With the Sheffield International Documentary Festival, colloquially known as Sheffield DocFest, about to begin on 12 June, DirectHer has talked to Mita Suri, the festival’s Film Programme Producer, for a deeper look behind the UK’s largest documentary festival and one of the world’s most influential documentary festivals.
Suri’s background in community cinema exhibitions led to her joining DocFest in 2018 as a volunteer. From there, she quickly made her mark.
Supporting the DocCircuit tour as a Distribution Trainee, her dedication and passion propelled her to the role of Film Programme Coordinator. She now shines as the Film Programme Producer, where she oversees the entire festival programme, ensuring its seamless delivery.
She is responsible for external relationships with filmmakers, national film institutes, and distributors, handling the submissions process and the Youth Jury Programme. Her role also extends beyond the festival, coordinating DocFest’s year-round activities. Notably, she served as a programmer for the 2021 Sheffield DocFest Northern Focus film strand, showcasing her keen eye for talent and compelling stories.
Here is our conversation with Suri:
What is DocFest?
Sheffield DocFest is a film festival where you can only watch nonfiction works. We have it for six days in June. We share about 110 films of all titles are all from different countries with different genres that reflect on how reality is positioned right now and covers, like different topics, but also different artistic visions and artistic formats.
They can go from a very specific interview to investigative documentaries, to something that’s very intersectional and hybrid, like a mixture of documentary and fiction. People can come and see those films and all the films are either shown for the first time in the world or in the UK. They are all UK premieres. We have an occasional retrospective and special event, but the majority of the official selection has never been shown in the UK before. That’s a very exclusive thing about us.
It also creates a wonderful atmosphere of celebration because when filmmakers come, they really get to enjoy the audience’s reaction to the films they get to show. They answer questions, which is really engaging. That nonfiction element even moves across different formats when we have talks with celebrities or talks about different productions, for example, the difference between making a film in a war zone or, say, in Sheffield. Also, how making films in Sheffield could be so different from London.
We also highlight the Alternate Realities program, which is about showcasing nonfiction work and unconventional exhibition formats, whether it’s installations, virtual reality or performance art. That’s like a different way of engaging and immersing yourself in topics that are relevant.
How does the festival support new directors?
You have an industry program, which gives talks across workshops and skills-based panels that are very specific to people of the industry to develop, to network. We also have this MeetMarket, a meeting market where they choose unfinished works to give feedback for funding or production. We bring in like 3000 delegates, industrial professionals across the world, as opposed to public audiences for the festival experience.
How does the selection process work?
We received 2700 films this year and we will have to choose around 100 films to be shown during the festival. There will be around 25 people from the team who will assess how suitable the films are, not exactly how good they are. A film could be amazing, but it might not be the right film for the Festival.
What makes a good documentary for DocFest?
It is difficult to say. Every year, the programme is a response to the film we received, so we are really open-minded about the film we receive. You can’t really compare production values in terms of the goodness of film because a high-production film might be produced in a studio, whereas the other one is made in a war zone.
Then it’s about what conversation we want to bring to the table after we receive that many films. For example, if we see the theme of freedom of speech in the landscape, then that’s an important topic we would definitely bring that to be table.
They all talk to each other. They are not like different in a way that they don’t connect. They do connect with each other. For example, if the film about freedom of speech is filmed in South America, then there will be one that was filmed in the UK. They are two different films, but there is an intersection between them that is really important as well. And when you talk about films by indigenous people, it is not just about indigenous people, but about revolution, dependence and land rights. There are no isolated films.
In a word, if you see the films we have selected, you will see these are the conversations that’s happening in the world and these are the films we are picking out that we would like to have a conversation about. For example, last year we had one about Iran because we would like to address the current issues through films.
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Why should filmmakers submit their films to Sheffield DocFest?
There are many industry people who come to the DocFest, so if you are looking to make connections, to learn, this is the place for you to get that access.
If you submit your film and are selected for DocFest, the platform you get in terms of press, in terms of people that come and watch the film is also enormous, considering the reputation of this festival, which has been running for 31 years now.
There are films from the past selection that have become Oscar-nominated films because they received funding. 20 Days in Mariupol, which won the Academy Award for documentary this year, was shown at the Sheffield DocFest last year for the first time in the UK.
You can learn more about DocFest and this years lineup from their official website.
