cinemadaily | Sheffield Wrap

A scene from Erik Gandini's "Videocracy," which received the special jury award the 2009 Sheffield Doc/Fest.

The 2009 Sheffield Doc/Fest wrapped up this weekend and this year’s edition has left the Guardian’s David Cox asking: “Is this the end of the line for the impartial documentary?”

“This year, the normally clubby atmosphere of Sheffield’s documentarists’ convention has been shaken by a genuine row,” reports Cox. “The intensity of the debate at the Campaigning Documentaries: The Thin Line Between Passion and Propaganda session reflects the seriousness of what’s at stake. It’s not just the future of the genre that hangs in the balance, but its very identity. One side maintains that documentary-making must be open-minded, impartial and journalistic. Its purpose should be to help people understand, not to encourage them to emote. The other side insists that the whole point of documentary-making is to effect desirable change. Campaigning is to be relished, not shunned.”

Cox also reports on on Igor Mayboroda’s documentary “Rerberg and Tarkovsky: The Reverse Side of ‘Stalker,’” which chronicles the tempestuous production of Tarkovsky’s film and the role of DP Georgi Rerberg, as well as on the festival’s opening night film “Moving to Mars: A Million Miles from Burma.”

Over at Thompson on Hollywood, Karina Longworth offer her take on “two films dedicated to the idea that the earliest blows to the Iron Curtain, and perhaps those that fundamentally caused the most damage, were delivered by Western pop culture”: “How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin” and “Disco and Atomic War.” Longworth on more of the fest’s offerings here.

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Seafar reports on the Crossover Summit that took place last week at Sheffield to discuss how filmmakers can take advantage of digital platforms for their work. Ray Pride run downs the winners of this year’s Sheffield Doc/Fest at Movie City News. More on the ceremony—at which Erik Gandini’s “Videocracy” received the festival’s first ever special jury award—from Pamela Cohn at her blog. Watch the trailer for “Videocracy” on YouTube. The Mirror’s Dave Tarbox runs down festival highlights from British directors. Jason Solomons at the Guardian has a podcast interview with director Jez Lewis, whose doc “Shed Your Tears and Walk Away” screened at the festival on Saturday. The Documentary Blog has reviews of a couple of the films coming out of the festival, including “P-Star Rising” and “Presumed Guilty.” Check out photos from the festival on Sheffield/Doc Fest’s Flickr. Login to recommend this article » posted on November 9, 2009 Films to Snag Comments 1 paulacrick says on November 9, 2009 at 6:40pm that was a great festival in sheffield with more big players than ever… i really enjoyed it, did business and wore all my shoes!! Login to Leave a Comment »