2 Randan Projects Selected for Queer Realities Directors Lab

Today the Sheffield Doc Fest, the UK’s leading documentary festival, announced the 10 participants for the 2024 Queer Realities Director’s Lab. 

We’re excited to announce that Randan’s directors, Bircan Birol and Jack Goessens, will both take part in the scheme - alongside Steven Fraser, frequent Randan collaborator.

Bircan Birol’s documentary feature ‘Your Honour’ is currently in late-stage development, it follows Efruz, a young Kurdish woman who is fighting to become the first openly transgender lawyer in a rapidly changing Turkey; seeking hope, solidarity and healing within her community. Bircan was also a recent Artist Award Recipient of the  IDA Fund for ‘Your Honour.’

Jack Goessen’s documentary, ‘The T(r)ee of Love’, is a film that aims to challenge this image of the undatable, lonely trans person and explore the kaleidoscope of trans relationships, their partners and the intersectionality of sexuality and gender.

Frequent collaborator Steven Fraser has also been selected for the lab. Reece Cargan of Randan produced Steven’s award-winning short documentary ‘Prosopagnosia’ and Randan recently produced Steven’s latest short documentary funded by BFI Doc Society ‘KEITH,’. KEITH is currently in post-production, soon to be released in festivals.

The Queer Realities Director’s Lab is a development programme for directors developing a queer-focused documentary project. The 10 selected directors will get to explore and experiment with the documentary format through specially curated workshops and masterclasses with UK and international artists, filmmakers, and other industry experts.

You can find out more about The Sheffield Doc Queer Realities Director’s Lab, here.