The award-winning documentary filmmaker will deliver a masterclass at the 10th Guth Gafa film festival, supported by Screen Training Ireland on Saturday August 6th at Headfort House.
Known for works such as ‘Donor Unknown’, ‘How to Change the World,’ Rothwell has been received awards at prestigious documentary festivals such as Tribeca Hot Docs, with further nominations at Sheffield and Sundance amongst others.
His most recent work ‘Sour Grapes’ engages with the topic of fine and rare wine auction markets,. In particular it focuses on the story of a counterfeiter who befriended who sold extensive amounts of fraudulent wine to upper-class individuals.
At Guth Gafa Rothwell will impart knowledge on how to leverage headline stories as a documentary filmmaker, how to identify what news stories inspire documentary filmmakers and what challenges to expect. In addition he will discuss how to avoid simply retelling a story which is already known to audiences and how to persuade key protagonists to talk on camera.
Guth Gafa will screen over 60 documentary films from 25 countries during its festival run of August 3rd to 7th. The line-up includes 32 Irish premieres, with 30 filmmakers attending from all over the world.