2023 Festival Programme
The programming team have made ten Official Selections of features: new features from open submission, including two International Premieres and a World Premiere. Every screening of an Official Selection will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers in attendance. We have also chosen eight Repertory Features: films made in recent years by our Industry Session contributors, with filmmakers and special guests in attendance too. Ten short films have received Official Selections, forming a UK Showcase and an International Showcase.
There’ll be networking, socialising, special events, hands on filmmaking kit demonstrations in REAL Studio, and a Filmmakers’ Party too.
The Endless Drifter
World Premiere | Dir. Peter Vaughan
UK 2023, 1hr 22mins
Followed by Q&A with Director
No Fare
Official Selection | Pro. Wayne Kelly, Dir. Matt Holt
UK 2022, 1hr 21mins
Followed by Q&A with Director, Producer and Subject
Paradise Lost, History in the Unmaking
Official Selection | Dir. Andy Howlett
UK 2021, 1hr 24mins
Followed by Q&A with Director
Disappearing Midlands
Special Event | Disappearing Midlands
A new archive film and contemporary collecting initiative in partnership with MACE (Media Archive For Central England) and Doc Media Centre focused on the disappearing places and peoples within the region. Phil Leach, Senior Curator, MACE, and John Coster, Doc Media Centre.
Conflict Memory
Special Event | Conflict Memory (short documentary in production)
Chechen Filmmaker, Aslanbek Dadaev will be discussing his Ukrainian documentary production with John Coster and screening clips of several interviews filmed here in Leicester.
Industry Pass holders and invited guests only.
REAL Inspiration Showcase: Documentary 101
Special Event | Industry Pass holders, and invited guests only
REAL Inspiration Showcase: Documentary Media Centre
Special Event | Industry Pass holders, and invited guests only
The Mess We Make
International Premiere | Dir. Allard Detiger
Netherlands 2022, 1hr 25mins
Followed by Q&A with Director and Editor
The Mess We Make
International Premiere | Dir. Allard Detiger
Netherlands 2022, 1hr 25mins
Followed by Q&A with Director and Editor
Energy: A Documentary about Damo Suzuki
Official Selection | Dir. Michelle Heighway
UK 2022, 1hr 11mins
Followed by Q&A with Director
Father Earth
Official Selection | Pro. Richard Bucknall, Dir. Graham Fellows
UK 2022, 1hr 23mins
Followed by Q&A with Director
Dust & Metal
Official Selection | Dir. Esther Johnson
UK 2022, 1hr 23mins
Followed by Q&A with Director
Irene's Ghost
Film Screening | Pro. Rebecca Mark Lawson, Dir. Iain Cunningham
UK 2018, 1hr 18mins
Followed by Q&A with Director
Adventures in archive
Industry Session 6 | The challenges of making archive films.
Panel – Rubika Shah, Suzanne Alizart, Paul Sng, Benjamin Reynolds
Disappearing Midlands
Special Event | Disappearing Midlands
A new archive film and contemporary collecting initiative in partnership with MACE (Media Archive For Central England) and Doc Media Centre focused on the disappearing places and peoples within the region. Phil Leach, Senior Curator, MACE, and John Coster, Doc Media Centre.
Developing access & ongoing consent
Industry Session 5 | A discussion on the ethics and practice of managing and directing contributors/subjects.
Panel – Iain Cunningham, Paul Sng, Carol Salter, Anthony Baxter, Rubika Shah
Whose story is it anyway?
Industry Session 4 | The ethics of exploiting subjects/contributors. What gives you the right to tell this story?
Panel – Kim Hopkins, Sean McAllister, Rubika Shah, Iain Cunningham
