Sheffield DocFest 2024

Balloon Warriors | Mateo Schimpf | Elize Manoukian / US

Balloon Warriors investigates the world of North Korean defectors fighting for their beliefs—using balloons. It’s a wild ride through the politics of propaganda that includes assassination attempts, Interpol investigations, CIA operations, and a Christian rock festival — and explores just how far people will go to change hearts and minds.

Degenerate | Matthew Durai | Malaysia / Singapore / UK / US

What happens when one has a genetic predisposition to forget? This series tells the multifaceted story of Alzheimer’s disease told through the lens of someone running towards a solution- because he has to.

Fight Fair | Libby Liburd | UK

This is the personal story of how a homeless single mother, Libby Liburd, and her child find strength, belonging and joy in the most unlikely of places: the world of boxing, and asks why women who box still struggle to receive parity in the sport.

Keening: The Song Before The Stranding | Aoife Glass | UK

Combining science, music, art and community, environmental artist Sam Gare and science communicator Aoife Glass explore the story of a mass stranding of long finned pilot whales on the Isle of Lewis in July 2023, the impact it had on the communities involved, and what happened next.

Rewriting the Narrative | Christina Hardinge | UK

What if you could rewrite the story of your own life?

Rules Apply | Hedda Stølen | Clementine Briand | Norway / Denmark / Germany / India

From alien contact protocols to bans on fancy hats, Rules Apply scours the globe for unusual laws to figure out what our rules say about us.