Heather Croall

Heather A. Croall
Born	3 February 1967 (1967-02-03) (age 48) Blackpool
Nationality	Australian and British[1]
Occupation	Festival director, Sheffield Doc/Fest Director, Crossover
Known for	Co-producer, The Big Melt Co-producer, From the Sea to the Land Beyond

Heather Croall is the director and CEO of Sheffield Doc/Fest and co-producer of the documentaries The Big Melt and From the Sea to the Land Beyond.

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists named Croall 2013's Ambassador of Women's Films for her work "to boost documentary film and open opportunities for women filmmakers",^[2] and in 2011 Croall was named one of Realscreen's annual trailblazers.^[3] She has appeared on BBC Two's The Review Show^[4] and BBC Radio 4's The Media Show.^[5]

Background

Croall was born in Blackpool and grew up in Sheffield until the age of five, when her family emigrated to South Australia.^[6] In 1993 Croall set up a production company, Re Angle Pictures, to produce and direct documentaries. Her 1999 film Paradise Bent: Boys will be Girls in Samoa won the Silver Plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival.^[7] She continued her career at the South Australian Film Corporation, and also produced digital and documentary strands at the Adelaide Fringe Festival.^[7] In 2001, she developed Crossover, an organisation which works with new media and documentaries.

From 2003 Croall worked for the Australian International Documentary Conference, where she became festival director and developed the MeetMarket pitching event.^[1]

Sheffield Doc/Fest

In 2006 Croall was invited to become festival director at Sheffield Doc/Fest.^[8] When she joined the festival, it was a two-day event attracting 500 delegates and 2000 public attendees. Croall widened it to a five-day event with 3000 delegates and 20,000 public attendees.^[9] She found new funding which tripled the budget in two years,^[10] and changed the date of the festival from November to June. She brought in the MeetMarket pitching forum, which in 2011 generated £5.6 million worth of business for producers.^[11] She also added year-round training and events alongside the festival.^[6]

Variety magazine said Croall lifted Doc/Fest "into the premier league of international doc events".^[12] In 2012 Croall sat on the US Documentary jury at the Sundance Film Festival,^[13] and she was on the 25th anniversary advisory committee for PBS's POV documentary series.^[1]

Production credits

In 2012 Croall co-produced the first project to be made by Doc/Fest especially for the festival,^[14] From the Sea to the Land Beyond. This is a documentary made up of archive footage from the British coast, directed by Penny Woolcock with an original soundtrack by British Sea Power.^[15]

In 2013 she co-produced The Big Melt, a documentary by Martin Wallace that similarly fused original music with archive footage. It was made to celebrate 100 years of stainless steel in Sheffield, with a live soundtrack scored by Jarvis Cocker.

For 2014 Croall co-produced Velorama, again fusing archive footage with an original soundtrack to tell the story of a century of the bicycle. It was commissioned to mark the arrival of the 2014 Tour de France in Yorkshire, and directed by Daisy Asquith with a soundtrack by Bill Nelson and Chumbawamba.^[16]

References

External links

• Sheffield Doc/Fest official website