BRITDOC FESTIVAL JULY 23-25

Documentaries continue to attract huge audiences for an astonishing wide range of subjects, making it certain that this year’s BritDoc Festival at Keble College, Oxford, will be an exciting place to be.

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Huge successes in recent years have checked America’s gun cabinets and supersized McDonald’s along with British works In The Shadow of the Moon (interviews with American astronauts, above) and The Killing Of John Lennon (a glimpse inside the mind of JL’s killer, main photo)).

Indeed, the potential topics for stunning docs is so great it seems that the BritDoc Festival this year is happy to focus on two clear strands – comedy and music – just to make sense of things.

Obviously this choice points towards a Festival that will be fun all day long, even when dealing with the more serious business of getting documentaries made and shown.

On the music side, the list of performers includes Nitin Sawhney, an indie band calledSt Etienne and a classical composer, Jonathan Dove.

On the laugh side, the keynote speaker for the event is Larry Charles, director of Seinfeld and that classic "documentary" Borat, who will preview his new film Religulous, featuring comedian Bill Maher’s insights into world religions.

As well as offering a first look at many of this year’s biggest new documentaries, the Festival will have newscaster Jon Snow chairing a discussion with police investigators and psychoanalysts about interview techniques; a Dragon's Den session for filmmakers to pitch financiers for funding; and a speed-dating event for filmmakers and musicians to network.

In short, it is a great chance for many of the leading international and British documentary folk to both work and play.

One and Three Day Passes are available. For information on them and other details, check out www.britdoc.org.

Posted June 6, 2008.