Sheffield Doc/Fest 2014 will host a new documentary from Martin Scorsese alongside stories of doping cyclists, moon-landing astronauts and the skulduggery of the tabloid newspaper trade. The documentary festival, now in its 21st year, will feature the first public screening of Scorsese's A 50 Year Argument, which goes behind the scenes at the New York Review of Books, the venerable journal of literature, culture and politics.
Scorsese's film joins Alex Holmes's Stop at Nothing: The Lance Armstrong Story, in which ex-confidants of the disgraced cyclist spill the beans on the drugs scandal that saw him stripped of his seven Tour de France titles. In the peloton with Holmes's film is Adrian McCarthy's Rough Rider, which also tackles cycling's need for speed at any cost.
The Last Man on the Moon will also touch down at the festival. It's a study of astronaut Eugene Cernan, the last person to stand on the moon's surface, in the final Apollo mission in 1972. Cernan will be in Sheffield, alongside other guests including Grayson Perry, John Pilger and Jon Snow.
Former Daily Star reporter and stand-up comedian Rich Peppiatt will appear with One Rogue Reporter, his attack on the tabloid newspaper industry.
Sheffield Doc/Fest launches on Saturday 7 June with the European premiere of Florian Habicht's Pulp: A Film About Life, Death and Supermarkets. Filmed in and around Sheffield, Habicht's film mixes shots of Pulp's 2013 homecoming gig with footage of daily life in Sheffield. Another musical highlight is Kim Longinotto's Love is All, which includes a live soundtrack by Richard Hawley. The film follows previous Sheffield premieres From the Sea to the Land Beyond and The Big Melt in combining BFI archive material (this time on the theme of love and courtship on screen) with live performance.
British bands Saint Etienne and Summer Camp will also perform at the festival. Saint Etienne will be playing the score for How We Used to Live, Paul Kelly's documentary about vanishing London, while Summer Camp will recreate their soundtrack to Guardian contributor Charlie Lyne's film essay Beyond Clueless, a treatise on 90s teen movies that premiered at SXSW this year.
The 21st Sheffield Doc/Fest runs from 7-12 June 2014.
