FIlm Review
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: Time Trial
When it comes to sports documentaries, cycling has always been one of the most popular disciplines. Whilst this might have something to do with the rigours and hardships of becoming a top professional athlete, it’s also down to the amount of drug scandals which have plagued the sport. In recent years, Lance Armstrong: Stop at …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: Shirkers
At some times in our lives, most of us will have had a dream of becoming a film star, making a film or writing a screenplay or novel. Sadly, whist youthful fantasies are sometimes played-out on a smaller level, the majority don’t even get passed the pre-planning stage. At the age of 16, a Singapore …
Blu-Ray Review: No Way Out
Joseph L. Mankiewicz was a true Hollywood all-rounder. As a writer he penned forty-eight screenplays during his career, winning numerous awards and accolades. He produced over twenty films, including The Philadelphia Story. When he was finally given a chance to direct by Twentieth Century Fox, he didn’t disappoint; winning Oscars for Best Director (and also …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: Into the Okavango
Africa is a continent which continues to be picked apart for its natural resources, whether that’s precious metals and minerals or its vast array of magnificent wildlife. Botswana is renowned for its spectacular and diverse range of flora and fauna. It’s also remarkable in the measures it takes to protect its fertile natural environment, both …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Preview: Worlds of Ursula K. le Guin
In the male dominated world of science-fiction literature during the 1960s and 1970s, Ursula K. le Guin was an undoubted star. Considered by many to be one of the most important genre authors of all time, her books A Wizard of Earthsea and The Left Hand of Darkness are both considered to be classics. Her …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: A Northern Soul
I lived in Hull in the late ‘90s and for one reason or another saw quite a lot of the city. Apart from having the ‘biggest council housing estate in Europe’, it had very little going for it. With a port whose influence is rapidly receding, it’s a city which suffered dreadfully from the loss …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Preview: What is Democracy?
Democracy is good. For decades this has been a universal truth widely accepted by those living in a country with a democratic system of government, and even those who do not. However, over the past few years, largely down to political events occurring around the world, we’ve begun to question this assumption. Characterised by factors …
Blu-Ray Review: The Defiant Ones
In 1964, Sidney Poitier became the first black actor to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for Lilies of the Field. He went on to become one of the most famous actors of his era and direct films in his own right. In a prodigious career, some of the highlights included: In the Heat …
Blu-Ray Review: Vigil
Whilst he may not be a familiar name to most outside of his homeland, Vincent Ward is without question one of the most influential and important film directors ever to have hailed from New Zealand. What Dreams May Come, which stars Robin Williams and Cuba Gooding Jr, is unquestionably his most famous film. It won …
Sheffield Doc/Fest Preview: The Silence of Others
The Spanish Civil War was bitterly contested by the Republicans and Nationalists between 1936 and 1939. It was a bitter and bloody conflict, with atrocities committed on both sides. The Nationalists, led by Francisco Franco, were eventually triumphed. He ran Spain with an iron fist until his death in 1975. Francoist Spain became a right-wing …