Sheffield Doc/Fest brings the international documentary family together to celebrate the art and business of documentary making for five intense days each November. When DCA was offered the chance screen the “Best of the Fest” we jumped at the chance. Proving that truth really is stranger than fiction, this weekend of screenings is a feast for anyone interested in non-fiction filmmaking.

Eddie Belasco is a 75-year-old Italian American who seems to have jumped from the pages of a Scorsese script. Except he lives with his 98-year-old mother, Josephine. Luckily, their senses of humour match their levels of irritability. Together they fight and laugh in equal measures as the difficulties of ageing and living in a changing neighbourhood catch up with them. Eddie was always one to love the limelight, trying his hand at acting and managing topless female rock bands and now running a non-profit theatre group for young people. In the meantime the spotlight is squarely on Josephine, with the local press running to her as she finally gets her high school diploma. Acclaimed cinematographer Jenna Rosher deftly captures the bond between this odd couple, and crafts a hilarious and touching portrait of growing old while staying young. After this you will be unable to resist the urge to hug the closest mother you can find.

Winner of the Sheffield Doc/Fest Audience Award Junior will be preceded by Miro Remo’s short film Arsy-Versy (24m), winner of the Doc/Fest Wallflower Press Student Doc Award. Deciding to escape the world of people, so full of hypocrisy and banality, Lubos elects to live in harmony with nature, choosing to fly away into a world where only butterflies live. But his mother can not quite see his point of view yet. Arsy-Versy is an inventive and hilarious portrait of a mother and her son who conquered the world upside down.

A pass to see all the films in the Sheffield Doc/Fest series is only £15.00 (£10.00 conc)