Project Detail

The Show of Shows

Synopsis

This film tells the story of itinerant circus performers, cabaret acts and vaudeville and fairground attractions. In this film, rarities and never-before seen footage of fairgrounds, circus entertainment, freak shows, variety performances, music hall and seaside entertainment are chronicled from the 19th and 20th century. We will see early shows that wowed the world and home movies of some of the greatest circus families.

Director Benedikt Erlingsson takes us back to the days when the most outlandish, skillful and breathtaking acts traveled the world.

This rich visual archive has been created with exclusive access to The University of Sheffield’s National Fairground Archive and is accompanied by an epic new score by Georg Holm and Orri Páll Dýrason of Sigur Rós, in collaboration with Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson and Kjartan Dagur Holm.

Details

Year
2015
Type of project
Features
Running time
73 mins
Director
Benedikt Erlingsson
Producer
Margret Jonasdottir, Heather Croall, Mark Atkin, Professor Vanessa Toulmin
Composer
Sigur Ros

Categories

Production Status

Production Company

Sagafilm

Laugavegi 176
105 Reykjavik
Iceland

Crossover Labs

The Workstation,
15 Paternoster Row,
Sheffield,
S1 2BX,
UK
T: +44 (0)114 276 5141

Sales Company

Dogwoof

19-23 Ironmonger Row
London
EC1V 3QN
UK
Tel: 02072536244

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

The Greatest Shows on Earth: A Century of Vaudeville, Circuses and Carnivals The Greatest Shows on Earth: A Century of Vaudeville, Circuses and Carnivals

Director: Benedikt Erlingsson

Year: 2015

The story of itinerant circus performers, cabaret acts and fairground attractions. Rarities and never-before seen footage of fairgrounds, circus entertainment, freak shows, variety performances, music hall and seaside entertainment are chronicled from the 19th and 20th century - early shows that wowed the world and home movies of some of the greatest circus families at a time when the most outlandish, skillful and breathtaking acts traveled the world. Created in collaboration with The University of Sheffield’s National Fairground Archive.

Spacewoman Spacewoman

Director: Hannah Berryman

Year: 2024

A landmark feature documentary about astronaut Eileen Collins, the first woman to pilot and command the Space Shuttle. Eileen’s incredible journey starts with her smalltown beginnings, sees her smash through many glass ceilings, and culminates in four dramatic space shuttle missions, the last being possibly the most dangerous and most important of them all. At its heart the film is the moving human drama of one family, where a mother’s extraordinary career takes us straight to the big philosophical question of what is the level of acceptable risk in human endeavour? This film celebrates Commander Collins’ trailblazing NASA career which opened the way for women to become spacecraft pilots and commanders, and proved a perfect riposte to a previous generation of male astronauts who thought there was no place for women to lead the way in space. Official Selection DOC NYC 2024 - World premiere Official Selection CPH:DOX 2025 - European premiere

A hand holding a lit taper candle lights a larger pillar candle placed on a metal candle holder, with a dark blurred background. Modupe

Director: Evan Ifekoya

Year: 2025

MODUPE is an experimental documentary that unfolds as a ceremony of queer belonging, inheritance, and sound. At its heart is a dialogue with Afro-Cuban priestess and musician Amelia Pedroso, whose legacy is invoked through archival traces, letters, and performance. Narrated as a letter to an ancestor, the film situates the search for connection within an interior, oceanic dreamscape where water, memory, and ritual become both setting and subject. Cinematically, MODUPE moves between a stylised ensemble rehearsal and a sacred library-archive. The ensemble of voice, drum, and dance provides the film’s pulse, collapsing rehearsal and ritual into one. Deep blue light, reflective surfaces, and submerged imagery create a sensorial architecture that is both intimate and expansive, with water presence throughout evoking both flood and transformation. Formally, the film resists linear storytelling, privileging atmosphere, rhythm, and sonic immersion. Objects, archives, and sacred materials hold the same cinematic weight as bodies in performance, reframing the archive as altar and sound as shrine. Narrative unfolds through resonance rather than resolution, drawing the viewer into a space of listening and reflection. MODUPE proposes cinema as a vessel for inheritance, where identity is fluid, memory is alive and liberation is lived through sound.