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SHEFFIELD DOC FEST 2018

Sheffield Doc/Fest to unspool more than 200 films

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- 37 world, 18 international, 24 European and 70 UK premieres are on the cards at the gathering in Northern England, taking place from 7-12 June

Sheffield Doc/Fest to unspool more than 200 films
A Northern Soul by Sean McAllister

The 2018 Sheffield Doc/Fest will open with a world-premiere screening of A Northern Soul [+see also:
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, directed by Sean McAllister, whose previous film, A Syrian Love Story [+see also:
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, won the Doc/Fest Grand Jury Award in 2015. The film reflects on changes in Hull, his Yorkshire hometown, a city divided by Brexit that is simultaneously celebrated as the UK City of Culture and hit by austerity.

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It is the first of more than 200 titles that will play at Doc/Fest from 7-12 June, including 37 world, 18 international, 24 European and 70 UK premieres. The slate of films will compete in a number of award categories: Grand Jury Award, Environmental Award, Art Doc Award, Illuminate Award, Tim Hetherington Award, Youth Jury Award, New Talent Award, Short Doc Award, and Doc/Dispatch Prize. 

Several UK and European films will be competing for the main Grand Jury Award. A Woman Captured [+see also:
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sees director Bernadett Tuza-Ritter investigate modern-day slavery in Hungary. Of Fathers and Sons [+see also:
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is a German-Lebanese-Qatari-Syrian co-production directed by Talal Derki, in which the Return to Homs [+see also:
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 director poses as a sympathetic Syrian director to gain access to a Northern Syrian militia fighting for an Islamic caliphate. The Silence of Others [+see also:
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interview: Almudena Carracedo, Esther …
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is a Spanish-US production directed by Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar that reveals the epic struggle of victims of Spain’s 40-year dictatorship under General Franco, who continue to seek justice to this day.

A large number of world premieres at Doc/Fest are by European filmmakers. These include Mari Gulbiani’s Before Father Gets Back [+see also:
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, set in a Georgian village where many men have left for Syria, in which two girls escape a shared longing for their fathers through the magic of cinema. In Joost Vandebrug’s Bruce Lee and the Outlaw [+see also:
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, a young homeless boy is adopted by Bruce Lee, the notorious “King of the Underworld”, and goes to live with him in the tunnels beneath Bucharest. Against the Tides [+see also:
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by Stefan Stuckert follows British open-water swimmer Beth French’s attempts to be the first person to complete “Ocean’s Seven” – swimming seven of the world's most dangerous sea crossings in a single calendar year. Gun No. 6 [+see also:
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by James Newton is the story of Britain’s deadliest gun, while the Dutch-US co-production Too Beautiful: Our Right to Fight [+see also:
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is about a Cuban boxer fighting for the ban on female boxers to be lifted. Petr Šprincl’s Vienna Calling [+see also:
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is a Czech docu-fiction road movie that sees grave-robbing artist Ondrej Jajcaj and his sidekick journey to Vienna to return some famous teeth. The Ballymurphy Precedent [+see also:
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by Callum Macrae tells the story of 11 innocent people who died at the hands of the British Army in a Catholic estate in Belfast in 1971. Under the Wire [+see also:
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by Chris Martin tells the story of journalist Marie Colvin’s and photographer Paul Conroy’s ill-fated trip to Syria in 2012. Home Games [+see also:
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by Alisa Kovalenko is a Ukrainian-French-Polish production that tells the story of Alina, a poor, football-obsessed 20-year-old girl from Kyiv. The French film Out [+see also:
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by Denis Parrot addresses LGBTQ+ coming-out stories exclusively through social-media footage. The Finnish-Norwegian-Indian effort Boys Who Like Girls [+see also:
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by Inka Achte follows Ved, who joins a boys’ club in India run by “Men Against Violence and Abuse”. German Class [+see also:
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by Florian Heinzen-Ziob follows the ups and downs of a group of children from abroad enrolled in the German school system. Venezuela, Mexico and Germany have collaborated on Está Todo Bien by Tuki Jencquel, about an activist who delivers medicines in Venezuela. Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin is Arwen Curry’s film about the trailblazing rebel who shook up the world of literature, and finally, Grenfell by Ben Anthony features accounts from the people affected by the most devastating tower-block fire in British history.

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