Docs by the seaside
The 4th edition of Folkestone Doc Fest took place from the 17-20 October 2024 and featured the best in new international documentaries. Twelve feature films, twelve shorts, a communal swim, networking drinks, parties and an industry day, all in a friendly and fun atmosphere. We also launched our first schools screening with the opening night film The Walk to over three hundred children from eight schools across Folkestone.
Programme Highlights
The 2024 programme covered big subjects - how to be happier, refugees, mental health, the climate crisis, Palestine, trade unions and trans rights. All told through fascinating people, from a giant puppet to a very special nun, from Lithuanian beer-makers to a maverick Kent fashion artist.
![No Other Land Folkestone Documentary Festival]()
No Other Land
For five years, Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist, films his community of Masafer Yatta being destroyed by Israel's occupation, as he builds an unlikely alliance with an Israeli journalist who wants to join his fight. Audience Award Winner 2024.
![Eternal Father]()
Eternal Father
Eternal Father is an intimate and existential story about how we deal with mortality; what we leave behind when we die; and what it means to be alive. Best Short Film Award Winner 2024.
![As The Tide Comes In]()
As The Tide Comes In
The 27 residents of the tiny Danish island of Mandø are used to severe weather and flooding. Its last farmer, Gregers, whose family has lived there for eight generations, refuses to build a life elsewhere and hopes to find a wife to manage his farm.
![Orlando, My Political Biography]()
Orlando, My Political Biography
A joyous celebration of trans identity from writer and activist Paul B. Preciado, told through the lens of Virginia Woolf’s iconic novel. Featuring a myriad of trans and non-binary voices – our new ‘Orlandos’, how life, poetry and gender can meet.
![Mother Vera Folkestone Documentary Festival]()
Mother Vera
Haunted by a tumultuous past, young nun Vera has spent 20 years in refuge at a Belarusian monastery. Guided by her love of horses, she sets out on a path to redemption, from the thick snow of the Belarusian forest to the heat of the French Camargue.
![Plunge Folkestone Documentary Festival]()
Plunge
A beautifully animated short film that tells one woman’s incredible journey to regain control of her life through reconnecting to nature and the sea with sea swimming.
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