Sheffield 24

For her debut feature, Scottish-based Spanish filmmaker Inma de Reyes follows the young would-be matador Borja as he prepares for a career in the bullring. “I have never been interested in bullfighting,” admits the director. “My family have never taken me to a bullfight or anything like that. I’m just completely oblivious to that world. But I think now you cannot be neutral in Spain. You’re either in favour or you’re against…”

Relentless Memory, a film about indigenous peoples and human rights, world premieres in International Competition. Piropolis, telling the story of a firefighting company fighting simultaneous devastating fires in Chile, has its European premiere. Meanwhile in MeetMarket, A Troop of Bears is presented. The doc project tells the story of the encounter between the son of a disappeared detainee and the man who betrayed him during the Chilean military dictatorship.

Dutch director Rieneke Van Santen presents her campaigning doc project 24 Strong, set in Papua New Guinea and which underlines the universal message of press freedom as “an indispensable pillar of any democracy.” The film's story narrative is woven together by the themes of gender equality, corruption, collectivism and survival. “What strikes me most in this story are the women,” says Van Santen. “It's the women that are leading the investigations and that are exposing corrupt businessmen and politicians.”

In the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, 11-year-old Vrej is, in equal part, philosopher, dreamer and realist. He wants to be a dentist, but is fully aware that he is being prepared for combat, as are all the kids of his age, both and girls. “He was just a child full of wonder, full of dreams, but also very much older [than his years],” says director Hairabedian of her subject. “His personality was what really attracted the lens, and that's what kept us going.”

Bosnian Maja Novaković sighs as she contemplates the immense effort it took to make her debut feature doc (sold by Lightdox and premiering in International Competition at Sheffield DocFest). This was a project shot over several years in often freezing conditions. “All I know is that I wanted to shoot a film about alienation and loss, grief, and this feeling of emptiness [experienced] by one man. I wanted to portray his inner silence and his inner world,” Novaković tells BDE.

Renowned Scottish Oscar-winning actor and artist Tilda Swinton is co-director of The Hexagonal Hive and a Mouse in a Maze, a playful, experimental documentary produced by the Derek Jarman Lab and that looks at learning from every angle. The film, also co-directed by Bartek Dziadosz, screens in the International Competition at Sheffield Doc Fest. As Dziadosz tells BDE, they decided to make a film that would “interrogate” the very idea of education.

Dutch director Suzanne Raes discusses her new feature doc about the members of an eccentric, brilliant and sometimes dysfunctional English upper-class family coming to terms with their childhood as they prepare to pack up and leave their ancient, expansive, sprawling home in Oxfordshire. “Of course, the film is not about dragons, but about what the dragon represents; it is about the stories we create around things that frighten us,” says Raes. (Plus trailer)

The incredible story of Lhakpa Sherpa, screening on Netflix from July 31, will undoubtedly attract the attention of Hollywood, but any future filmmakers will have their work cut out as this documentary paints an almost perfect literal and metaphorical picture of an epic journey to the top of the world. If this film doesn't uplift, move and empower you, I'm afraid nothing will.

“All the time I was making this, I was amazed by how resilient the people are in Kyiv and determined not to let the Russians win…This is their war. It’s not America’s war, it’s not NATO’s war. They want to win it because they feel this incredible burning sense of injustice,” Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald says of the indomitable mentality of the Ukrainians, as exemplified by the city’s mayor and former boxing world champion Vitali Klitschko.

The Whickers, founded in 2015 and named after the legendary British broadcaster and documentarian Alan Whicker, this year celebrates 10 years of collaboration with Sheffield DocFest. On June 16 the annual £100,000 Film and TV Funding Award will be handed out, as well as a £20,000 development prize. June 15 sees The Whickers and Sheffield DocFest Podcast Awards, valued at £5000 and £2000 respectively. Consultant Art Director Jane Ray explains her organisation’s rationale and modus operandi to BDE.