, Minding the Gap is one of the greatest coming-of-age films ever made. Set in Rockford, Illinois, Bing Liu’s magnificent documentary follow three young skateboarders who transition to adulthood and interrogate their pasts as they prepare to confront their futures. The three boys are: Zack, who becomes a father in his early 20’s; Keire, the only African-American in the social circle and the youngest of them all by a few years; and Bing himself. Bing has captured skateboard footage of himself and his friends over the years and realises the potential of a feature-length film that explores their deep personal connection to the sport.

Starting off as a jovial, customary chronicle of friendship and youngsters having fun, things change when Liu exerts a masterful Kubrick-level match cut. The first shot is a carefully composed exterior view of a house at night, which is enlivened by the boys and their fellow party animals on the rooftop. Cut to the house on a sunny morning and it’s in a slicker shape, setting the scene for Zack dealing with a crying baby and feeling emotionally strained due to parenthood, unstable employment and his relationship with his girlfriend. That cut is all it takes to know that their lives will never be the same again. Liu’s concise interviews and probing questions create a portrait of a youth that was never normal for any of them from the outset.

The debutante filmmaker’s self-exploration and examination of his two friends’ lives has themes of child abuse, domestic abuse, alcoholism, emotional suppression and anger management. The multiple layers are smartly connected under the umbrella of toxic masculinity and the details are divulged slowly over the course of the film, keeping you intrigued on the edge more than most contemporary dramas. Liu’s cinematography is well-advanced for a first-time director, full of intelligent shot choices that are aided by the smooth tracking bestowed on any cameraman who rides a skateboard whilst filming.

Even some of the best coming-of-age films, like the recent gems Boyhood, Moonlight and Lady Bird, simply cannot capture the beautiful and awful tangible qualities of real life, that may only exist in documentaries, and Bing Liu has caught lightning in a bottle. Bing and his friends have bared the most intimate details of their lives for this ambitious project and it has great value, for Minding the Gap illuminates important issues of everyday life in the most endearing and emotional ways. It’s pure catharsis.

Sheffield Doc/Fest 2018: Interviews

Of course, that’s not all. I was able to speak with ten filmmakers about ten exceptional films I saw at the festival. Film Inquiry will be publishing a series of features called Doc/Fest 10 which will be combined review and interview pieces for the following ten films and filmmakers over the coming days:

A Northern Soul, director Sean McAllister

A Woman Captured, director Bernadett Tuza-Ritter

Boys Who Like Girls, director Inka Achte

Lost Warrior, directors Søren Steen Jespersen and Nasib Farah

The Eyes of Orson Welles, director Mark Cousins

The Insufferable Groo, director Scott Christopherson and producer Jared Harris

The Silence of Others, directors Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar

The Trade, director Matthew Heineman

Time Trial, director Finlay Pretsell

Too Beautiful: Our Right to Fight, director Maceo Frost and boxer Namibia Flores Rodriguez