Meet our 2023 DocFest Delegation
Ffilm Cymru and BFI NETWORK Wales are taking five emerging documentary filmmakers from Wales to Sheffield DocFest this month.
The delegates were selected from an open call on the basis of their outstanding creative work and their ambitions to progress to feature documentary filmmaking. They will be attending the full duration of the festival to meet industry and immerse themselves in the various programmes, benefiting from one-to-one support from Ffilm Cymru, BFI NETWORK Wales and DocFest.
The five filmmakers selected to go to Sheffield are:
Isabel Garrett
Isabel is a Welsh director specialising in stop-motion animation, creating tactile films that are intimate, surreal and laced with a dark sense of humour. She is a graduate of the National Film and Television School with an MA in Directing Animation, and has directed commissions from clients including Alexander McQueen, Amazon and the BBC.
Rebekah Lowri Llewelyn
Rebekah is a multidisciplinary storyteller with a passion for documenting stories at the intersection of climate, culture, landscape and language through the mediums of film, photography and writing. With a background in linguistics and anthropology, and as a native Welsh speaker, Rebekah's work is informed by her deep connection to her Welsh roots. She is passionate about telling real world stories about people, places and process; about magic, myth and memory. She’s looking to build her career as a self-shooting director, and is currently in pre-production with several documentaries and short narrative films.
Siôn Marshall Waters
Siôn Marshall-Waters is a Welsh filmmaker currently based in Bristol. With a background in visual anthropology and documentary, his work has a distinct ethnographic approach to people and place. His BFI NETWORK Wales funded short film Forest Coal Pit was recently shortlisted for a Grierson Award and screened at festivals including BFI London Film Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival and Cork International Film Festival.
Ben Reed
Ben Reed is a Welsh filmmaker from Bridgend. He started his career directing music videos for artists such as Blur, Michael Kiwanuka and George Ezra. Often creating hybrid documentary works that were based around fictional communities and subcultures, he produced films that were subtly humorous and occasionally absurd. His first true documentary, the mid-length film Portrait of Kaye (UK/Finland, 2021), had its World Premiere in the UK Competition at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2021, where it was honoured with the Special Jury Award. It’s now streaming in the US on The Criterion Channel and in the UK on True Story.
Cristian Saavedra
Cristian Saavedra is a Chilean-Welsh documentary filmmaker. With an eclectic background in journalism, music and TV, he has developed an eye for capturing compelling stories that mix pop culture with inclusive messages. Taking from his own experiences as a sight-impaired filmmaker, Cristian combines elements of pop culture, music and disability in his vision, and his work explores how artists living with a disability can ignite a powerful movement of authenticity and self-expression. He is currently immersed in his first feature film, which delves into the fascinating life of the iconic Scatman John.
Sheffield DocFest is the UK’s leading documentary festival and one of the world’s most influential markets for documentary projects. They champion and present the breadth of documentary form – film, television, immersive and art – in the vibrant city of Sheffield each June. They offer makers and audiences a place for inspiration, debate, development, learning and challenge. Their programming represents our core values – creativity, empathy, freedom, inclusivity and internationalism.