Films premiering in Rhyme & Rhythm strand of Sheffield’s Doc/Fest revealed ahead of 2021 festival

Rhyme & Rhythm is where cinema and other art forms meet – through music and performance, visual art and sport, each film offers encounters and inspirations to a different beat.

Taking audiences from the Midlands in England to Australia, from Austria, Ukraine and France, to Egypt, Israel, Japan, Canada, Cuba and the USA. In total, 20 films will screen as part of the section, over half of which will be World, International or European premieres.

Audiences can enjoy everything from Afro-Cuban music, chaâbi, choral singing, classical, new wave, no wave, pop, post-punk and spoken word via cabaret and drag to comics books, drawing, opera, poetry, skating, sports and street dance.

Melanie Iredale, the deputy director of Doc/Fest, said: “Film has such a rich history of interacting and interweaving with other practices, and we couldn’t be more proud to announce a programme which does exactly that; and in a city in which music, theatre and art is our touchstone. We want to welcome audiences to watch - sing and dance - along with us in June, in Sheffield and online.”

Among others, the programme will feature pop star Charli XCX in Alone Together by Bradley Bell & Pablo Jones-Soler; new wave band BLONDIE: VIVIR EN LA HABANA by Rob Roth; poet Joséphine Bacon in Call Me Human by Kim O'Bomsawin; singer Robert Lloyd of The Nightingales and comedian/writer Stewart Lee in King Rocker by Michael Cumming; counter-culture icon Lydia Lunch - The War is Never Over by Beth B; singer Raymonde El Bidaouia by Yaël Abecassis; filmmaker Chantal Akerman in SON CHANT by Vivian Ostrovsky; cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton in Avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton by Chantal Akerman; and artists Alison Bechdel, Jennifer Camper, Rupert Kinnard, Howard Cruse and Mary Wings in No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics by Vivian Kleiman.

Watch dance on film in Firestarter: The Story of Bangarra (Nel Minchin & Wayne Blair), Gallant Indies (Philippe Béziat) and Shelly Belly inna Real Life (Cecilia Bengolea).

The screen becomes a stage in Maisie (Lee Cooper), a world premiere, and Roses: Film-Cabaret (Irena Stetsenko). Choral ensembles feature in the world premiere of Men Who Sing (Dylan Williams) and Soy Cubana (Jeremy Ungar & Ivaylo Getov), and visual art in Drawings of My BF (James Cooper). Women in sport is the subject of Lift Like a Girl (Mayye Zayed), Stormskater (Guen Murroni), and The Witches of the Orient (Julien Faraut).

Singer, poet, writer, and actress Lydia Lunch will also give a talk as part of the festival: So Real It Hurts. Having collaborated with a number of filmmakers over the years, Lydia will speak about being the star of Beth B’s Lydia Lunch - The War Is Never Over, how she documents her reality through multiple mediums, and what success looks like as a fiercely anti-commercial artist.

The festival runs from 4 - 13 June 2021, in cinemas in Sheffield and online.

The full Artistic and Industry Programmes will be announced on Wednesday, May 12, 2021.

You can find the full Rhyme & Rhythm film programme here.