Written by Sheffield Doc/Fest | 19 June 2009 | in news - Documentary

From Sheffield DocFest:

This year has seen Sheffield Doc/Fest receive its highest number of film submissions to date. As a result Doc/Fest has extended the deadline for submitting a film to this year's festival to 6pm, Wednesday 1 July 2009.

This gives filmmakers an extra 15 [10 - sorry, Ed!] days to submit a film, which can be completed through Doc/Fest's website www.sheffdocfest.com/view/submitafilm. Applicants may contact Film Programmer Hussain Currimbhoy if they wish to discuss their film before submission ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

The one hundred or so chosen films will be screened to Doc/Fest's renowned audience of 1,500 delegates and members of the public. Over 80 Commissioning Editors have already confirmed attendance at Doc/Fest 2009.

Written by Rachel Devenport | 11 May 2009 | in news - Documentary

From PR Rachel Devenport:

Joining the Docs, the pioneering on-demand documentary channel, has today released UK documentary Us Now for free for a limited period via its new website www.joiningthedocs.tv.

Us Now is a UK documentary film about the power of mass collaboration, government and the Internet. It is a description of a world on the cusp of the greatest social change since the invention of the printing press. It confronts politicians George Osborne and Ed Milliband with the possibilities for participative government as described by Don Tapscott and Clay Shirky amongst others.

Joining the Docs features a wide range of films made by passionate, committed directors from Europe, North America and Asia. Titles released in recent months include the Oscar short-listed IOUSA, The Unwinking Gaze and The Putin System.

The film will be available for free download for a limited period at http://www.joiningthedocs.tv

Written by Sonja Henrici | 19 February 2009 | in news - Documentary

Cannes Winner gives masterclass at ECA
Sergey Dvortsevoy Comes to Edinburgh: Fri 20 Feb 2009

Scottish Documentary Institute is thrilled to host multi-award winning Kazakh filmmaker Sergey Dvortsevoy in Edinburgh to talk about his work! This really is a one-off masterclass that is not to be missed.

Written by Nic Wistreich | 03 January 2009 | in news - Documentary

"The day after the war we need a new beginning. Let's start planting seeds of humanity and trust now"
Hope Man, Jan 2nd 2009

The Israeli city of Sderot lies a few miles from Gaza and towards the end of 2008 the French TV Station Arté produced 80 short films/vlogs in both Sderot and the Gaza strip where Palestinians and Israelis talk about their hopes, dreams and fears. The last episode of Gaza Sderot : Life in Spite of Everything, was produced on 23rd December, four days before the bombardment started.

Films from both areas are presented side by side in a Flash interface letting you act as editor to decide which stories to watch and when to change perspective, with a scroll-bar in the middle to take you back in time through the 40 days the project ran for.

In a conflict where the abject suffering, mistrust, injustice and fear seems to blind clarity and reason, it's seems - tho I have only just begun to explore what is there - to be a vital illustration of the men, womena and children at the heart of it, whose lives are under threat from Israeli bombardments or Gazan rockets. There have been no updates since the 23rd December, and it looks unlikely that there will be more for a while - from the French producer, Serge Gordey on New Years Eve:

"After many attempts to communicate in every possible fashion, I finally managed to talk on the phone with our Palestinian colleague, Yousef Atwa. Yousef is the producer who has been leading the project in Gaza all these weeks.

Everyone’s concern is above all to find some shelter from the « collateral damages » of the air strikes, he explained to me : when you live in Gaza City, the odds are that some way or another you live close to a police center, administrative offices, military premises, government centers, cultural institutions that are headed or influenced by the current power, etc. And in that case, you might get hit, even if you are not the primary target. Therefore, our production team in Gaza is disbanded at the moment: all the members of the team have been trying to find shelter together with their dear ones, in other places, such as the countryside, with friends or relatives.

Moreover, communication lines are broken because of the electricity cuts that are more severe than ever. And on the top of that, people don’t move around the city so as to avoid being hit by unpredictable air force attacks.

From all this it was easy to understand that  getting into contact with our characters is proving to be very difficult."

It's similar in concept to the Life Must Go on in Gaza and Sderot blog, written by “Peace Man” in Sajaia Refugee camp in Gaza and “Hope Man” in Sderot, which describes itself as:

This blog is written by 2 friends…  The media coverage on both sides has been extremely biased. Our Blog is written by 2 real people living and communicating on both sides of the border.

Of the current conflict, Hope Man said on Jan 2nd:

"For 5 months there was an almost complete cease fire. Instead of taking advantage of this long period of quiet to reach a long term agreement, both sides spent their time preparing for this war by planning and arming. No serious efforts were made to start a dialog...

The day after the war we want to start finding ways to work together and create a normality. We are only several kilometers apart and that will never change. It is extremely important to widen our dialog and create trust between those that are willing to talk. To share our stories, fears and hopes.

The day after the war we need a new beginning. Let's start planting seeds of humanity and trust now.

Written by Rebecca Day | 18 November 2008 | in news - Documentary

From Rebecca Day at the Scottish Documentary Institute, news of an incredible-looking series of documentary masterclasses:

After well attended masterclasses and workshops with Jim Sutherland, Gaston Kabore and Fernanda Rossi and Andrey Paounov we're anxiously awaiting the visits by acclaimed documentary director Nicholas Philibert, Oliver Hodge (Garbagge Warrior), and Three Miles North of Molkom directors Robert Cannan & Corinna Villari-McFarlane.

Directing Documentaries with Nicolas Philibert

Friday 21 Nov 2.00pm-5.00pm

Lecture Theatre G40, Edinburgh College of Art, 74 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh, EH3 9DF
Free but please RSVP to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

We are absolutely delighted to have renowned French director Nicolas Philibert to hold a 3 hour masterclass of his work.

Probably most well-known for the multi award winning Etre et Avoir (To be and to Have) he is one of contemporary cinema's most acclaimed documentarists. He began his education by studying philosophy and later worked as an assistant director with such filmmakers as Rene Allio and Alain Tanner. Philibert's ability to approach man with tenderness, directness and sensitivity appears in his film In the Land of the Deaf, an exploration of the world through the eyes of those born without the sense of hearing. In 1995 Philibert revisited the subject of museums--also explored in Louvre City--finding humanity and humor within these stately institutions. Animals and More Animals examines the zoological wing of France's Museum of Natural History, which had been closed for years, and brings to light its unusual treasures. Minimalist and exceedingly moving He will be discussing past work and most recent work Retour en Normandie (Return to Normandy).

Written by Sonja Henrici | 30 October 2008 | in news - Documentary

With more sites popping up for raising documentary finance, such as Reel Changes and Reelisor, (not to mention IndieGoGo, IndieShares, Kinooga and the UK's IndieMaverick and MovieMogulFund), a free workshop on making trailers for fundraising from the Scottish Documentary Institute looks just the ticket (thanks Sonja):

Not to be missed! A unique opportunity to absorb all you need to know about how to make your trailer work and be seen by all the right people in the industry. Trailer Mechanics is a one-day experiential workshop for producers, directors, writers and editors in the documentary field from beginners to veterans. It teaches how to put together and structure a 3 to 15 minute demo of a documentary film for fundraising purposes.

Written by Administrator | 03 July 2008 | in news - Documentary

BRITDOC 08: 23rd-25th July, Keble College, Oxford.

BRITDOC is the bespoke documentary film festival connecting international funders, distributors and filmmakers, from the Foundation behind such films such as We Are Together and Black Gold. 

The festival this year boasts a double theme: Comedy and Music. Director Larry Charles (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Borat) will be attending for a masterclass and key-note speech, while special musician guests include Mercury Prize nominee Nitin Sawhney and acclaimed composers Michael Nyman and Jonathan Dove. 

Written by Nic Wistreich | 05 June 2007 | in news - Documentary

Leeds-based filmmaker Mohamed Al Daradji has returned to Baghdad, where he shot his Oscar-shortlisted debut feature Ahlaam, screening it to over a 1000 locals and politicans at the national cinema. The journey has been documented by the filmmaker and is currently showing on Al Jazeera UK on Sky (details below).

"It's about human stories... The Iraqi people change from being just a number used by the media as a way to fill out the news to becoming normal human beings."
Mohamed Al Daradji

Ahlaam, from Northern production company Human Film has been highly praised throughout its festival run, and is one of the more remarkable independent filmmaking stories of recent years. Daradji, inspired to film in Iraq following a dream he had after watching  BBC News, on a micro-budget used a cast and crew of largely untrained Iraqis to recreate both pre- and mid-war Baghdad to tell the story of three Iraqis left to survive in an asylum during the 'shock and awe' campaign. Kidnapped by both the insurgents and the US military (who each accused him of being a stooge of the other), Mohamed worked on set with a machine gun in one hand and camera in the other and was almost executed in his attempts to bring this heartbreaking human story to screen.

While support in the UK has been slow, news has emerged in recent weeks that director Antonio Bird (Face, Ravenous, The Hamburg Cell) is to produce Daradji's next film Umm Hussein, which follows a mother across Iraq as she searches for her son. The project has already been selected for the Sundance writers lab. Post production on Shooting In Iraq, which documents the  story of the making of Ahlaam, is also moving ahead, which has to be one of the most eagerly awaited behind the scenes since Eleanor Coppola's Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmakers Apocalypse. In further good news Human Film have announced that the Ahlaam will be released in France, Spain and the UK later this year. We hope to publish an interview with Mohamed, conducted earlier in the year, very soon.

Trip of Dreams is showing on Al Jazeera, Sky Channel 514 on Wednesday 6th June 00:30, 11:30, 20:30; Thursday 7th June 05:30, 19:30; Friday 8th June 03:00, 16:30; Saturday 9th June 06:30 

Written by Dave McNary | 23 February 2007 | in news - Documentary

Variety (which is now free!) reports:

Inspired partly by "This Film Is Not Yet Rated," a veteran showbiz insurer has started offering coverage for documakers, aimed at allowing free use of film clips.

Initiative by Media/Professional Insurance is designed to explicitly allow documentarians to retain coverage if they rely on the "fair use" doctrine, which holds that copyrighted material may be used without compensation if it's for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research.

Written by James MacGregor | 18 November 2006 | in news - Documentary

A film director's first ever documentary film has scooped a prestigious Grierson Award, recognised as a top UK documentary film honour. The award was presented by the Grierson Trust at the Royal Geographic Society in London on Friday night, 17^th November. The ceremony was to be televised on BBC 4.