Sheffield’s Doc/Fest came to a close yesterday and I stayed true to my agenda, making a point to catch a screening of Penny Woolcock’s latest film, 1 Day, before the festivities wound down. Essentially a hip-hop musical, the film is an entertaining look at life on the streets of Birmingham for young black youths. I admire Woolcock’s effort because it’s always hard to make films like this, authenticity is a big issue and for people that have never experienced the circumstances depicted, we can never be sure as to whether it really hits home or not. From an entertainment point of view, however, I was thoroughly enamoured with Woolcock’s script, the lyrics provided by the actors and the excellent performance from Dylan Duffus as the protagonist, Flash. I cared about what would happen to Flash and his friends, whether or not he would overcome his hardships and even forgave some of the deplorable acts he committed, in short, I was enjoying it.

Even though I have respect for Woolcock’s back catalogue, 1 Day was still better than I expected and find it astonishing that it has been banned from public viewing in the West Midlands. The censorship needs to be overturned and everybody needs to watch this. Oh, and I want a soundtrack release, ‘Ride Again’ is brutal.

I attended a panel entitled ‘What Filmmakers Can Learn From Pirates’ led by Brit Doc’s Jess Search as part of Sheffield’s international documentary festival yesterday and, as a supporter of sharing, was pleased to discover that it wasn’t met with opposition and developed as a fair and open discussion of the benefits of piracy to the industry. As expected, the dialogue mainly focused on methods of film marketing and distribution and how filmmakers can monetize the online audience, with Jamie King – of Steal This Film notoriety – detailing his free service Vodo and explaining how dealing with The Pirate Bay allowed him to gain a huge audience for his work without the need to interact with any large distributors. There was also some interesting input regarding civil liberties and surveillance societies from MEP Amelia Andersdotter of the Swedish Pirate Party and leader of the newly established Pirate Party UK, Andrew Robinson.

Personally I support piracy and see it as a means of marketing for filmmakers, especially those of the independent variety. I can see why people have trouble getting their head around the issue and sometimes see it as theft, but I believe that if they were exposed to the realities of piracy instead of the media hype stirred up by the record companies, then the majority of them would see things differently. Needless to say, I am now a full member of the Pirate Party UK and you should be too…if you’re from the UK, and old enough to join, and can captain a ship.