Screenwriter (Coronation Street, Nine Nights) and documentary filmmaker (Under Your Nose) Veronica McKenzie attended the Sheffield Doc/Fest for Words of Colour Productions to see what was happening for black and minority ethnic filmmakers. Amid some fascinating work and great panel discussions, filmmakers of colour were thin on the ground.
The influential Sheffield Doc/Fest is over for another year. Its array of events and screenings were dazzling. The presence of famous and respected filmmakers, once again impressive.
Over six days, you could take documentary masterclasses, listen to award-winning campaigning journalist John Pilger, and even attend a screening in a cave in the Yorkshire countryside. Viewing documentaries from all corners of the globe, portraying interesting and hitherto unseen lives with tragic, epic and graphic stories for the hungry eyes of film enthusiasts was all brilliant. All except for one thing.
As the films were discussed, and often quite rightly praised, something irked me. The stories overwhelmingly featured people of colour, but in contrast to the representations of indigenous peoples on the screen, there were very few BME filmmakers at the festival.
Olly Lambert answers questions at the festival.
It raises the question of who is doing the telling. There is a fundamental rule in writing: write about what you know. During the documentary filmmaking masterclass, Olly Lambert, director of Syria and Confessions of a Traffic Warden, explained that his ‘voice’ – if he had one – came through finding stories he had a personal connection to.
I pondered on this rule as I strolled through the Peace Gardens, uplifted by the passionate exchange of ideas all around me. Without a connection to the subject, we get, at worst, paternally and strategically placed cameras documenting the lives of ‘others’. At best, documentaries highlight injustice. Is there anything wrong with this picture?
Filmmaker Goran Olsson. Picture credit: www.ideastap.com
The issue of who tells the stories also arose during a panel discussion with Goran Olsson, director of the much praised Black Power Mixtape – 1967-1975. After a preview of his latest film Concerning Violence (on colonialism and psychiatrist Frantz Fanon), he responded to a question about morality rights. “By using imagery of people subjected to colonialism and imperialism, there is a risk of recolonialisation… there should be some guilt…” A frank acknowledgment by a white male of a privilege filmmakers often take for granted.
A still from Olsson’s latest work, Concerning Violence.
I looked for black filmmakers to speak to. The festival lounge – a surreal marquee in the town centre – was jammed. I hear about wildly different projects but in each case the black filmmaker conveyed a sense that they were expected to only tell stories about what they knew and to have a strong (and often negative) emotional connection to the subject.
In fact they all agreed these ‘rules’ were rigorously enforced when it came to black filmmakers. We discussed how to break out of this box and threw around some ideas. One would pitch a story about cowboys living in the dust bowl of America. Another on the lives of Royal Footmen. How about a closer look at the disappearing Morris dancers? I should also mention there was a free bar in the marquee.
As we downed drinks we realised that some filmmakers have access to the whole world, which was simultaneously a challenge and opportunity for black filmmakers. This situation creates an urgency, which when coupled with the determination to produce transformative stories about our communities, from our perspective, means we have to seize the reins to get them on screen – and quickly before somebody else does.
The great thing is that festivals like Sheffield gather all the experts and commissioners in one place. So hopefully I will see more of you there in 2015.
You can find out more about Veronica’s work at www.reelbritproductions.com and about the festival here www.sheffdocfest.com