Doc/Wonderful
Little did anyone know that the most sought-after commodity at this year’s Sheffield Doc/Fest – now one of the world’s leading documentary film festivals – was not an aged cinema master nor a hype-fuelled debut but in fact a curvaceous bottle of concentrated pomegranate juice. No, the documentary world has not given up the distribution of films to instead pursue interests related to high anti-oxidant drink sales; the drink in question was POM Wonderful, the ‘official sponsor’ of Morgan Spurlock’s latest film POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. Recognised as the man behind Super Size Me, Spurlock is every bit the showman and his film enthusiastically bounds through the world of Hollywood marketing, attempting to create a film about product placement which itself is entirely funded by product placement. The drink is questionable, tasting a bit like sour undiluted Ribena; the film - entertaining, at times missing the mark as a scathing critique of consumerism, but the director’s unashamed eagerness for knowingly selling-out is hilarious.
After the madness that was the opening night, delegates and the public were subject to some of the most exciting documentaries around. Alma Ha’rel’s Bombay Beach was amongst the most poetic films in competition; the melancholic lives of rural-California’s inhabitants are interwoven with choreographed dance sequences to create a beautifully lyrical tale of ordinary people facing the struggles of a banal existence. The Special Jury prize went to The Interrupters, which follows a number of Chicago’s ex-cons as they attempt to intervene in gang conflicts in order to stop violence and was receiving unanimous praise for its assured and intimate style. One of Britain’s leading experimental documentary filmmakers, John Akomfrah was at the festival screening his latest gem The Nine Muses, an idiosyncratic look at the experiences of immigrants first coming to the UK in the 70s. The film blends archive footage, serene shots of the Alaskan landscape, poetry, philosophy and innovative sound design to try to come to terms with the alienation and insignificance many immigrants feel when arriving on our shores. A staggering ‘drama of becoming’ Akomfrah continues to singularly attempt to engage with notions of black British identity and memory.
The Doc/Fest Lifetime Achievement award went to much-loved veteran cinematographer Albert Maysles, one of the founders of ‘Direct Cinema’ – a movement in the early 60s dedicated to documenting life in its purest form, filming events as they unfolded in long uninterrupted takes. His documentary debut Salesman is a classic and held by many as the definitive portrait of the American spirit; and he has made films about The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Muhammad Ali and John F Kennedy whilst they were in their prime. Another masterful presence was that of Martin Scorsese whose A Letter to Elia is a loving paean to director Elia Kazan, who practically discovered Marlon Brando and James Dean as well as creating some of the most powerful actor-orientated films of the 50s. Scorsese’s intimate portrait of a man who so sharply divided his contemporaries’ opinion (he was a communist sympathiser) is clearly cathartic and sees a director whose films are so often associated with masculinity & the expression of violence much more emotionally candid.
Talk of ‘revolutions in technology’ was once again on everyone’s lips as the ominous presence of Twitter made itself known (at any point in the festival the socially-empty phrase: ‘add me on Twitter’ was never far away). The ever-provocative Adam Curtis was milling about and made his thought on the subject clearly known, stating in a masterclass that the phenomenon is a ‘self-aggrandising, smug pressure group’. He was at the festival to promote his latest television triptych All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace, which joyfully denounces the majority’s faith in technology as a means to its moral salvation - another cynically polemical message.
Another far more promising advancement is that of the humble DSLR camera which is set to revolutionise documentary filmmaking. Its unbelievable lightness, cheapness and fantastic image quality means filmmakers no longer have to compromise on quality if they want to make a film under extreme, challenging circumstances. No one could argue that this is what was demanded of Dangfung Dennis whose employment of a DSLR in Hell and Back Again meant he could join foot soldiers deep behind enemy lines in Afghanistan. A war photographer whose growing frustration at the morally indifferent reception his photos were receiving inspired him to start filming his experiences. The finished result is disorientating, brutally honest and a stark reminder to all those who feel apathetic towards the conflicts in the Middle East that people are still caught up in the horrors of warfare.
With a wealth of quality films, the documentary world has never tasted so fine and with more delegates, masterclasses, sessions and films than ever before, Doc/Fest is quickly becoming an assured Sheffield institution. Now all that’s left to do is try and get the gustatory bitterness of POM Wonderful out of our mouths.
Alex Keegan
No comments:
Post a Comment