Cinematographer, Joel Benson Kachi Becomes The First Nigerian to Win An Emmy!
Joel Benson Kachi has made history as the first Nigerian to win an Emmy Award in the “Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary” category at the 46th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards for his documentary “Madu”.
The film tells the inspiring story of Anthony Madu, a young Nigerian ballet dancer who gained global attention after a 44-second video of him dancing barefoot in the rain went viral in 2020.
He was 11 years old, when the video drew the attention of more than 16 million social media users. It garnered over 16 million views.
The Documentary
“Madu” chronicles Anthony’s remarkable journey from his humble beginnings in Nigeria to the United Kingdom, where he earned a scholarship to the prestigious Elmhurst Ballet School. The film takes viewers on an emotional ride, showcasing Anthony’s triumphs and trials as he navigates the challenges of pursuing his dreams.
A New Project
Kachi is currently working on a new documentary project, “Mothers of Chibok” a sequel to his acclaimed “Daughters of Chibok,”.
This upcoming film will shed light on the resilience and strength of the mothers of the Chibok girls, who were abducted by Boko Haram in 2014.
The documentary follows the lives of four Nigerian mothers from the Chibok community in Borno State and their struggles to educate their children, marking the 10th anniversary of the tragic event.¹
Personal Connection
Kachi’s personal experiences may have drawn him to these powerful stories. On July 10, 2023, he was allegedly kidnapped at his home in Ibafo, Ogun State, and held for ransom. The kidnappers demanded a N50 million ransom. This ordeal may have deepened the former gospel musician’s connection to stories of resilience and hope.
A Milestone Achievement
Kachi’s Emmy win marks a significant milestone for Nigerian documentary filmmaking and paves the way for future generations of storytellers. “Madu” is a powerful example of the impact of storytelling and the importance of showcasing diverse perspectives and experiences.
Celebrating a Nigerian Success Story
We congratulate Joel Benson Kachi on his historic win and celebrate the success of “Madu” as a shining example of Nigerian talent and creativity.²
Composer Andrew Weeks At Sheffield Documentary Festival 2025
Film & TV Composer Andrew Weeks is currently at Sheffield Doc Fest 2025. He made an appearance Friday 20th and will attend every day till Sun the 22nd June.
He is currently writing for the award-winning EYE FILM production company, on their 8-year filming project around the renovation of Norwich Castle. The feature-length documentary, Norwich Castle: A Royal Transformation will be hitting Channel 4 this summer narrated by the one and only Sir Stephen Fry!
This extraordinary £27.5m restoration has brought the medieval Norman Keepback to its former glory, showcasing the hard work of project curator Dr Tim Pestell, leading architects, engineers, and contractors.
The Norman Keep is set to reopen in spring 2025, transporting visitors back to 1121 and the days of William the Conqueror and Henry I. This documentary highlights the historical and cultural importance of Norwich Castle and its impact on the region.
The story of six working-class Wirral teens that shook the British Indie scene
J6 Films is delighted to share that Dreaming of You: The Making of The Coral will have its sold out World Premiere at Sheffield Doc Fest on 21st June. Due to popular demand, additional screenings have now been added on 22nd June for the definitive documentary on the hit Merseyside band The Coral.
“If you’re going to tell the story of “If you’re going to tell the story of The Coral, then it would be about growing up. An adventure that led to an album.” Nick Power, The Coral
Dreaming of You: The Making of The Coral follows the story of six childhood outsiders from Merseyside as they transform into one of the most influential British guitar bands of the new millennium. Their high-energy blend of psychedelic rock ‘n’ roll revitalising the doldrums of the post-Britpop music scene.
Narrated by the band, the film is an immersive experience that creatively combines reconstruction, archive footage, and animation to capture the early 2000s era through the eyes of six northern teenagers, who together created their own strange, endlessly creative escapist universe. As the friends leave their sleepy seaside hometown of Hoylake in pursuit of musical glory, the spotlight eventually finds them but is it fame they’re after or is it just being together?
With appearances from iconic indie bands The Lightning Seeds, The Zutons and Tramp Attack, Dreaming of You: The Making of The Coral is a dreamscape of friendship, fame and fuzzy guitars. The film commemorates The Coral from their working-class Merseyside roots, through their rise in Liverpool’s Bandwagon Scene, going on to become one of the UK’s most influential bands.
“The First incarnation of the band was a Ghosthunting business” James Skelly, The Coral
For director James Slater, the creative direction for the film was as important as the story itself, speaking on this James said
“I wanted Dreaming of You to be an immersive experience—one that transports us back to Northwest England in the late ’90s and early 2000s. …The visual aesthetic of the film is further enhanced by the formats used to shoot both the GVs and reconstructions—Mini DV, Hi-8, 16mm, and 8mm—all mediums that were used to document the band at the time. This rich visual tapestry is accompanied not only by the band’s musical archive but also by a layered sound design that further immerses us in the era, embedding us deeply within the time and place.”
On celebrating the sold out World Premiere at Sheffield Doc Fest, director James Slater commented “It’s an honour to be part of Sheffield DocFest, especially alongside such an incredible line-up of films. Dreaming of You is a northern coming-of-age story at heart, so it feels especially fitting for the journey to begin here…”.
Screening Details
World Premiere Sat 21 June at 12:30 Showroom
Extended Q&A with director James Slater and the band The Coral.
The Coral formed on the Wirral, Merseyside, in the mid-nineties. Emerging from Liverpool’s vibrant late-’90s garage rock scene, they quickly caught the attention of Alan Wills, who, captivated by their eclectic sound, founded DeltaSonic Records around them. Their 2001 debut single, Shadows Fall, earned national recognition, and they were soon hailed as pioneers of a new wave of rock ’n’ roll energy—an antidote to the stagnation of the post-Britpop era.
Their self-titled 2002 debut album, featuring the now-iconic single Dreaming of You, was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and named the best album of the year by NME. They followed it up with Magic and Medicine (2003), a critical and commercial triumph that topped the UK charts and produced four Top 20 singles, including Pass It On, Bill McCai, and Don’t Think You’re the First.
Over three decades, The Coral have remained one of the UK’s most enduring and consistently inventive bands. They have released eleven studio albums, including The Invisible Invasion (2005), Roots & Echoes(2007), and Coral Island (2021), blending elements of psychedelic folk, Garage folk, with their own unique brand of haunting dreamlike melody. Their influence can be heard in the work of later British indie acts such as Arctic Monkeys and Blossoms, who credit The Coral with shaping their sound.
Still together after 30 years, The Coral continue to evolve while maintaining their blend of melody, storytelling, and experimental edge—securing their place as one of the most distinctive and influential British bands of their generation.
James Slater
James Slater, Director’s Statement:
In December 2002, my friend Neil showed up at my flat in Toxteth, Liverpool, beaming. Alan Wills, manager of Britain’s hottest new band, The Coral, had called— they wanted us, two broke, DIY music video directors, to shoot their next promo.
The single was Don’t Think You’re The First, a haunting, psychedelic shuffle. The label had planned a £50k video, but the band, skeptical of industry gloss, scrapped it in favour of our lo-fi, Mini-DV approach. We arrived at the shoot with two camcorders strapped to a plank—our makeshift Steadicam.
The Coral were a gang—insular, tight-knit, and uninterested in industry games. But once you were in, you were in. That job changed everything. Within weeks, we were in L.A. filming Pass It On, then in Holland for Bill McCai, always just Neil, me, and a spare pair of hands. Our scruffy, no-tech videos somehow fit perfectly between the polished promos on Sony’s roster.
My filmmaking career started with The Coral, and in many ways, always leads back to them. So when James Skelly approached me to make a film celebrating their debut album, it felt inevitable. I dug out my old Mini-DVtapes, picked up boxes of scrapbooks, and pieced together a story.
Footage of backyard wrestling matches, kung fu films, and Easy Rider remakes (retitled Lazy Rider on the Wirral) revealed a band rooted in friendship—a group of misfits who just wanted to play music together. In interviews, a clear story emerged: they weren’t chasing fame, they were chasing greatness. Rob Stringer, head of Sony, once told me, They could’ve been massive, but they didn’t want it. He was right. They didn’t want to be the biggest—just the best.
Even today, artists seek me out because of my work with The Coral. They’re one of the most influential British guitar bands of the new millennium, and I hope this film shines a light on a group that deserves far more recognition.
About J6 Films:
J6 Films is a production company and a collective of critically acclaimed directors.
Director: James Slater
Featuring: The Coral: James Skelly, Paul Duffy, Nick Power, Ian Skelly, Paul Molloy,
Past members: Bill Ryder-Jones, Lee Southall and Alan Wills, Rob Stringer (Sony), Ian Broudie (The Lightning Seeds), Dave McCabe (The Zutons), Supergrass, Oasis
Taskovski Films Sales picks up “Redlight to Limelight”, directed by Bipuljit Basu.
The film was produced by Nilotpal Majumdar and co-produced by John Webster and Uldis Cekulis, with Emma Hindley and Somnath Gosh acting as executive producers. The film will have its world premiere at Sheffield DocFest in the International First Feature Competition.
Logline: A high-spirited group of Indian sex workers and their families begin making short films to transform their own lives and inspire others.
Synopsis: Redlight to Limelight follows a group of young children who are passionately weaving stories with mothers and sisters through their video production unit called CAM-ON to cultivate a meaningful change in the lives of a special community of sex workers in the brothel of Kalighat, Kolkata.
Keeping aside the ghosts of their grimy reality and who they were, women and children get immersed in an incredible joy of storytelling with a burning desire to turn the brothel into a better place. Woven around the experiences of mothers and sisters, CAM ON embarks on making a new short fiction Nupur, which is often entwined between memories and actuality, takes them through a catharsis when the community premieres the film for a public screening.
With joy and the power of storytelling, artful voices make their grimy universe a liberating space of self-assertion.
Irena Taskovski, CEO & Head of Acquisitions at Taskovski Films:
“Redlight to Limelight is a powerful testament to the healing force of cinema and a celebration of friendship and long-term collaboration. Discovering new Indian talent like Bipuljit Basu and working with long-time partners such as Nilotpal Majumder, who has spent decades nurturing Indian documentary voices through Docedge Kolkata, and dear colleagues like Uldis Cekulis and John Webster is a true privilege.
Set in Kolkata’s most stigmatized red-light district, the film follows the CAM-ON collective’s creative journey, revealing stories of resilience and hope. It shows how filmmaking can transform pain into purpose and give marginalised voices dignity and joy.”
Bipuljit Basu, Director:
“With Redlight to Limelight, it was essential to let the mothers and children of Kolkata’s red-light district tell their own stories through their own lens. In this process, we uncover a shared desire for dignity and transformation. We partnered with Taskovski Films because they truly understood our vision—the power of collective creativity to inspire change.”
Nilotpal Majumdar, Producer:
“Taskovski Films has long been a supporter of bold Indian cinema, with an award-winning catalogue that has inspired us for years. Their deep commitment goes beyond distribution—they nurture each film with care and vision. We’re proud to join forces with a team that truly elevates the stories they represent and bring Redlight to Limelight to global audiences.”
“Redlight to Limelight” Team at the Sheffield DocFest:
Bipuljit Basu (Director): June 18th – June 23rd
Nilotpal Majumdar (Producer): June 18th – June 23rd
John Webster (Producer): June 18th – June 21st
Uldis Cekulis (Producer): June 18th – June 21st
Somnath Ghosh (Executive Producer): June 18th – June 23rd
Emma Hindley (Executive Producer): June 19th
Screenings:
Thursday, June 19th 21:00 The Light – Screen 6
Saturday, June 21st 17:45 Showroom – Screen 2
BIOGRAPHIES:
BIPULJIT BASU – Director Bipuljit Basu, a Sundance Institute and IDFA grantee, is an emerging filmmaker specializing in Indian factual cinema, reality cinema, and documentaries. His work focuses on bringing lesser-known South Asian marginal stories into mainstream film and media. A postgraduate in Social Development, Bipuljit uncovers unexplored narratives with significant social relevance in popular culture, aiming to create a meaningful impact across broader social spectrums. He firmly believes in showcasing inclusion as a powerful tool for social change.
From 2016 to 2019, Bipuljit also worked as an overseas distributor, bringing carefully curated social-issue-based stories to audiences in North America and Europe. Additionally, Bipuljit served as an Asian jury member at the Science Film Festival, hosted by UNDP and the Goethe Institute, which took place across 94 countries.
NILOTPAL MAJUMDAR – Producer Nilotpal Majumder, a postgraduate from the Film & Television Institute of India, Pune, specializing in Editing, spearheaded the first Asian documentary pitching forum, Docedge-Kolkata, Asian Forum for Documentary. This initiative advances alternative reality storytelling in the region through skill development, incubation, and professional assistance. He has contributed to numerous films as a Director, Cinematographer, and Editor, and has participated in international festivals, forums, and workshops as a jury member, tutor, and mentor.
Formerly, he served as the Dean of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Government of India. Currently, he is the Director of the Manipur Film & Television Institute in Imphal. In recognition of his outstanding contribution to the culture of global documentary cinema, he was honored with the European Documentary Network Award in 2017.
COMPARSA receives its World Premiere Saturday 21 June
Lesli Canela Pérez
In celebration of the World Premiere of Comparsa at Sheffield DocFest, Guatemalan artists and documentary subjects Lupe Pérez and Lesli Canales Pérez were outside the Crucible in Tudor Square in the heart of Sheffield for body paint, fire performance, and street circus performance, accompanied by batucada beats from local musicians Stilt Batteristas.
Lupe Pérez and Lesli Canela Pérez
Stilt Batteristas
Comparsa will have its World Premiere at Sheffield DocFest on Saturday 21st June, 8:45pm at the Curzon cinema in Sheffield.
Lupe Pérez
Logline: In a Guatemalan barrio silenced by fear, two teenage sisters lead a luminous rebellion—unleashing giant puppets, fire, and artful performance to protest gender violence in a joyful fight for survival.
Lesli Canela Pérez
Synopsis: Comparsa fully immerses audiences in the intense world of Ciudad Peronia, Guatemala, where sisters Lesli and Lupe use art and performance to rally local youth and heal The Social Dilemma wounds. After 41 girls are killed in a State-run “Safe Home” and the government refuses to act, the sisters respond with a community comparsa—an exuberant street performance featuring towering puppets, fire-breathing stilt walkers, and thundering drums. With brave vulnerability, they expose a power structure that permits and commits violence against women, and they open up about surviving violence in their own home.
Lupe Pérez, Lesli Canela Pérez, and the Stilt Batteristas
Their youth movement takes to the streets, confronting corruption and reclaiming public space for women and girls. Rooting their efforts in joy and community care, they find healing for themselves along the way.
Lupe Pérez, Ana Cantorán Viramontes, Marta Chicoj Garcia,, and the Stilt Batteristas
Comparsa is built on a 15-year relationship between the subjects and the film team to offer a stirring portrait of sisterhood, peacebuilding, and the transformational power of art.
Director, Vickie Curtis’s Statement
Vickie Curtis
My lifelong fascination with characters and story structure was honed in the theatre and landed me in the world of documentary film writing. After a decade of writing films such as The Social Dilemma and Searching For Amani, I developed a craving for human-centered stories that could offer clues for addressing the pressing crises we face.
In Comparsa, I see young people finding a fundamentally different way to organize the community, prioritize wellbeing, heal, and rebuild together. To embody these values, I’m taking a deliberate, collaborative approach to making this film.
Comparsa is born from personal connection and a shared theory of change. My co-director Doug Anderson and I met decades ago, as kids in a youth theatre program that pushed us to question the status quo and embrace self-expression as resistance. During that program, we became fast friends with Comparsa’s producer, Anna Hadingham. Anna moved to Guatemala in 2007 and began working alongside our film’s subjects, learning to produce raucous public performances as a method for grassroots organizing.
Doug Anderson
After nearly a decade of hearing about Anna’s exceptional artist collaborators in Guatemala, Doug and I decided to go to Peronia and see for ourselves.
Meeting Lesli and Lupe on our first day in Peronia led to a shared desire to illuminate the daily dangers so many young women face and the joyful, creative ways they’re driving change.
The film is being co-created by all of us, and in that spirit, we’ll share a translated note from one of the film’s writers and subjects, Lupe Pérez:
“Comparsa is a project by people who care deeply about one another and who believe that the work we are doing to empower youth in Ciudad Peronia should be shared. Telling my story has given me strength….It means a lot for us to be seen, to feel we have something to teach the world despite our circumstances.”
As a mostly women-led team of fellow theatre artists, with a groundwork of trust laid by Anna over the course of a decade, we developed intimate access with our teenage subjects as they grappled with personal trauma on one hand, and an unjust system on the other.
Our intention is to draw audience members into the private worlds and the public demonstrations that make up daily life for Lesli, Lupe, and the other women in this story. Their candid presence on screen paints a picture of a place and of a time in life when belonging and purpose are everything. Finding that belonging and purpose with each other, they work to transcend the traumas of a racist, sexist, extractive system.
We mix vérité and interview moments with more ethereal sequences that highlight the magical, mythical nature of Lesli and Lupe’s art. Layered with passages of our characters’ original poetry, these sections underscore the surreal way life fluctuates between joy and sorrow, and the way art braids meaning into experience.
We intend the substance and style of Comparsa to resonate with audiences that are hungry for a joyful model of change making. Unlike films about the developing world that stay mired in harsh problems or posit external solutions from foreign savior figures.
Comparsa highlights young people forging a better future through their own creative action. It serves as a narrative disruption to misleading portrayals of Central Americans and exemplifies strategies for speaking truth to power in a time when fascistic authoritarians are gaining ground around the globe. As the eldest sister in my own family, and as a mother to two daughters, I believe the time is now for women to organize, center their own joy, and fight for the humane systems we’re already beginning to build.
REVERSING A LEGACY OF FEMICIDE
THE FIRE
At the center of Lesli and Lupe’s efforts to empower women and girls is a notorious act of violence that plagues their community. The incident claimed the lives of their childhood friend Siona, along with 40 other girls residing in a government-run Safe Home.
The Safe Home was intended as a refuge for girls with unstable family lives, but it is now clear that the State-run facility was anything but safe.
On March 7th, 2017, dozens of residents broke out of the Safe Home, protesting bad treatment and abuse, including alleged human trafficking and sexual assault. That night,police rounded up many of the escaped girls and locked them in a makeshift dormitory back at the Safe Home. The next morning, the captive girls asked to be let out of the cramped room to use the bathroom. The police and Safe Home guards denied their request.
One girl started a fire. The girls begged for the guards and police to unlock the door as the fire engulfed them, but the police refused.
The guards and police left all 56 girls in the room to burn for nine minutes; 41 of them were killed, and the 15 survivors suffered severe burns and untold trauma. This event has become iconic of the lack of care, respect, and rights given to women and girls in Guatemala and beyond.
For Lesli and Lupe, it includes the personal loss of a close childhood friend. Lesli and Lupe come from the same streets as the girls who died, and they are well aware that it could have been them locked in that burning room, lungs on fire.
In approaching this story, our intention first and foremost has been to honor the girls who died in the fire and fight for the girls who remain in harm’s way. Our subjects transform their pain into purpose; rising as leaders of a youth movement, insisting on the safety,dignity, freedom, and joy of girls everywhere.
THE FIGHT
● In April 2024, the IACHR highlighted the deterioration of Guatemala’s democratic systems. Lesli and Lupe’s joyful, art-driven methods offer a fresh way to engage and build peace.
● Guatemala has one of the highest rates of femicide globally, and a staggering 71%of those cases go unsolved. Lesli, Lupe, and their mentor Marta are working to create more safe spaces for women and girls in Guatemala—spaces where artistic expression, body autonomy, joy, and mutual aid are the norm. We endeavor to support that effort.
● Lesli and Lupe realize this fight is not a sprint, but a relay race. They prioritize bringing a new generation of young women into the fold. Their chosen slogan for the comparsa and womens festival featured in the film is: Somos las semillas quetrascienden desde las cenizas – We are the seeds that rise from the ashes.
ABOUT THE TEAM
Vickie Curtis (director, producer, writer)
Emmy-winning writer of Netflix Originals The Social Dilemma and Chasing Coral, Vickie makes her directorial debut with Comparsa. Her work explores the systemic roots of social and ecological crises, and the artists and activists working to rebuild. Vickie’s storytelling spans award-winning documentaries including Searching For Amani (Tribeca), We Are Guardians (HotDocs, Netflix LatAm), Greener Pastures (POV), and Anbessa (Berlinale, Arte). After years studying theatre and education, she brings a collaborative ethos to each project.
Doug Anderson (director, editor, producer)
Doug is a New York-based filmmaker and founder of Paper Moth Media, where he create politically engaged documentary work, including for the groundbreaking 2018 campaign of US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Credits include cinematography for To The End (Sundance 2022) and The Providers (Independent Lens), and sound work on Predators (MTV Documentary Films), Knock Down the House (Netflix) and Pride (FX). Comparsa marks his directorial debut.
Anna Hadingham (producer, writer)
A theater artist and youth advocate, Anna spent a decade working alongside Guatemalan youth in Ciudad Peronia on arts-based youth development initiatives. As a Peronia Adolescente collaborator, she co-created performances to organize the community and facilitate healing. She serves as community liaison and impact producer on the Comparsa film team. Anna has also served as director of youth programs at La Colaborativa, a non-profit organization run by and for the immigrant community in Chelsea, Massachusetts. She continues collaborations with Peronia Adolescente, rooting her workin community, justice, and imagination.
Olivia Ahnemann (producer)
An Oscar-nominated producer (Porcelain War, Sundance 2024 Grand Jury Prize), Olivia has over two decades of experience crafting bold, impactful documentaries. Her credits include Youth v Gov (Netflix), Under the Gun (Sundance), Racing Extinction (Discovery), and The Cove, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. She is known for championing character-driven films that illuminate global crises.
Edgar Tuy (cinematographer)
Tuy is a Kaqchikel Mayan filmmaker born in Sololá, Guatemala, who migrated at an early age to Ciudad Peronia, where he began a career in the visual arts. Tuy has studied cinematography in El Salvador and at Casa Comal in Guatemala. He has worked on feature and short films, national and international documentaries, music videos, and Kaqchikel translation of Netflix films. He is currently presenting his short documentary, Regalito de Dios and is in production on his next documentary, Mónica, a film about an indigenous trans woman fighting for human rights in her rural community.
Sebastián Lasaosa Rogers (cinematographer)
Sebastián was a Spanish-American documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York.A gifted and prolific cinematographer, he brought heart and visual poetry to numerous feature-length documentaries, including The Art of Making It, which won the Audience Award at SXSW 2022. In 2024, he made his directorial debut with Freeing Juanita, a powerful and personal film that premiered at DocsMX and continues to travel the international festival circuit. Sebastián’s work was marked by a deep commitment to justice, beauty, and human connection. He is profoundly missed.
