FIlm Review
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: Brimstone & Glory
Documentaries are often stigmatised as being dry, overly-dependent on factual information and nothing more than something you’d watch on TV. Obviously, that opinion is nonsense, but it’s fair to say that some factual films aren’t the most visually appealing. However, there are many documentaries which are absolutely beautiful. Brimstone & Glory falls into this category. …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: Risk
Laura Poitras is one of the most highly regarded and respected documentary film makers working today. She’s also one of the most hard-working. No stranger to controversy, her last film about Edward Snowdon, Citizenfour, won her an Academy Award. Along with My Country, My Country and The Oath, it was the third film in her …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: Icarus
Cycling has always had an iffy reputation in terms of doping, but the admission by Lance Armstrong that he took performance enhancing drugs throughout his career jeopardised the credibility of the sport. There have been several films made about his downfall, but Icarus approaches the scandal from a different angle. Director Bryan Fogel sets out …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: Wilders
The last decade has seen a worrying trend in Western politics. The rise in popularity of right wing political parties and politicians culminated with Brexit and the election of Donald Trump in 2016. However, all across Europe there has been huge gains for nationalistic and fascistic groups. Whilst the likes of Marine Le Pen in …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: City of Ghosts
There have been many documentaries made about the heroism and dedication of war correspondence and conflict photographers. However, with the changing face of news journalism and in the digital age, we’ve started to see the rise of citizen journalism. This first came to the fore during the ‘Arab Spring’, with Tunisians and Egyptians using mobile …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: Chasing Coral
With the US pulling out of the Paris accord and the general antipathy of the new Administration to environmental issues, the future of our planet looks bleak. However, with the advancements in new clean technologies, there’s still a ray of hope. In his last film, Chasing Ice, director Jeff Orlowski demonstrated the power of visualisation; …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: Unrest
What science and medicine can’t understand, often gets stigmatise. Sufferers of ME, or chronic fatigue syndrome, has been the recipients of a whole raft of negative labels. From hysteria to yuppie flu, over the centuries millions have been categorised anywhere between lazy to mad. It’s an illness which disproportionality afflicts women. Which is probably one …
Film Review: A Good Day to Die
War reporting is as much a vocation as an addiction. Most photographers and journalists seem to become hooked on the adrenaline and struggle to adapt to adapt to normal life. Whilst there’s a powerful drive to get the best shots and document the victims of war, all too often it has an adverse effect on …
Film Review: Destination Unknown
There have been so many documentaries made about the Holocaust that it would be a fair assumption to make that there’s very little new ground to cover. However, the lowest point in human existence must never be forgotten or downplayed. Each generation has a duty to ensure nothing like it ever happens again. Whilst most …
Film Review: Freedom for the Wolf
Despite the dire straits of the current political situations in ‘First-World’ nations around the world, we generally take our freedoms for granted. Freedoms of speech, religion, belief etc are just parts of everyday life. This is not the case for large parts of the world. With the ‘Arab Spring’ and recent conflicts in the Middle …