Sheffield International Documentary Festival has clearly hit the big time because this year it had a fringe. The Alt.Doc festival was free but with donations asked for the IndyMedia server appeal (the FBI recently confiscated servers hosting IndyMedia sites from a company in London), run by Sheffield IndyMedia (www.indymedia.org.uk) at SIF (Sheffield Independent Film) just down the road from the International Documentary festival at the Showroom. The festival showcased films you wouldn’t normally get the chance to see, putting across the protesters rather than the establishments view. The films ranged from “XXI Century” a monumental series of seven 1hour films to 10 minutes shorts of direct action events such as Manchester (ironic) Pro-Capitalist demonstrations and protests at Menwith Hill spy base.
“XXI Century” is a master piece of documentary film making by Gabriele Zamparini and Lorenzo Meccoli two (currently) London based Italians with contributions from Nobel Prize winners (Amnesty International and Nelson Mandela)and a host of American intellectuals and Academics (notably Noam Chomsky and Gore Vidal). It clinically dissected and debunked the US Administrations claims to be legitimate (looking at the debacle of the Florida recounts) and democratic (examining Guantanamo bay and the Patriot act). And examined US expansionism with respect to Iraq and other conflicts detailing the lies and misinformation that have been used to attempt to justify the neo-cons (a)moralistic agenda for the 21st century (see www.thecatsdream.com).
Other highlights included: “Unprecedented” A blow by blow account of how the Republican party stole the 2000 presidential election by disenfranchising thousands of potential democratic supporters and unashamedly using very interested parties (such as Bush aids) to make partisan legal decisions to deny a Democratic victory. “The Fourth World War” showed how disparate activist movements struggle to resist brutal repression all over the world. “We interrupt this Empire” recorded the fairly successful attempts of bike riding, bongo bashing activists to shut down San Francisco on the day the Iraq war started showing that not everyone in America thinks like Bush.
Short documentaries looked at a diverse range of subjects, “Genoa Red Zone” graphically examined the brutality of police action to disrupt legitimate protests against the G8 summit of 2001, “Crowd Bites Wolf” a comic film about the disruption of the World Bank/IMF meeting in Prague, “Pie’s the limit” examining the actions of the Biotic Baking Brigade, San Francisco activists intent on disrupting the political mainstream with a pie in the face approach.
Sheffield contributions included “Price of Tea” a film shot in Sri Lanka showing the poverty experienced by tea plantation workers and “Blocking the Base” a short about direct action at Menwith Hill spy base near Harrogate.
Other highlights included: “Unprecedented” A blow by blow account of how the Republican party stole the 2000 presidential election by disenfranchising thousands of potential democratic supporters and unashamedly using very interested parties (such as Bush aids) to make partisan legal decisions to deny a Democratic victory. “The Fourth World War” showed how disparate activist movements struggle to resist brutal repression all over the world. “We interrupt this Empire” recorded the fairly successful attempts of bike riding, bongo bashing activists to shut down San Francisco on the day the Iraq war started showing that not everyone in America thinks like Bush.
Short documentaries looked at a diverse range of subjects, “Genoa Red Zone” graphically examined the brutality of police action to disrupt legitimate protests against the G8 summit of 2001, “Crowd Bites Wolf” a comic film about the disruption of the World Bank/IMF meeting in Prague, “Pie’s the limit” examining the actions of the Biotic Baking Brigade, San Francisco activists intent on disrupting the political mainstream with a pie in the face approach.
Sheffield contributions included “Price of Tea” a film shot in Sri Lanka showing the poverty experienced by tea plantation workers and “Blocking the Base” a short about direct action at Menwith Hill spy base near Harrogate.
