Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: My Name Is Andrea
The #MeToo movement highlighted a horrendous truth that many women already knew. However, this public wave of anger created an environment where people felt able to speak out for the first time. According to ONS data, almost half of all women (aged 16-59) questioned had been the victim of sexual assault at least once. Most …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: The New Greatness Case
The war in Ukraine has once against shone a light of the oppressive and authoritarian regime in Russia. While Putin might allow a few people to vote for someone else in parody elections or even an occasional outburst of anger, the information ordinary Russians receive is tightly controlled. Their movements monitored if they show even …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: Alis
While Columbia has some of the more progressive women’s rights legislation in South America, that doesn’t mean to say that being a girl or woman in the country is easy. Far from it. Levels of domestic abuse are eye-watering and abortion is extremely restricted. Violence is almost endemic in many areas of a nation where …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: Beneath the Surface
The Sámi are indigenous to the region formerly known as Lapland (Sápmi) which covers northern areas of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Murmansk Oblast. Like all aboriginal groups, they’ve been subjected to systematic racism, forced indoctrination and other horrific practices over the last few centuries. Today, there are approaching one million Sámi living in Norway …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: Mountains and Heaven in Between
While Ukraine is a country with a lot of history, it has come a long way since the collapse of the USSR at the beginning of the 1990s. Before Putin invaded, Kiev and other major cities were fast-becoming modern European metropolises. This was particularly the case in the western half of the country. However, while …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: A Bunch of Amateurs
Filmmaking clubs used to be very popular in most European countries, including the UK. Most cities had one. Made up of enthusiastic amateurs brought together by a shared passion, these societies were formed out of a love of the moving image. Usually made up of a ragtag group of eccentric characters meeting regularly to make …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: Electric Malady
It might not be a condition you’ve heard of, and arguments still rage across the medical community about whether it is actually an illness in its own right, but electrosensitivity affects a significant number of people across the globe. We live in an increasingly connected world. Electromagnetic fields are all around us, generated by WIFI, …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: Eat Your Catfish
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), aka Motor Neuron Disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is a terrible neurodegenerative condition which eventually leads to the loss of muscle control. There is no known cure. Treatment is aimed at making the patient more comfortable and alleviating the symptoms. Ventilation and feeding tubes can extend life but, in the …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: The Business of Birth Control
When the combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP), or birth control pill, was made available for contraceptive purposes at the start of the 1960s it triggered a sexual revolution for women. No longer did they have to rely on a man’s ‘judgement’ and run the risk of pregnancy every time they had sex. This newfound freedom …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: The Happy Worker
Monday morning is a traumatic experience for millions of office workers around the world. Unless you’re one of the very lucky people who get to work in a field you love. Most of us have to suffer the idiocies, stupidities and inhumanities of working to live. Despite current initiatives such as trialling a four-day week, …