As preparations for Sheffield Doc/Fest 2014 get well underway, we’re thrilled that four WorldView-funded films will be screening at the 2014 festival. Click the film titles to find out when and where the films will be showing…
The Legend of Shorty: In the autumn of 2012 Angus Macqueen and Guillermo Galdos set out to achieve what the combined forces of the US and Mexican governments had failed to do in thirteen years – to track down Joaquin Guzman, one of the most wanted men in the world. Guzman, known as ‘El Chapo’ or ‘Shorty’ was head of the Sinaloa Cartel, the most powerful drugs cartel in history. To some, he was a revolutionary hero and a latter-day Robin Hood, the powerful peasant who looks after his people. To others, he was Public Enemy No. 1, the first since Al Capone, on the run for over a decade. The film takes us to a world where few outsiders have ever been, unravelling basic truths behind the “war on drugs” as Angus and Guillermo get ever closer.
Judgement in Hungary: In 2008 and 2009, a group of Hungarian right-wing extremists committed a series of random attacks on members of the Roma community. Six people were killed, including a child, and five were injured. The trial of the four accused lasted two-and-a-half years, and the verdict was passed in August 2013. Director Eszter Hajdú filmed the trial and condensed it to create an oppressive “Kammerspielfilm” starring the cold-blooded suspects, an irritable judge and the victims’ families. Without commentary, the film depicts the drawn-out and at times chaotic trial from the cramped public gallery.
Unearthed: Karoo, South Africa. As this sparsely populated region considers introducing shale gas drilling, filmmaker Jolynn Minnaar at first keeps an open mind. After all, the community is impoverished, with very high unemployment and bleak prospects, and could do with a booming industry. Armed with nothing more than her inquisitive nature and a camera, she soon finds herself travelling to America, to the frontline of the fracking industry. What she discovers is a bleak landscape, where powerful energy companies have exploited the land, at a terrible cost to both the environment and the health of the local communities.
Miners Shot Down: For decades, South African workers have struggled to earn a living wage digging platinum for the British company Lonmin. Dismayed that their own union was in bed with the company, in August 2012 miners began a wildcat strike. Six days later, determined to end the strike whatever the cost, police murdered 34 miners, injuring many more. Director Rehad Desai takes us through the tense days leading up to the atrocity, dissecting how apartheid heroes had become members of the establishment willing to gun down their fellow man. Through an abundance of footage filmed by police and the mining company itself, we disturbingly find ourselves placed in the viewpoint of the aggressors – shooting down unarmed protestors as they try to flee the scene.
To see the full 2014 programme go to the Sheffield Doc/Fest website