Sheffield Fringe was a research project and film programming initiative exploring the intersection of art & documentary practices through screenings, talks, exhibition-making, and publication. The project was active between 2011 and 2019 providing a space and context to strengthen artists’ documentary as a specific form of cultural production separate from market pressures.
Events were held annually in Sheffield to coincide with the Sheffield International Documentary Festival. From 2014 Sheffield Fringe became a biennial gathering celebrating and critically examining documentaries in the interdisciplinary contexts of art and broadcast media.
Five festival-like editions were held in Sheffield and elsewhere screening events were organized in collaboration with Whitechapel Gallery (London), Close-Up Film Center (London), UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art (New York), SALT Beyoğlu (Istanbul), the Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (Argentina) and Belvedere Museum (Vienna) among other venues.
Core team: Minou Norouzi and Esther Harris. Tina Borkowski was responsible for the print design and Jonathan Perl for the website.
Special thanks to: Abbas Nokhasteh, Tony Dowmunt, Christopher Wright, Lesley Hewings, Andrea Phillips, Sylvia Harvey, Sean Cubitt, Jennifer Fearnley, Didem Pekun, Luciano Zubillaga, Mark Nash, Gareth Evans, Adam Pugh, Caveh Zahedi, Steve Holmgren, Christopher Allen, Pınar Öğrenci, Holly Stanton at Ghebaly Gallery, Erika Balsom, Damien Sanville at Close-Up Film Centre, Declan Long, Thomas Ogden, Mike Sperlinger, Benjamin Cook, Gil Leung, Adam Hyman, Mark Toscano, Walid Raad, Anna-Karin Larsson, Vali Mahlouji, November Paynter, Meyer Voggenreiter at Piece Unique, Andrew Cannon at Gallery Bortolozzi, Ipek Yeginsu, Amanda McDowell, Mark R Albrow, Tim Machin, Sayshun Jay, Jamie Lowe, Mark Shenson, Saeed Taji Farouky, Rani Khanna, Marie Billegrav Bryant, Angus Braithwaite, Georgia Stone, Andi Stamp, John Furse, Rebekah Tolley, Charlotte Morgan, Lesley Guy, Richard Bartle, Katya Robin, Helen Stokes, Myfanwy Williams, Matthew Stock, Graham Hughes, Lindsey Friend, Esther Johnson, Ian Nesbitt, Emily Wilczek, Azra Tuzunogl, Mirko Nikolic, Victoria Simon, Jonathan Whitehall, Pauline Desouza, Hengameh Golestan, Afshin Dehkordi, Azar Emdahi, Madeleine Molyneaux, Martin Waldmeier, Madeleine Mullet, Johanna Blair, Daniel Davis & Nadine Lockyer at Anthony Reynolds Gallery, Rose Issa Projects, Joelle Te Paske at Paula Cooper Gallery, and all the artists who generously contributed their work.