Board of Trustees

Salary: Voluntary

International Documentary Festival Sheffield (Sheffield DocFest) is looking for two new voluntary Trustees to join its Board.

About Sheffield DocFest

Sheffield DocFest is the UK’s leading documentary festival and one of the world’s most influential markets for documentary projects. We champion and present the breadth of documentary form – film, television, immersive and art – in the vibrant city of Sheffield each June. We offer makers and audiences a place for inspiration, debate, development, learning and challenge. Our programming represents our core values – creativity, empathy, freedom, inclusivity and internationalism.

Sheffield DocFest is run by International Documentary Festival Sheffield, an
independent registered charity (no.1184849), whose purpose is to advance the art of
film, education and training in documentary filmmaking. Our core values as a charity
centre around empathy, inclusiveness, social engagement, freedom and internationalism.

Equal Opportunities

Our jobs are like our festival, open to all.

We believe that documentaries, and those working in the arts and in media – including
ourselves – have a part to play in creating a society which is proud of its diversity and its
multi-cultural heritage.

Our programme-centred approach to inclusiveness puts diversity at the forefront of its activity. Through the documentaries we showcase and the talent we develop, we aim to celebrate diversity, promote equality and challenge discrimination.

Equally, we are committed to providing a welcoming, accessible, inclusive and positive
experience for all festival attendees, team members and volunteers – regardless of age,
disability, sex, gender, sexuality, marital/civil partnership status, pregnancy/maternity/
paternity, race, religion/belief, or socio-economic background. We’re proud to be a
Disability Confident committed employer, supporting disabled people in the workplace.
Sheffield DocFest is BFI Diversity standards approved, an organisation that encourages
equality of opportunity and addresses under-representation in the screen industries.

About the role

We are currently looking for individuals to join our Board of Trustees, and work alongside our Managing Director, Acting Creative Director and Senior Team to help oversee the Governance of the festival including all legal, financial and compliance aspects, and to enable the delivery of the Charity’s strategic vision over the next six to ten years. We would welcome applicants from across the UK and are particularly keen to invite responses from the South Yorkshire region with previous experience of charity governance, legal, finance and/or XR technology.

More generally, the role of the Trustees is to act as public advocates for the festival locally,
nationally and internationally and to be on hand to help problem-solve where necessary.

We are looking for people who are not only passionate about non-fiction storytelling but are also committed to championing diverse stories told by diverse storytellers.

The Board meets 4-6 times a year with additional ad hoc meetings if required. Meetings are currently held remotely. The role is voluntary, though travel / expenses will be covered when meetings return to in-person.

For a full job description please see our recruitment pack.

Applications

We are inviting potential applicants to apply for this role by submitting an up-to-date CV plus
either:

a) a covering letter (no longer than 2 pages)

b) a video letter (up to 7 minutes in length), explaining what attracts you to the role and what
you can bring.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss the role prior to applying please contact,
Maria Stoneman, Head of HR at: recruitment@sheffdocfest.com

Please address applications to: Maria Stoneman, Head of HR email:
recruitment@sheffdocfest.com

If you wish to arrange a confidential conversation with Chair of the Board of Trustees Alex Cooke, please email recruitment@sheffdocfest.com to request a call.

We monitor the diversity of our workforce and for the purposes of reporting to our key funders we ask that you help us by clicking on the link below to complete the questionnaire
anonymously.
https://forms.gle/GPQV1WFsZSMQif7Q8

The closing date for this position is 27/01/2023 at 12:00