Despicable Dick & Righteous Richard in Sheffield - the Ö÷²¥´óÐã at Doc/Fest
Post categories: Documentaries
| 09:54 UK time, Wednesday, 8 June 2011
Editor's note: Charlotte Moore opens her post about the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's contribution to the Sheffield Doc/Fest, starting this afternoon, with a clip from Despicable Dick & Righteous Richard, a Storyville commission to be shown at the festival - SB.
I'm a bit of a veteran at . I was there in the 90s when it started out as a haven for documentary anoraks with a penchant for obscure Finnish films, and have seen it grow since then - and particularly in the last few years - into one of the biggest events in the international documentary calendar. It's now well established as one of the year's highlights, where those of us who work in the industry get to compare notes on the burning issues of the moment, do business, and of course watch some brilliant films.
The Ö÷²¥´óÐã has long been committed to helping Doc/Fest cement its position on the documentary festival circuit, and this year promises to be one of our best yet. One of the films I'm most looking forward to is the premiere of Ö÷²¥´óÐã Two's Terry Pratchett - Choosing To Die. There has been quite a lot of press attention around the film already, much of it focusing on the rights and wrongs of assisted death, but at the heart of this moving film is an insight into the impossible predicament faced by Terry, and others like him, who must decide how to deal with degenerative and ultimately fatal illnesses.
Our flagship international documentary strand Storyville will enjoy a bumper year at Doc/Fest this year, with an impressive ten titles showing over the five days. The films range from The Interrupters - Steve James' longitudinal foray into the world of Chicago's spiralling epidemic of violence, following the men and women who intervene in conflicts before they erupt into violence on the streets of the city - to the hard-hitting Knuckle, which explores the seemingly unshakable tradition of bare knuckled fist fighting among Irish travellers. Not one for the faint-hearted! And then there's Despicable Dick & Righteous Richard, which sees the eponymous 69-year-old protagonist undertake a rigorous moral inventory to make amends for a lifetime's transgressions. And what an inventory it is...
I will be taking part in two sessions during the festival - I will be chairing a filmmaking masterclass for first-time documentary makers, and a commissioning panel with colleagues from , and in which we will be swapping our 'desert island docs'. Elsewhere Ö÷²¥´óÐã Two controller Janice Hadlow will be hosting the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Interview, talking to the inimitable Adam Curtis about his recent series All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace, which explored how people have been colonised by the machines they have built. And Ö÷²¥´óÐã Three controller Zai Bennett will be hosting an event on Thursday evening to mark the success of the Fresh documentaries strand, dedicated to first-time filmmakers. My Brother The Islamist is a recent film from the Fresh stable, and it will be screened ahead of the event on Thursday. And Bruce Parry will be attending the festival for the first time, letting us in on his fascinating experiences in the Arctic and other far-flung parts of the world.
Sheffield Doc/Fest is an opportunity for us to step back from the coalface of our day-to-day jobs and take stock of how the documentary industry is faring, and where it might be going. I think we're enjoying a boom time at the moment - they have never been in such demand on television, in the cinema, online and on DVD. The Ö÷²¥´óÐã's repertoire at Sheffield demonstrates that there truly is something for everyone now - whether you want to watch Jig, Sue Bourne's mesmerising peek into the maelstrom that is the Irish Dancing World Championships, or The Camera That Changed The World, Mandy Chang's exploration of the engineers and filmmakers who built and wielded the hand-held cameras that made it possible to record real life as it happened.
On top of all the activity at Sheffield, I announced a number of new documentary commissions earlier this week, confirming the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's commitment to documentaries: Welcome To Bangladesh, which will do for industrial waste what Bafta-winning Welcome To Lagos did for the slum - make it palatable, respectable, even desirable; Chatsworth, a new three-part series for Ö÷²¥´óÐã One, a modern take on Upstairs, Downstairs, offering a glimpse into life in one of Britain's most illustrious stately homes; and 7/7, which I hope will be the definitive film on the deadliest attacks in Britain since World War II - a story of agony, trauma and grief, but also hope, bravery and even forgiveness.
I want to ensure the Ö÷²¥´óÐã keeps pushing the boundaries of creativity, and responds to the fast-changing landscape of Britain in the 21st century. Therefore I look forward to talking to filmmakers at Sheffield to get their take on how we're doing, and look forward to reading your comments here.
Charlotte Moore is Commissioning Editor for documentaries at the Ö÷²¥´óÐã
- Charlotte blogged about Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die in April.
- The Sheffield Doc/Fest starts today. Full details .
Comment number 1.
At 8th Jun 2011, Kit Green wrote:I want to ensure the Ö÷²¥´óÐã keeps pushing the boundaries of creativity, and responds to the fast-changing landscape of Britain in the 21st century.
This line can only have been written by a manager and not a creative.
The best thing that a commissioner could do for documentaries is insist that the viewer is not treated like an idiot with opening precis, ten minutes later (if we are lucky) a recap of the film so far etc. etc. until the plodding end is arrived at with an even longer recap (and a precis of the next episode if a series). Dumbing and dumber.
That might cost money.... most hour long documentaries could fit into twenty minutes but then your cost per hour would go up.
On a more positive note I am pleased that the Ö÷²¥´óÐã can still be involved in the more intelligent end of the market.
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Comment number 2.
At 14th Jun 2011, U14906086 wrote:All this user's posts have been removed.Why?
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Comment number 3.
At 14th Jun 2011, U14906086 wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 4.
At 15th Jun 2011, chooseyourwords wrote:I think the Ö÷²¥´óÐã should be congratulated on not dumbing down in the documentaries department. They still do commission challenging, thought provoking, interesting and intelligent docs, in a much more robust way than their main rivals Channel 4.
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