‘Still Pushing Pineapples’ to Open Sheffield DocFest

The world premiere of Kim Hopkins’ Still Pushing Pineapples will open the 2025 Sheffield DocFest on June 18. In 2022, the filmmaker won the fest’s Audience Award for A Bunch of Amateurs.

“Still Pushing Pineapples offers audiences a melancholy, yet heartfelt look into the story of Dene Michael, the former singer of Black Lace and pop band behind the novelty Brit party favorite ‘Agadoo’,” according to a plot description. “The film follows the lead singer’s journey on the road with his aging mother and a partner, as he aims for a comeback. Director, producer and cinematographer Kim Hopkins directs and delves into the entertainment, working class culture, human connection, power of pop and the state of Britain in this funny, irreverent road movie.”

Said Sheffield DocFest managing director Mimi Poskitt: “Opening with Still Pushing Pineapples is a celebration of everything we champion at DocFest. This is a deeply intimate and beautifully crafted observation on working-class life rooted in Yorkshire, from celebrated Northern female filmmaker Kim Hopkins. Her empathetic approach and careful unfolding of Dean’s story — particularly the bond between mother and son — reflect the very best of British documentary filmmaking. Kim, alongside a strong, female-led team, has taken bold creative risks, and the results are truly remarkable.”

Said Hopkins: “The film asks profound questions about happiness, survival, and the indifference of a country leaving many behind, whilst crafting an ode to those who persevere despite adversity. When Black Lace hit Top of the Pops in the ‘80s, a glib DJ remarked: ‘Don’t you always wonder who is in that fruit?’ — referring to the giant dancing fruit backing-singers. I did wonder if Dene had nightmares about having turned into a giant pineapple. Had the strange fruit that fed him also devoured him?”

She concluded: “Through his four-decade long career in an industry that’d forced him to smile 45,000 times, Dene — though now a pineapple —never lost his humanity, his kindness, his hope. Still Pushing Pineapples explores the resilience and humanity of Dene, who embodies the spirit of ordinary working-class people amid a crumbling industrial disorder.”

Added the doc’s producer Margareta Szabo: “It is not every day you find the perfect mix of an untold story, wonderful characters and a subject that somehow feels both timely and timeless, but Still Pushing Pineapples manages just that.”

The festival also unveiled that British journalist Nina Hossain will chair a talk with the award-winning documentary producers Norma Percy and Lucy Heatherington to discuss their careers.
“With landmark series like The Death of Yugoslavia, Putin vs the West, and Israel and the Palestinians: The Road to 7th October, Norma has brought audiences face-to-face with global leaders and revealed the power struggles shaping our world,” Sheffield DocFest said. “Executive producer Lucy Hetherington has worked with Norma on several series and has led legally and editorially sensitive award-winning projects.”

This year’s BBC Interview has also been unveiled and will feature Professor Brian Cox, a prominent physicist who has featured in such TV programs as Solar System, Universe, and The Planets.

The 32nd edition of the Sheffield DocFest takes place June 18-23.