Miners strike film wins Sheffield Doc/Fest audience award

The Audience Award winner at the 21st Sheffield Doc/Fest has been named as Still the Enemy Within, directed by Owen Gower and produced by Sinead Kirwan and Mark Lacey.

This documentary looks back to Margaret Thatcher’s battle with the unions and specifically the 1984 miners strike. Told primarily from the retrospective of the mining communities the Doc/Fest screenings received a standing-ovation from Sheffield audiences and delegates.

The world premiere screening at Doc/Fest was one of a number of films at the festival that marked the 30th anniversary of the so-called Battle of Orgreave, which took place on June 18.

The documentary festival, which run June 7-12, has also named further audience winners.

The Short Film audience award was won by Our Curse, directed by Tomasz Sliwinski and produced by Maciej Slesicki. The short doc is a self-portrait of a young couple whose newborn child has been diagnosed with Ondine’s curse, meaning he must be attached to a ventilator when he sleeps. Our Curse also won the Student Doc Award.

The Interactive audience award was won by Assent, directed and produced by Oscar Raby, which enables the user to witness the execution of a group of prisoners by the military regime in Chile in 1973, as witnessed by the filmmaker’s father. It makes use of the Oculus Rift virtual reality technology.

The inaugural In The Dark Sheffield Audio Award, which recognises radio and audio documentary storytelling both in podcasting and traditional radio, was awarded to Pejk Malinovski’s Everything, Nothing, Harvey Keitel, about a man who struggles to meditate when he realises he’s sitting next to the actor Harvey Keitel.

Year-round activity

Sheffield Doc/Fest also announced that it is to have a year-round presence across Yorkshire and North East England for the first time. From late autumn, the newly formed Film Hub North with Sheffield Doc/Fest and cinema franchise Cineworld will bring a programme of new documentaries to audiences across the two regions.

The programme - entitled The Unbelievable Truth - focuses on “extraordinary stories, and extraordinary subjects” on screen. The tour will take in towns and cities such as Castleford, Wakefield, Middlesbrough, Hull, and Boldon.

The purpose is to reach new audiences for documentary across the Film Hub North region, and continues Sheffield Doc/Fest’s work in increased programming activity and events year-round. A detailed programme is to be announced in early autumn.