Sheffield Doc/Fest 2012
Sheffield’s Doc/Fest is a celebration of the documentary community – its creators, its films, and its creative process. fluoro talked with Heather Croall, Doc/Fest Festival Director, about collaboration, innovation, controversy, and design in docs.
(f) Describe the power of collaboration.
(HC) The power of collaboration can be described along the lines of the concept of leverage – to contribute a small amount that ends up delivering high returns. When a number of organisations collaborate and each contributes modest investment, the outcomes that can be achieved can sit way beyond what each organisation could have possibly achieved alone.
Doc/Fest has had an extraordinary growth trajectory over the last six years – with industry delegate numbers growing more than four times the size they were in 2005, and the organisation also growing more than triple the size it was then. We have forged some significant partnerships in the last five years and these collaborations have contributed to this amazing growth. We collaborate with many broadcasters as well as the BFI and other creative industry sector organisations. Documentary Campus and Documentary Film Makers Group and Tribeca Film Institiute.
Our impact on the industry has been phenomenal thanks to the many partnerships – MEDIA Programme of the European Union has been a major partner for us, we developed the Meetmarket with them (the pitching forum we introduced to Sheffield in 2006) and the MeetMarket now unlocks millions of pounds each year for producers in the documentary industry. There are countless collaborators in the MeetMarket, including all the broadcasters who embrace the system wholeheartedly and it is because the collaborations are so well managed that the results are so phenomenal.
Our work with other organisations has created way more impact than we could have ever acheived alone.
(f) The word ‘controversy’ crops up many times on the official Doc/Fest website. Is controversy an effective way to elicit discussion on tough topics? Why/why not?
(HC) Sheffield has long had a reputation for having some fireworks sparking in the industry sessions. I have attended many documentary events in my 20 years of being active in the industry- either as a producer, a funder or a festival director. Quite often the panels at documentary industry events promise to deliver much controversial debate but the discussion in the end disappoints. This is not the case in many Sheffield Doc/Fest panels. There have been some legendary sessions at Sheffield where the nitty gritty of ethics and other topics have been tackled with some fireworks resulting. The panel “Trust Me I’m A Documentary Maker” comes to mind with Paul Watson and a contributor from The Fishing Party – this will be available soon in our Sheffield Doc/Fest Podcasts. It is a fascinating, frank and honest discussion about the impact a documentary can have on a contributor’s life for many years to come.
(f) What, to you, is innovation?
(HC) I am particularly interested in stimulating cross-sectoral collaborations that will then deliver innovative content – so, for example putting scientists and documentary makers together with games designers to make factual games that are based on science research. Or history programme makers, working with mobile apps developers to tell history stories on new platforms in new forms. This is the sort of work we do at Crossover Labs – we aim to teach people from different disciplines a shared language that allows them to be able to work together, to bring the best of interactivity and the best of storytelling together in a production team and make ground breaking, innovative content that will be delivered across any number of platforms.
Innovation for producers will also depend on their understanding of the ever-changing relationship between programmes and audience. Programme makers can no longer make programmes, allow schedulers to place them in the schedule and expect audiences to tune in. Programmes exist in a massively more crowded landscape than ever before. At any one time, millions of pieces of content online, on mobiles, on TV on games consoles and more are all competing for the audience’s attention. Audiences expect to have a much closer relationship to content these days – often they want a lean-forward interactive experience. Innovative programme makers are the ones who will meet the challenge of making their work stand out in the crowded mediascape as well as delivering a personal connection and impact with their audience.
(f) How does Doc/Fest represent the doc community?
(HC) Doc/Fest represents the doc community in a number of ways. In programming the sessions we both consult our advisory committee composed of the full breadth of the doc industry as well as soliciting session ideas publicly so that all voices can be heard. We regularly visit a number of organisations and events around the world to gauge the pulse of the community, its hopes and its fears for the future. Our year-round programme of workshops and pitch training sessions also give us a first person view of what documentary makers’ issues are surrounding funding, access and craft. Doc/Fest aims to reflect the community back to itself by providing sessions which address their needs, and giving doc makers, who often work in isolation, the chance to meet up and catch up on the state of the documentary nation.
(f) Where do you see the connection between docs and design?
(HC) In recent years, when the best of documentary storytelling and the best of interactive design have come together we have started to see a brand new and very exciting documentary form. This is why in 2007 we introduced a new category of award at the festival, The Innovation Award. This category celebrates innovation in form as well as content – and so it is open to linear films as well as interactive documentaries. Last year the winner of the Innovation Award at Doc/Fest was ‘Welcome to Pine Point’, an absolutely stunning online documentary and this year we have ‘Bear 71’ nominated for the award, another online documentary. In our sessions programme this year we have some panels about projects that are fantastic examples of design and documentary coming together.
The other thing that we are seeing in interactive documentary projects is the vernacular of games starting to come into documentary projects – some documentaries look like games. Some factual games look like documentaries. If you check the History Channel website you will see hundreds of documentary games on there. The Wellcome Trust is also commissioning games – science games! There is a beautiful online documentary of the Civil War which sends you a digital interactive newspaper every day for the duration of the Civil War telling stories of what happened on that day, each day a new one arrives in your inbox. These projects require great researchers, and great documentary storytellers, and well as great designers. As soon as more than one platform is involved the documentary maker is no longer a filmmaker. The directors on a cross-disciplinary production team are all designers of an interactive experience.
(f) What can we expect from this year’s Doc/Fest?
(HC) Hundreds of buyers. Thousands of delegates. Hundreds of speakers on dozens of panels and just over 100 stunning films. A mind-blowing cinema event in the Crucible as well as a brilliant Opening Night film. A few corker parties for the industry to let their hair down. Millions of pounds of deals to be done and hundreds of young emerging filmmakers will make a break in their career – hundreds of people have career making moments in Sheffield. Come and join them!
Sheffield Doc/Fest opens on Wednesday 13 June and runs until Sunday 17 June 2012.
