Folkestone documentary festival – watch, develop, explore 

The Folkestone Documentary Festival returns for its longest stint yet, with a 5 day festival from 22nd to 26th October 2025.  Screenings are at the Silver Screen Cinema, and Q+A sessions happen across town in venues such as Kollectiv and Burrito Buoy. There is also the return of the ever popular, and useful Industry Day. The calibre of films showing is, as usual, very high.  Co-Director Charlie Phillips took Folkelife through the programme.

Charlie: “There are three of us on the team; James Collie who set up the screenings of documentaries back in the day before the Festival existed, Cheryl Pierce and myself.  James had done monthly screenings called Doc Club at Quarterhouse.  These were a selection of really great documentaries and it started to build an audience of people.  Documentaries are a rather neglected form of art; visual arts and culture get a lot of support but film tends to be forgotten rather.   As Folkestone is such a supportive place for creatives in different art forms, we thought it would be good to have a Documentary Festival to fill that little gap.”

Year on Year

Charlie:  “We’re now in our fifth year and have seen the Festival grow year on year.  This time around it’s our longest festival, with people coming from far and wide to see our screenings. We’re running for 5 days and have 25 films with 8 premieres, and films from 9 different countries.”

the golden spurtle

“We’re showing one of our films – The Golden Spurtle – at Doc Club on 17th September 2025.  This is where you’ll be able to get hold of the brochure.

“This is a wonderful documentary about the World Porridge Championships.  You might think that porridge is boring, but this film shows how you can find hilarity and meaning in the most mundane things.”  

blue has no borders

Charlie: “Our opening film for this year is ‘Blue Has No Borders’ which is a film made by a collective of us in Folkestone.  It focuses on 6 local residents and their attitudes to Brexit now that it has happened.  We showed the film in Sheffield, and then it had its London premiere a few weeks ago, and this is the next destination.  We’re then going to take it on a tour of the UK to various towns that are similar to Folkestone.  Similar in the sense that small towns often are the crucible for tensions, but for community cohesion too.  We live in small places and have to try and get along.” 

still pushing pineapples

“This is a wonderful, northern English tale from one of the members of Black Lace, the 1980s band that were famous for the song Agadoo.  It’s fun and eccentric, but beautiful and melancholic too as it talks about the decline of working men’s clubs, and working class holidays.  There’s another film called ‘Our Land’ which looks at access and right to roam, who gets to access nature and who gets to own land. 

“We have another film called ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ made by Folkestone filmmaker Eleanor Mortimer. This is her first feature documentary and it’s a rather magical feature about these creatures who live at the bottom of the sea. They put apparatus on the bottom of the seabed to document these organisms and they really look like aliens.”

Palestine and gaza

“We have a focus on Palestine and Gaza.  One guy, who’s a professional sound man, has recorded the sounds of Gaza, pre and post destruction.  There’s another film called Dancing Palestine looking at the traditional Palestinian dance and the preservation of that over the years.  And then we have ‘Coexistence My Ass’ which is a film about an Israeli/Iranian activist and comedian who grew up as a poster child for the peace protest.  She lived in a shared Israeli/Palestinian community which was the place where all the dignitaries visited.  Bill Clinton came there, and Tony Blair, and so on, and she was always filmed.  Her film is dealing with horrific things, but has a line of humour too, which is what she does to cope with what’s going on.”

ukraine

“We started the Doc Fest in 2021, and then in 2022 the war in Ukraine happened.  Ever since we’ve had at least one film from Ukraine.  There was a big film industry there before the war, and it’s continued.  This time we have ‘Cuba & Alaska’ which is the story of two best friends who lead a double life.  They’re two young women who go out partying, dancing and laughing, and are also soldiers fighting on the front line.  They don’t look like soldiers, and it’s a way of getting people to realise that this situation is still ongoing. 

“Some of the best films in the world came from Ukraine, before the war.  They have this really intense philosophical, artistic filmmaking culture that goes back to Soviet times and the dawning of film. I think some of the most exciting filmmakers in the world are there, and they’re still making films, but then they’re also fighting.”

doc club

“This isn’t just a festival in October.  Doc Club has been running for years, and it’s really useful to continue our festival all year round.  There are loads of films we wanted to show but weren’t able to due to release dates. So Doc Club makes it easier to show films at other times of the year. It keeps our community growing.”

To buy tickets for the Folkestone Documentary Club visit their page or CreativeFolkestone.org.