All Posts Tagged With: "sheffield doc fest"

My HotDocs Picks

April 28th, 2009 • Agnes Varnum • Comments Off • Related Posts • Tags

I’m heading up to this weekend to celebrate with Ron Mann, whose work is featured in this year’s Focus On program of a mid-career filmmaker. The retrospective was curated by filmmaker Astra Taylor, whose Examined Life recently made the festival circuit and a wonderful screening in Austin as part of AFS’s Doc Tour. I’m very excited to see Ron and Astra, and hopefully get to see a bit of their .

I’ll also be moderating a panel on Monday, Creativity in Doc Making at 1 PM on Monday, May 4. Panelists include Jennifer Baichwal, Act of God (Canada), Laura Bari, Antoine (Canada), Peter Liechti, The Sound of Insects: Record of a Mummy (Switzerland) and Menna Laura Meijer, Sweety, The Friends, Betrayal and Murder of Maja Bradaric (Netherlands). I’m excited to watch their films and to think about creativity in doc making. It’s a subject that tends to get overlooked by people who are getting into documentary. They watch a lot of nonfiction television and think that a doc has to follow a certain form while in reality, the best docs push the boundaries of the form. Please stop by if you can!

iW: Sheffield Doc/Fest: Born Again and Joining Forces

November 13th, 2008 • Agnes Varnum • Comments Off • Related Posts • Tags

The Sheffield Doc/Fest in Sheffield, just wound up its fifteenth incarnation, yet the air of it feels new, emerging, and in a way, it is. Director Heather Croall took over three years ago and under her leadership, this five-day event is expanding its horizons and gunning to be one of the top international documentary festivals. Croall said, “I feel like this year we really got into gear, our organization is better than ever.” Evidenced by the energy and good will present despite the damp November weather, it is well on its way. Read the rest of my coverage from Sheffield>>

SDF 08: BLAST!

November 12th, 2008 • Agnes Varnum • Comments Off • Related Posts • Tags

It was with great pleasure that I was finally able to catch up with Paul Devlin’s BLAST! at Sheffield. Paul brought the project to as a work-in-progress in 2006 and being a bit of a geek myself, I was looking forward to seeing the finished work.

SDF 08: Thriller in Manilla

November 6th, 2008 • Agnes Varnum • Comments Off • Related Posts • Tags

A sports fan, I am not. And to boot, I have a very low opinion of boxing. But, I was ready for Thriller in Manila because I know very little about Muhammad Ali and even less about his famous fights with Joe Frazier—the central focus of this excellent film by John Dower.

Let the Doc/Fest Commence

November 5th, 2008 • Agnes Varnum • 1 comment • Related Posts • Tags

I’m sitting in the now-empty, soon-to-be-full press room (view from the window at right) at this year’s Sheffield Doc/Fest, which begins officially opens tonight with Thriller in Manilla. It is a long journey from Austin, Texas to Sheffield, but as usual, I had my share of adventures that I can muse on later. Of course, I was sad to be leaving the States on the cusp of such an important election, but I was able to vote early so I could leave knowing I had done my part. Jet lag worked in my favor because I kept waking up in the middle of the night to check the results. I must have been feeling the American vibe because I woke up at about 4:30 AM just in time to see the speeches. I’ve been tearing up all morning with the enormity of it, but Obama’s win is such a major relief! Now I can sit back and enjoy the festival.

I haven’t figured out my schedule yet, but I have a list of films to check out and Q&As to moderate, so I’ll be busy. I’ll post when I can.

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