A weekend of screenings, masterclasses and conversations

The second edition of the Folkestone Documentary Festival (@folkestonedocfest) takes place from 21st-23rd October.

For three days, doc lovers can enjoy a weekend of screenings, masterclasses, conversations, parties, and a large Community Meal open to all.

The Festival has announced Melanie Iredale at Birds Eye View & Stone Club as guest programmers.

Birds Eye View is a UK-wide charity with a mission to bring a broader perspective of the world through cinema made by women and non-binary people. Stone Club is a place for stone enthusiasts to congregate, to muse, and most importantly to stomp to, stones and other elements of folk culture and tradition.

This year the festival is again working with Origins Untold, a local organisation working to tell the untold stories of people of colour, break down stereotypes and reveal buried histories

Folkestone Documentary Festival Director, James Collie said: “After the launch and success of the ﬁrst edition of the festival in November 2021 we are excited to return with a second edition with an expanded range of partners and a fantastic programme with something for everyone. My personal highlights include the opening night ﬁlm Fire of Love which demands to be seen on the big screen and the closing night ﬁlm Sirens which made me want to be in a band and then not in one! On behalf of the festival team of myself, Lisa Hobbs, Charlie Phillips and Carmel Hobbs we can't wait to welcome you to the festival.”

Folkestone Documentary Festival Programmer, Charlie Phillips said: “The festival programme shows the amazing range of documentary ﬁlm, and whether you're a doc connoisseur or new to the form, we've got something for you. If you love music, our ﬁlms cover Lebanese metal, Bowie, punk and reggae. We've got award winners in Sanson and Me and A Bunch of Amateurs. We'll connect you closer to folk traditions and the land in our Stone Club programme. We'll challenge you to think more closely about Ukraine, refugees, sexual identity, gender, illness and protest. And as you'd expect from the town with one of the world's biggest skateparks, we've got an amazing double bill about women skaters. Come along, watch the ﬁlms, and then let's all discuss them at the communal meal!”

The 2022 selected ﬁlms are:

Fire of Love, dir Sara Dosa USA - Opening Night Film - At Silver Screen Cinema

Katia and Maurice Kraﬀt loved two things — each other and volcanoes. For two decades, the daring French volcanologist couple roamed the planet, chasing eruptions and documenting their discoveries. Ultimately, they left a legacy that forever enriched our knowledge of the natural world. Director Sara Dosa and the ﬁlmmaking team fashion a lyrical celebration of the intrepid scientists’ spirit of adventure, drawing from the Kraﬀts’ spectacular archive.

Fire of Love tells a story of primordial creation and destruction, following two bold explorers as they venture into the unknown, all for the sake of love.

Stone Club presents Sticks and Stones, dir various - Six Short Films - At the Quarterhouse

Join Stone Club on a ﬁlmic dance through the landscape and ancient sites of Britain. From beating the bounds and folkloric dances to bouncy Stonehenge, Stone Club have curated a selection of short ﬁlms that fuse the ancient past with the near future in an attempt to better understand how and where we are going. This is the past, present and future contained within one programme. This screening is dog-friendly - bring your well behaved four legged friend to watch these ﬁlms about the land they love to run around on.

Electric Malady, dir Marie Liden UK - At the Quarterhouse

For over a decade William has been living with a debilitating condition that has forced him to retreat from society and live in isolation, removed from modern technology. Electric Malady is an intimate window into William’s isolated world and a moving and poignant depiction of a family devoted to ﬁnding a way to save their son.

A Q&A with Director Marie Lidén will follow the screening.

Birds Eye View present: If I Could Wish for Something, dir Dora García - At the Quarterhouse

“Cops, be listening, your daughter’s out here ﬁghting!” The chants of thousands of feminists who took to the streets in Mexico City on international women’s day 2021 can be heard loud and clear in Dora Garciá’s rallying cry of a ﬁlm, demanding justice for the women and trans people of Mexico. Weaved beautifully into these scenes of collective resistance are ones of individual creativity as in parallel we get to meet trans artist La Bruja de Texcoco as she composes a soundtrack for the movement, a musical imagining of liberation.

Sansón and Me & Born in Damascus, dir Rodrigo Reyes (Mexico, USA) and Laura Wadha (UK) - At the Quarterhouse

During his day job as a Spanish criminal interpreter in a small town in California, ﬁlmmaker Rodrigo Reyes met a young man named Sansón, an undocumented Mexican immigrant who was sentenced to life in prison without parole. With no permission to interview him, Sansón and Reyes worked together over a decade, using hundreds of letters as inspiration for recreated versions of Sansón’s childhood—featuring members of Sansón’s own family. The result is a vibrant portrait of a friendship navigating immigration and the depths of the criminal justice system, and pushing the boundaries of cinematic imagination to rescue a young migrant’s story from oblivion.

Winner: best film at the Sheffield DocFest international competition 2022.

Born in Damascus (15min) - After 10 years apart, a Scottish ﬁlmmaker tries to reconnect with her closest cousin. Once so similar, their paths were separated by war. As they piece together memories of Syria, they begin to wonder – ‘What happened to our family?’

A Q&A with Born in Damascus director Laura Wadha will follow the screening.

Skate Dreams & Rolling Places, dir Jessica Edwards (USA) and Ashley O’Callaghan (UK) - At the Quarterhouse

Skate Dreams (83min) is the ﬁrst feature documentary about the rise of women’s skateboarding. It proﬁles a diverse group of women whose pursuit of self-expression and freedom has helped create an international movement. The story spans the trailblazing pioneers of the 1980s and the next generation of Olympic contenders as they defy industry gatekeepers and ﬁght for professional equality. SKATE DREAMS showcases the charismatic personalities and indomitable spirits of these amazing talents on and oﬀ their skateboards.

Rolling Places (25min) - Born out of a desire to conquer fears of ﬁlmmaking and using a skatepark, Rolling Places is a one woman documentary which explores the experiences of a diverse set of people who live in London as they attempt to use public space for roller skating.

A Q&A with Rolling Places director Ashley O’Callaghan will follow the screening.

Moonage Daydream, dir Brett Morgen (USA) - At Silver Screen Cinema

From Oscar-nominated ﬁlmmaker Brett Morgen, director of Cobain: Montage of Heck, and featuring never-before-seen concert footage, MOONAGE DAYDREAM is an immersive cinematic experience; an audio-visual space odyssey that not only illuminates the enigmatic legacy of David Bowie but also serves as a guide to living a fulﬁlling and meaningful life in the 21st Century.

Overcoming The Darkness, dir KINODOPOMOHA, Ukraine - At the QuarterhouseA collection of short documentary ﬁlms by the collective Kino Dopomoha show Ukraine facing a world-scale tragedy and its struggle against Russian invasion.

A genocide is taking place in Europe, where Ukrainians are heroically ﬁghting for their land, culture, and identity, and appalling events strike their minds and hearts. Shellings and missile explosions. Houses on ﬁre, mass violence, people wounded and killed.

In Trying to Leave, hand-held footage shot by a man and his family in Kharkiv chronicles their ﬂight from the city, while City of Parks captures the chaos of those who have been displaced by Russian military forces, and ends with a grieving man amongst the ruins crying, “This is my Ukraine.” These stories from witnesses showcase the horrendous reality of war, but also, the incredible mutual support, faith, and the will for freedom.

Origins Untold present Rebel Dread, dir William E Badgley - At the Quarterhouse

REBEL DREAD is the story of Don Letts, a ﬁrst-generation British-born Black ﬁlmmaker, DJ, musician, and cultural commentator.

The ﬁlm frames Don’s story with the 1968 Enoch Powell ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech and the 2018 ‘hostile environment’ immigration policy.

The ﬁlm covers Don’s relationship with the nascent punk scene of the 1970s and 80s – how rastas and punks found a common bond, both outside of the mainstream, and how Don introduced reggae to the punks, inﬂuencing a whole generation of rock acts. Don was part of the inner circle of The Clash and Johnny Rotten. He later formed Big Audio Dynamite with Mick Jones, and made music that incorporated dance, reggae, rap, ﬁlm samples and rock n roll.

After directing iconic music videos including London Calling, Chain Gang and Pass the Dutchie, Don became an award-winning feature director, with ﬁlms such as Dancehall Queen, Westway to the World: The Story of the Clash and One Love, starring Idris Elba. He is now a leading cultural commentator and well-known voice on BBC Radio 6.

Origins Untold is a community arts organisation presenting music, poetry, visual arts, fashion and ﬁlm.

A Q&A panel hosted by Origins Untold will follow the screening.

A Bunch of Amateurs, dir Kim Hopkins (UK) - At Silver Screen Cinema

The most quintessentially British working-class ﬁlmmaking club, Bradford Movie Makers', members grow old amid ﬂickering memories and the brutal reckoning of their ﬁnal years.

Desperately clinging to their dreams, and to each other, fuelled by endless cups of tea, this quietly hilarious, profoundly moving portrait of shared artistic folly speaks to the delusional escapist dreamer in us all and to the need to spend time together face to face in an increasingly lonely, digital age.

A Q&A with A Bunch of Amateurs director Kim Hopkins will follow the screening. A Bunch of Amateurs won the Audience Award at the Sheﬃeld DocFest.

Birds Eye View presents: Passion, dir Maja Borg (Sweden, Spain) - At the Quarterhouse

PASSION is an intensely personal ﬁlm about longing, healing, and belonging where ﬁlmmaker Maja Borg illustrates their unique process of dealing with trauma in the wake of a destructive relationship.

In seeking to reclaim intimacy and re-establish boundaries Borg is drawn to queer BDSM practice, through which they’re able to explore their long-forgotten Christian heritage.

Adopting rituals and play from both queer BDSM and Christian communities, Borg ﬁnds themselves able to acknowledge and accept their own longings, confronting their darkest parts in order to move forwards.

The ﬁlm tells the stories of queer BDSM practitioners in Berlin, Stockholm and Barcelona and portrays the humanity at the heart of the practise while illuminating its similarities with Christianity on an emotional and perhaps even spiritual level.

Sirens & Blind as a Beat, dir Rita Baghdadi ( USA, Lebanon) and Jessi Gutch (UK) - Closing Night Film - At the Quarterhouse

Sirens: On the outskirts of Beirut, Lilas and her thrash metal bandmates, Shery, Maya, Alma and Tatyana (Slave to Sirens), have big dreams but few opportunities. When the band’s appearance at a UK music festival isn’t the life-changer they had hoped for, Lilas comes home to Lebanon on the brink of collapse. At the same time, the complicated friendship between Lilas and her fellow guitarist Shery starts to fracture. The future of her band, her country and her dreams now all at stake, Lilas faces a crossroads. She must decide what kind of leader she will be, not only for her band, but also as a young woman struggling to deﬁne herself in Lebanon, a region of the Middle East as complex as each of the Sirens themselves.

Blind as a Beat: Liz Jackson was a documentary ﬁlmmaker highly praised for her visual creativity. As many female directors do, she gave up her career to look after her two daughters. Fast forward to 2021 and her treasured sight has now faded - due to a complex diagnosis of macular degeneration, cataracts, and glaucoma.

A Q&A with with Folkestone-based ﬁlmmaker Blind As a Beat Director Jessi Gutch will follow the screening.