Sheffield Doc/Fest

In 2006 Jerusalem was to host the World Pride events for the first time. The planned parade ignited turmoil in the politically complex city, with Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders banding together against this apparent “threat” to “defile the holy city”. As activists from Jerusalem’s LGBT community centre face violent anti-gay sentiment, it is not only their right to march that is under threat but their very lives.

Finnish doctor Riitta has been working in Uganda for more than 25 years. Together with her Ugandan friend Catherine, she brings sex education to Ugandan villages, challenging priests, imams, women and their husbands to discussions on women’s rights to their bodies, sexuality and life. In ultra-conservative Uganda, this soon leads to serious complications, jeopardizing their entire life’s work. This is a film about the quest for gender equality in Africa and the world’s greatest challenge – mitigating the population explosion.

A millionaire wanted to create a utopia for little people in China. A land where they could live and work among themselves, away from the discrimination of mainstream society. And so the ‘Dwarves Empire’ was born. This is an unlikely theme park where dozens of little people live and perform for anyone who pays a US$16 entrance fee.
This observational documentary chronicles the journeys of a few employees at a pivotal point in their lives. Connected by a will to pursue their dreams, these little people take their chances in an uncertain world. ‘Little People Big Dreams’ explores the cost of prejudice and the shades of modern-day morality.

A young Maori boy from humble beginnings carries the hopes of his people on his shoulders as he races through school and starts university at the age of 14. This is the story of two cultures colliding within one boy, who shows remarkable potential for becoming a future world leader and creating political zeitgeist shifts to speak for indigenous peoples. Will Ngaa fulfil the dreams of his family and the expectations of his tribe?

Acclaimed filmmaker Martin Scorsese and longtime documentary collaborator David Tedeschi ride the waves of literary, political, and cultural history as charted by the influential publication, The New York Review of Books, America’s leading journal of ideas for over 50 years. This provocative film explores the power of ideas in shaping history. The film weaves rarely seen archival footage of cultural icons, newly filmed interviews with many of the Review’s current contributors with original footage reflecting the humming, restless energy of the paper’s brilliant and charismatic editor Robert Silvers at work in the Review’s West Village offices.

Without truth there can be no justice in Sri Lanka. No Fire Zone is an explicit and horrifying exposé of the final months of the 26-year-long Sri Lankan civil war, told by the people who lived through it. Using unseen footage recorded by both the victims and perpetrators on mobile phones and small cameras, the film meticulously exposes some of the worst war crimes and crimes against humanity in recent history and becomes direct evidence of a war that was supposed to be conducted in secret.

David Bond is concerned. His kids’ waking hours are dominated by a cacophony of marketing, and a screen dependence threatening to turn them into glassy-eyed zombies. Like city kids everywhere, they spend way too much time indoors – not like it was back in his day. He decides it’s time to get back to nature – literally. In an attempt to compete with the brands, which take up a third of his daughter’s life, Bond appoints himself Marketing Director for Nature.
David’s humorous journey unearths some painful truths about modern family life.

In Snow Monkey, Gittoes paints a portrait of a Jalalabad seething with humanity, adversity and hope – focusing on three gangs of children: the Ghostbusters, persecuted Kochi boys who hawk exorcisms of bad luck and demons; the Snow Monkeys, who sell ice cream to support their families; and the Gangsters, a razor gang led by a nine-year-old antihero called Steel, terrifying to the core but still capable of experiencing aspects of the childhood seemingly taken from him.
With a deeply humane vision,Gittoes shows us the unseen nature of Afghanistan’s politics, culture and society, up close and startlingly personal.

The main characters are ‘humanized’ chimps, who after years in captivity must learn to live among their own species again. Many of them were taken from the wild at a very young age and never learned any practical or social skills as apes. A vulnerable, paradoxical process that raises fundamental ethical questions and reminds us of where we come from.