Mercury’s Tim Sparke praises Sheffield Doc/Fest in Broadcast

The below article appeared in the Broadcast Magazine on 21st June 2012:
http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/comment/a-meeting-of-great-minds/5043580.article

A meeting of great minds
21 June, 2012
No other festival has the pull of Sheffield Doc/Fest, says Tim Sparke.

There are two important European summer documentary festivals that vie for attendance: Sunnyside in La Rochelle and Doc/Fest in Sheffield.

Despite moving from November to June, Doc/Fest proved this year that it can’t rival Sunnyside for weather, food or sunset. But it has now established itself as the place to which the anglo-centric doc industry migrates with a promise of ‘more sex, docs and rock ’n roll’.

So what is it that Sheffield offers that is so irresistible? Is it the films? Not necessarily – despite having the best from Sundance, some exciting world premieres and even second-run classics, few delegates actually throng to the cinema screens.

Could it be the sessions? They are well attended but never ground-breaking. Sure, hearing national treasure Nick Fraser being interviewed by AA Gill proved a big draw, especially as Nick was promoting his new book Why Documentaries Matter and even autographed a copy for me.

And yes, watching Tabitha Jackson from Channel 4 take on the might of the BBC Arts commissioning glitterati, Mark Bell and Jan Younghusband, in a session produced by the BBC’s Greg Sanderson, was great opera.

Tabitha pitched “the creative expression of us now” against Jan’s “beautifully immersive, joined-up experience”, but even the cash-rich heavyweights were touched by the simplicity and authenticity of ABC Australia’s newcomer Katrina Sedgwick and her pitch-perfect theatrical blockbuster Mrs Carey’s Concert – which moved the rain-soaked audience of 200 and will surely grace British screens in 2013.

Maybe it is the gossip that makes Sheffield so much fun. Certainly the news that the Chinese were boycotting the festival because they didn’t like some of festival programmer Hussain Currimbhoy’s film choices got us all talking.

As did rumours about what really happened in the days preceding the Jubilee, when the old guard apparently warned the new lot that plans to modernise a state occasion with a One Show makeover were liable to upset the viewers. Who knows how much of this is true, but at 1am in the Hotel Mercure bar, no one seems to care.

But no, it is the ‘meet market’ that makes Sheffield the go-to place for doc-makers and distributors: two days of choreographed 15-minute meetings where producers are courted by commissioners, eager to find the next hit. Sheffield Hallam’s Student Union is as far from the atmosphere of La Rochelle as one could possibly get, but the buzz is palpable, the atmosphere is electric and there is a real sense that the seeds of our future filmic delectations are fertilised in that room.

There were 65 projects in negotiation from 20 countries, from Blast Films’ In Your Voice, In Your Heart, a hallucinatory journey through Scottish singer Edwyn Collins’ subconscious as he recovered from a stroke, to Cathedrals of the Culture, a 2D/3D series in which 10 film-makers from Wim Wenders and actor Michael Madsen profile their favourite European buildings.

In 2011, more than two thirds of participants had completed deals within four months. And the chances are, if you did make it to a screening, you’d have caught one of 15 films that came through the meet market, including the opening film, Searching For Sugar Man.

Tim Sparke is chief executive of Mercury Media International