Why Poverty Pitch at Sheffield Doc Fest
- Posted: 5th Oct 2010
- Category: Industry News
This morning Mosaic Films, The Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the BBC hosted Does Poverty Have to be a Spectator Sport? at Sheffield Doc/Fest. It was a special focus on the factual television industry's representation of poverty. The first half of the session consisted of a heated debate chaired by Julia Lewis, the panel consisted of Nick Fraser, Jim Boyle, Alex Goodman, Mark Saunders and Brian Hill. They examined the question of representing people living in poverty in the UK, the general conscencus was that there needs to be a more diverse depiction of poverty in the media, and increased analysis of issues around poverty.
The second half the session saw six filmmakers pitch their ideas for the Why Poverty? strand. The cover topics such as footaball, child poverty, evictions, choirs, homlessness and reposessions. The winning pitch will be announced at this evening at the Lyceum.
The Why Poverty? season is a groundbreaking global cross media project launching in 2012 that asks why, in the 21st century, a billion people still live in poverty, and informs audiences across the world what they can do about it. The UK Shorts will premiere as part of a special session at Sheffield Doc/Fest in June 2011.