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Sheffield Doc/Fest Reveals Competition Titles, Full Program

The 2021 Sheffield Doc/Fest has announced its competition contenders alongside its full program.

The international competition includes “Charm Circle” (Nira Burstein, U.S.) “Rancho” (Pedro Speroni, Argentina), “Factory to the Workers” (Srđan Kovačević, Croatia) and “Summer” (Vadim Kostrov, Russia).

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Also competing are “Equatorial Constellations” (Silas Tiny, São Tomé and Príncipe/Portugal), “From the 84 Days” (Philipp Hartmann, Germany/Bolivia), “This Stained Dawn” (Anam Abbas, Pakistan), “Nũhũ Yãg Mũ Yõg Hãm: This Land Is Our Land!” (Isael Maxakali, Sueli Maxakali, Carolina Canguçu and Roberto Romero, Brazil), “White on White” (Viera Čákanyová, Czech Republic/Slovakia), “Double Layered Town / Making a Song to Replace Our Positions” (Komori Haruka and Seo Natsumi, Japan) and “My Dear Spies” (Vladimir Léon, France).

The festival’s complete program includes 55 world premieres, 22 international premieres, 15 European premieres and 59 U.K. premieres from 57 countries with 63 languages represented, spread over 78 features and 88 shorts.

Being presented as special screenings this year are five world premieres. Steve McQueen and James Rogan’s new series “Uprising”; Clive Patterson’s “Sing, Freetown”; and working with U.K. poet laureate Simon Armitage, Brian Hill presents “Where Did The World Go.” Additionally, three films will offer different perspectives on 9/11 and its consequences — “My Childhood, My Country – 20 Years in Afghanistan” by Phil Grabsky and Shoaib Sharifi, “Surviving 9/11” (working title) by Arthur Cary and “9/11: One Day in America” by Daniel Bogado.

As revealed by Variety, the festival will showcase a Black British cinema retrospective.

Filmmakers, artists and talent speaking as part of talks, panels and Q&As will include Al Wong and Emily Chao (“Dialogues”), Pallavi Paul (“The Blind Rabbit”), Alison Bechdel (“No Straight Lines”), Betsy West and Julie Cohen (“My Name is Pauli Murray”), Courtney Stephens (“The American Sector”), Lydia Lunch (T”he War Is Never Over”), Mark Cousins (“The Story of Looking”) and Steve McQueen and James Rogan (“Uprising”) alongside guest curators Campbell X, Marc Isaacs and David Olusoga.

Cíntia Gil, festival director, said; “We are very proud to present a program that brings together a multitude of forms, landscapes and visions, with a myriad of incredible talent to whom we deeply thank for their trust. We are excited about holding this festival in a way that welcomes everyone — online and in Sheffield, and also across the U.K. The importance and urgency of cinema has only grown since we last saw a film on the big screen.”

As previously announced, the festival will open with “The Summer of Soul” and close with “The Story of Looking.”

The festival this year will take place both in Sheffield and online and with a number of titles showing at 16 cinemas around the U.K. from June 4-13.

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