Not all weddings involve marrying a prince. Our latest documentary, Four Weddings, focuses on ceremonies from the point of view of the bride. It features a British woman unsure of the future, a soldier discharged from Iraq, high-society Indian nuptials and a rural celebration in Romania.
Four Weddings is commissioned by the Guardian and supported by Nikon.
Four Weddings’ director, Matt Houghton, is an award-winning film-maker adept at crafting intimate stories. He began his career in documentary before moving to short films and commercials, and uses his affinity for finding the compelling in the everyday to inform his storytelling.
He previously directed Dear Araucaria for the Guardian, a film about the newspaper’s revered cryptic crossword setter, John Graham, who died in November 2013. He was also second unit director on the Bafta-nominated documentary Notes On Blindness. His previous short film, Landline, made in partnership with Film London, is centred on the UK’s only helpline for gay farmers. Landline is scheduled for release this year.
Coming up: Cops and Robbers
Three months before retirement, Corey Pegues, a highly decorated deputy inspector in the New York Police Department, reveals that he was previously a crack-cocaine dealer for the Supreme Team, one of the most notorious gangs in the US. So who is the real Corey Pegues? A criminal turned hero or a villain in a cop costume? The short film peels away the police officer’s many layers to reveal a story of transformation, redemption and second chances.
Released this month
Watch Guardian documentaries in cinemas
A series of new documentaries will be screened at film festivals in the next six weeks. Skip Day will be shown during Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes film festival on 17 and 18 May, and four other documentaries will be screened Sheffield Doc/Fest in June.
Little Pyongyang, The Tower Next Door and Black Sheep, which has been nominated for the best short award, will be screened on 9 June. Skip Day will be shown on 12 June.
On 14 June, the Guardian will host a special screening at the Rio cinema in Dalston, east London, of Black Sheep, The Tower Next Door and Little Pyongyang. The makers of the three films will discuss their work at the screening of The Tower Next Door, which focuses on the Grenfell fire and is being shown on the first anniversary of the tragedy.
Documentary recommendations
At the cinema: The full programme has been announced for the Sheffield Doc/Fest, and it is recommended viewing. A Northern Soul, which will be screened on the opening night, uncovers the Hull behind last year’s “city of culture” accolade. Also being screened is Shirkers, which looks at Singapore’s only 90s indie youth film, the impossible to categorise art world psychothriller Female Human Animal. The line-up continues with Desolation Centre, accompanied by Thurston Moore, and a guerrilla recreation of the dystopian Sheffield docudrama Threads.
Online: If you haven’t already seen it, the documentary series Wild Wild Country on Netflix is essential viewing. It follows a guru and his followers in Oregon who took over a small commune and offers remarkable insight into an often overlooked part of American history.
You can also read my latest Observer column about the blurred lines between fact and fiction in modern documentary.
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