Sheffield Doc/Fest was thrilled to welcome the acclaimed Salford-based actress and writer Maxine Peake to the Festival for the first time. Talking to Guardian journalist Simon Hattenstone Maxine discussed her love of documentary film and those docs that have inspired her life, her sense of humour, work and politics, including Andrew Kotting's idiosyncratic documentary Gallivant, The Alcohol Years by Carol Morley, Ray Müller's biographical doc about the German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl and the classic British doc The Moon and The Sledge Hammer by Philip Trevelyan.

Viewing of high quality factual TV content online has had a massive explosion in the last 18 months – with documentaries attracting millions of global viewers, but as a UK production company or an independent documentary maker, is online production really worth your time? A leading online producers and commissioners from YouTube, the BBC and National Geographic explore what makes a hit, why online production is creatively exciting, how to make money out of new content – and how to exploit the content you already have. 

Supported by Little Dot Studios