Sheffield 23

At Sheffield 2023 Business Doc Europe spoke with Irena Taskovski, CEO and founder of Taskovski Films, a production and sales outfit based in London and currently celebrating its 20th year of activity. The company CEO described her journey so far, and shared insights into her current editorial policy and approach to the business of doc.

A thoughtful and evocative tribute to the life – and talent – of British photographer Tish Murtha, Sheffield DocFest’s opening night film Tish, directed by Paul Sng, traces the life of this innately skilled and driven artist, and details her commitment to fighting for the communities such as the one she grew up in. The film celebrates a woman whose work deserves to stand alongside considerably more acclaimed practitioners of the craft.

In Melanie Manchot’s feature debut, a recovering alcohol and substance addict re-enacts moments from his own chaotic past life as he takes on the acting role of historical embezzler Thomas Goudie, whose public arrest in 1901 was reconstructed on celluloid (BFI Archive). Part observational doc and part fiction, all the support roles in STEPHEN are played by former or recovering addicts. “The shoot was probably the best three and a half weeks of my life,” Manchot tells BDE. “And I think for most of the cast as well.”

Fictional newsrooms in movies don’t have half the tension and excitement of the one shown in Indian director Vinay Shukla’s feature documentary While We Watched (a UK premier in Sheffield Doc Fest’s Rebellions strand). The film follows charismatic Hindi TV news journalist Ravish Kumar, a figure with a gravitas and authority reminiscent of US journalist Ed Murrow. Director Shukla talks to Business Doc Europe.

Prolific Scottish producer Sonja Henrici, who will be deliberating over docs in First Film Competition in 2023, discusses her slate of new films and projects, which include Finlay Pretsell’s upcoming Douglas Gordon: Self Divided, about the maverick Turner Prize winning Scottish artist, and a brace of films on mental health, one of which, Amy Hardie’s film Untitled Love Story, had a rough cut screening earlier this week in Sheffield.

Joining December 19 from the BFI’s UK Global Screen Fund, Grundy will be responsible for the fest’s business affairs, partnerships & fundraising, production & operations as well as audience development. The role is a new, joint leadership position and will work collaboratively with Raul Niño Zambrano who has moved into the role of Acting Creative Director.

As a visceral and immersive piece of front-line war coverage, Ukrainian filmmaker and journalist Mstyslav Chernov’s film 20 Days in Mariupol presents a savage and often desperately bleak portrait of a city under siege, and reflects on the bravery of those struggling to survive within it.

In Misho Antadze’s short documentary Metabolism, selected for Sheffield, robots have taken over some of the functions we inexorably associate with human beings, such as milking cows and waiting on tables. “The observational documentary work that I make, it's mostly because I'm curious. I want to see these things, so making these films is a way of taking a look for myself and obviously to bring the audience with me as well,” Antadze says.

MeetMarket, Sheffield’s flagship industry event for new documentary features and series, is open for projects. Now in its 18th year, the MeetMarket is one of the world’s most important markets and pitching forums for documentary and factual programming, and looks to connect docmakers from across the world with UK and international industry experts. Submissions deadline: February 17 2023.

Netherlands-based Ukrainian filmmaker Mariia Ponomarova talks about her new doc which was developed, shot and now completed in the year since Sheffield 2022. The film focuses on three windows of her old family apartment in Kyiv, as we hear the director’s mother, friends and a former lover reminiscing on the soundtrack. “It was necessary for me to do something quite quickly because it was important and dear to me. It is quite a personal story and I had to externalise it.”