BEHIND THE SCENES
Following the programme launch, Mark caught up with DocFest’s new managing director Annabel Grundy and acting creative director Raul Niño Zambrano to discuss pulling together this year’s event.
Can you give me some idea of what has been happening in the past year in the lead-up to 2023’s DocFest?
We’ve travelled to other festivals, watched many films online and contacted people who have contacted us, thinking about films for this year and films for future festivals. We also have advisors all over the world who we consult with, who watch films on our behalf, and we get feedback from them. We have identified the six strands of film, and we are keen to stick with them. We want people to be able to navigate the festival more easily and we feel this will help. We’re a great team, which works well. We had 2500 film submissions, which had to be narrowed down to just 122. It’s really difficult! We always have to reject some really good films, which is hard, but we have to ask tough questions.
To get an idea of the operation, how big is the DocFest team today?
There’s a small year-round team of about 12, and we expand to about 40 as the festival approaches. We also have up to 500 volunteers, who we can’t manage without. One thing we’re proud of is that in the year-round team we have people who started as volunteers. It’s important to us that people can aspire to become part of the DocFest team.
Could you tell me about the retrospective with Iranian filmmaker Rakhshan Banietemad. That sounds particularly intriguing and jumped out at me during the programme launch speech.
Whilst we react to what’s happening in the world, we’re also able to look at amazing voices in the cinema such as Rakhshan’s. The retrospective on her work shows how her films have influenced and shaped both the industry and creatives within the region of Iran. Her films have always focused on female activists and giving voices to women. We’re screening six of her films, alongside six new films by contemporary Iranian film-makers, which will explore the challenge of everyday life in Iran, but also express their hope for a brighter future.
I’m always keen to see music documentaries and there are quite a few big names this year. Was that a conscious effort?
Music filmmakers often approach us. They’re keen to use Sheffield as the base to launch their films, as there is such a strong musical history and heritage here. We’re very proud that people are so keen to premiere here at DocFest. We know Sheffield is a musical city, and we love to get local people out and joining us.
Have you noticed the audience changing or any new trends with regard to the industry?
They are growing. It’s always good to have an introduction by the film-maker with a Q&A after the film. People really like that, and it has helped the festival grow. Following the pandemic we’re now well on the way to a full recovery. Everyone was so happy Docfest was back in 2022. It was smaller but we’re now growing back to where we were. Cinema as a whole is still in recovery, but we’re in a great position as a festival. People will always come out for something special. The industry response is much stronger too. Films are feelings and dreams writ large, and everyone enjoys the communal feeling of sharing them. Some people say that cinema will go away, but it never will. We as humans want to sit together and experience shared narrative and feelings.
Documentaries are now so much more mainstream. Streaming platforms all have a documentary section alongside the feature films these days. That’s at the core of how DocFest started in Sheffield: people got together and said, ‘Documentaries need to be seen in front of a large audience. We need to celebrate it’. It’s grown since then.
