We are delighted to announce our team of Programme Consultants and Advisers who have already started work on this year's festival selections, under the leadership of our new Head of Film Programmes, Raul Niño Zambrano. This year’s festival takes place across Sheffield and online, 23-28 June 2022.
Message from Raul Niño Zambrano - introducing our team of Programme Consultants and Advisers:
“As part of my new role as Head of Film Programmes at Sheffield DocFest, I had the pleasure of gathering a group of 5 Programme consultants and 15 Programme advisers who will contribute to selecting films for this year’s edition. As a team, we will put together a balanced showcase of the most cinematic and thought-provoking documentaries, which approach real stories with creativity. We have worked hard to ensemble this diverse group of experts, including some impressive emerging programmers, who together have a far-reaching knowledge of documentaries around the world. It was essential for us to have this global perspective. Together, we will make sure that the final selection will reflect the whole spectrum of the documentary genre, from investigative journalism pieces to experimental works and everything in between.
I am very proud to introduce you to these wonderful contributors that will be the eyes and ears of Sheffield DocFest all over the world and who are watching, with care, all the submitted films.”
Meet our Programme Consultants
Alfredo Mora Manzano
Ecuadorian documentary film producer, writer and cultural manager. Alfredo has produced the feature documentaries Abuelos by Carla Valencia (Nominated for Best First Feature at IDFA), Territorio by Alexandra Cuesta, La Bisabuela Tiene Alzheimer and The Beach of Enchaquirados (IDFA International Competition 2021) both by Iván Mora manzano. From 2016 to 2020 he was the Executive Director of EDOC (Encounters of the Cinema), the oldest and biggest Film Festival in Ecuador. He lives in Quito where he currently produces documentary projects for La República Invisible, the production company he co-created with his brother, feature film director Iván Mora Manzano and producer Isabel Carrasco.
Carmen Thompson
Carmen is a film programmer, researcher and creative producer based in Scotland. Her interests centre around cinema from the African continent and the diaspora, perhaps most specifically at its intersection with non-fiction storytelling. She currently works as cultural curator and programmer for award-winning exhibitors We Are Parable, producer for international sales & distribution company Aya Films and programming associate for contemporary arts organisation CAMPLE LINE. Carmen is also on the board of Document Human Rights Film Festival and was recently appointed Trustee of Glasgow Film.
Naziha Arebi
Naziha is a BAFTA nominated British-Libyan artist and filmmaker. Born in Hastings, Naziha moved to Libya during the 2011 uprising to explore her dual heritage. In 2012 she co-founded HuNa, a Tripoli-based collective that works at the intersection between art and activism, centering gender, class and reconciliation.
Naziha has produced and shot films supported by Sundance, Hot Docs, IDFA, AFAC, Rai Cinema, Tribeca, Al Jazeera, and The Guardian. Her artwork, photography and writing has been published both extensively in print and exhibited globally. Naziha is a Sundance Edit Lab fellow, a WEF Global Shaper and a member of Lumiere D’Afrique. In 2018 her debut feature FREEDOM FIELDS premiered at TIFF, and alongside a Mubi and Criterion Channel release it also screens as part of grassroots movements in Libya and beyond. Naziha is currently working on a hybrid project exploring alternative spaces and forms of storytelling.
Thierno DIA
Thierno DIA is a Senegalese Arts researcher and journalist. He has been teaching Comparative Film Studies since 1999;his research focuses on filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambéty, playwright F. Dürrenmatt and postcolonial societies. He is the Editor-in-chief of Africiné Magazine and he has been a jury member of many festivals: Cozes, Carthage, Toulouse, Dakar, Luxor.
Thierno is Commissioner in several film aid funds (FOPICA/Senegal, Fonds TV5MondePlus/Canada, SENTOO/Tunisia)and he is a Film Programmer for Fespaco (Burkina), and RECIDAK (Senegal).
He coordinated (with Olivier Barlet): "Sembène Ousmane, 1923-2007" and also the book Arts, negritudes and identity metamorphoses (with Daniela Ricci and Thomas Cepitelli, 2016, L'Harmattan). He is one of the authors of the book Djibril Diop Mambéty ou Le Voyage de la hyène, prefaced by filmmaker Martin Scorsese.
In 2018, Thierno received the Special Prize (Time Life Achievement Award) at the Image et Vie FilmFest (Dakar).
Varadila Nurdin
Varadila is a specialist in documentary project development and film financing forum management. She was a Program Director for Docs by the Sea, a documentary incubator and pitching forum for Southeast Asian documentaries held annually in Indonesia. In addition, she has years of experience in film curation and programming through her works with Jakarta International Film Festival, minikino, and Erasmusindocs. She has served as a member of the selection committee, panel speaker, moderator, pitch trainer, and juror for international and regional film festivals including Sheffield DocFest, Open City Documentary Festival, Nordisk Panorama Forum, Festival Film Dokumenter Yogyakarta, and Luang Prabang Film Festival.
Meet our Programme Advisers
Charlie Phillips
Charlie Phillips is a documentary film programmer, producer, and consultant. He was previously the Head of Video at The Guardian, overseeing all moving image for the Guardian's platforms, including its award-winning documentaries, which included the winner of the short documentary Oscar in 2021. He was previously Deputy Director at Sheffield DocFest for 7 years, and has led training programmes and mentored filmmakers all across the world.
Clodagh Chapman
Clodagh Chapman is a writer, director and programmer working across film and theatre. Having previously been a part of the Young Critics scheme at the Almeida Theatre, Clodagh is now a BFI Film Academy Young Programmer, and has curated events for BFI London Film Festival and previewed submissions for BFI Future Film Festival. She’s also produced film events for HOME Manchester and Leeds INDIs. As a writer-director, her work has made the Official Selection of BAFTA-qualifying festivals, and received critical acclaim in The Guardian and Mslexia. She holds an MA (Distinction) from the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, and has previously been selected for talent development with the Young Vic and Film London.
Deepthi Pendurty
Deepthi is the festival manager for Dharamshala IFF since 2018 and oversees various aspects of the festival including operations, partnerships, programming, submissions process and building the year round programme. She has over 9 years of experience in television programming & production in Hyderabad and Mumbai, and is the co-founder of Hyderabad Children’s Theatre Festival. She has a Masters in Communication from the University of Hyderabad
Edwin Mingard
Edwin Mingard is a visual artist, filmmaker and curator. He has founded several organisations at the intersection of film and social change including Deptford Cinema (London) and Satellite, an artist-led production company and commissioner. He is a Curatorial Advisor for SIDE Gallery (Newcastle Upon Tyne), and a Special Advisor for the Independent Film Trust. Edwin was a 2020 Bloomberg New Contemporary, longlisted for the 2021 Aesthetica Art Prize and his latest film is being released by Chisenhale Gallery in 2022.
Elise Hassan
Elise Hassan is a writer, programmer and curator championing women-led Middle Eastern and North African cinema and community-led cinema screenings. In 2020 she founded Haringey’s Global Cinema Club, a one of a kind, community cinema that solely showcases some of the best non-English language cinema from around the world. Elise is currently lead film programmer for AWAN Festival 2022 and is Barbican young programmer.
Hannah McHaffie
Hannah McHaffie is a Film Exhibition Freelancer based in Sheffield. She is the Marketing and Operations Coordinator at Live Cinema UK, working on bringing bespoke cinematic live experiences to audiences across Yorkshire, the UK and beyond. Hannah has previously coordinated the national marketing campaigns for the BFI’s Blockbuster Musicals and Japan seasons. Hannah was previously Film Programme Coordinator at Sheffield DocFest and is excited to be returning to work with the festival as a Programme Adviser for 2022.
Harry Kalfayan
Harry Kalfayan is an editor and programmer from London. Working across online documentary and factual TV, he has experience in documentary development at Silverfish Films, post-production at Al Jazeera Witness and programming, as a Young Film Programmer at the Barbican Centre. He currently works as a content editor at Little Dot Studios for their documentary network. Harry has also recently been appointed to the Board of Trustees at the Independent Cinema Office.
John Badalu
John Badalu has been working in the film industry for over 20 years. Badalu has worked as a Festival Delegate and Programmer for festivals such as Berlin, Shanghai and Tallinn International Film Festival between 2011 to 2019. He co-founded numerous film festivals back home in Indonesia including Q! Film Festival., a festival that opened dialogues on LGBTQ+ and Human Rights issues. Badalu is also an independent producer with films that have premiered in Sundance, Locarno, Rotterdam and Busan. The last 3 short films that he produced and co-produced have screened at Berlin (The Men Who Wait by Truong Minh Quy, Vietnam/France), Winterthur Short Film Festival (Late Blooming In A Lonely Summer Day by Sein Lyan Tun, Myanmar) and Makassar Is A City For Football Fans by Khozy Rizal, Indonesia/France).
Martijn te Pas
Martijn te Pas was previously Head of the Programme Department and Senior Programmer at IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) 2000 – 2019. Whilst at IDFA, he advised for the IDFA Bertha Fund and read projects for the IDFA Forum.
Martijn was previously an adviser at the Dutch Mediafund, providing grants to encourage the development and production of cultural radio and television programs in the Netherlands. In 2020, he was a Guest Documentary Programmer at Nordisk Panorama.
He is an EAVE and Sources 2 alumnus, and has written for Business Doc Europe. He runs a documentary consultancy, e u R O P E doconsultancy; and is currently a programmer and festival adviser of MIRAGE festival in Oslo.
Mariana Hristova
Mariana Hristova a Bulgarian film critic, cultural journalist and programmer, with a special interest in the cinema of the Balkan countries and Eastern Europe as well as avant-garde, amateur and underrepresented cinema. She is a regular contributor to Cineuropa, Talking Shorts, East European Film Bulletin and Filmsociety.bg, holder of the Balkan film website Altcine.com's film critic award, and member of FIPRESCI. She currently lives in Barcelona, Spain where she programs for various festivals and institutions. She also works as an indexer at FIAF - the International Federation of film archives and as a social media manager at the Eastern Neighbours Film Festival in The Hague, The Netherlands.
Róisín Tapponi
Róisín Tapponi is an Assyrian Iraqi-Irish film curator, writer and academic. She is the Founder of Habibi Collective, Founder CEO of SHASHA Movies, Founder EIC of ART WORK Magazine and Founder of Independent Iraqi Film Festival (IIFF).
She has curated exhibitions and film programmes at venues such as MoMA, Chisenhale Gallery, Gasworks, Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF); delivered masterclasses and talks at BAFTA, Locarno Film Festival, CPH:DOX, Sheffield DocFest; and has guest lectured on film at UK and international universities.
She is a contributor at Frieze Magazine, and has written for publications such as The Guardian, Vogue, and GQ. She is the recipient of the 'World Leading PhD Art History Scholarship' at St. Andrews University.
Laza
Laza has helped lead the renaissance of cinema and film festivals in Madagascar. He is the founder and director of the annual festival “Rencontres du film court de Madagasikara (RFC)" and his production company, ROZIFILMS, has produced most of the young Malagasy directors of recent times. He is President of APASER (The Pan-African Alliance of Screenwriters and Directors).
He is also a board member of FEPACI (The Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers) and AVACI (Audiovisual Authors International Confederation), andis the coordinator of the African Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival. From 2016 to 2020, he was a member of the Film Commission of the Fonds image de la francophonie of the Organ-isation Internationale de la Francophonie). He has been on the selection committee or a jury member at several film festivals including FESPACO.
Lesedi Oluko Moche
Lesedi Oluko Moche is a Johannesburg based film festival programmer, television producer and documentary film advisor. She grew up in five countries on four continents, and this global perspective anchored her appreciation of cultural diversity.
She’s curated programmes for the European Film Festival, the Encounters International Documentary Festival and the Durban International Film Festival. She’s a former Documentary Filmmakers Association board member & chairperson and currently serves on the council of one of the most influential sites of cultural (re)production in South Africa; the Market Theatre Foundation. She was named in the 2018 Mail & Guardian’s Women Changing South Africa supplement, and recently co-wrote, produced and released a documentary podcast in Uganda titled Vintage or Violence.
María Paula Lorgia Garnica
María Paula Lorgia Garnica is a researcher and curator of film and visual arts, she holds a Master of Arts in Media Studies with an emphasis in Documentary Studies from The New School University in New York City. She teaches film history at the the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia and for the past seven years she has been the head programmer of the Cinematheque of Bogota, curating the annual film program, interdisciplinary exhibition spaces and its special programs: Ciclo Rosa, one of the oldest queer film festivals in Latin America, Muestra Afro and CICLA-Latin American cinema series. She has also programmed retrospectives of authors such as Barbara Hammer, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Roberto Minervini, Paula Gaitán, Monika Treut, Luis Ospina among others.
Teodosia Dobriyanova
Teodosia Dobriyanova is a Bulgarian programmer and filmmaker based in London. Her interests include collaborative practices, climate, migration, and memory, and she often focuses on Eastern Europe and the Balkans in her work. She programmes New East Cinema at the Barbican Centre, and her writing on film has been published at the Calvert Journal and as programme notes for Barbican Centre and HOMEmcr. Teodosia holds a MA in Ethnographic and Documentary Filmmaking and is currently directing an interactive documentary. She also works as a video journalist at Mashable UK.
