A film maker who followed drugs gangs in Brazil has started his own international documentary festival.

David Notman-Watt was inspired by the box office success of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 and Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me to launch the two-day SEE festival.

The event, on November 19 and 20 at the Sussex Arts Club in Ship Street, Brighton, will feature interviews with Hollywood director Michael Stone, talks from the producer involved with Nick Broomfield's work on troubled rock couple Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain and world premieres of new films.

University of Sussex students will show film shorts with advice from a panel of leading industry insiders.

Mr Notman-Watt, who runs Back2Back Productions in Boyce's Street, Brighton, said: "Hollywood has had its way for too long and audiences are demanding more.

"To make a splash at the box office you have to do something extraordinary. You couldn't write something like Super Size Me because the director and star, Morgan Spurlock, is so lovely.

"There is an opportunity to do everything from watching great films to listening to a director talking about his work or take part in seminars on film-making."

The festival is part of CINECITY, Brighton's annual homage to the silver screen which will pack out cinemas across the city from November 17 for the third year running.

Audiences will be able to see Mr Notman-Watt's own film, Leo and Ze, which he made while following gun-toting teenagers who deal cocaine in the favelas of Rio.

The film, directed by Angus MacQueen, was nominated for the One World Broadcasting Trust Media Award for best television documentary of the year in March and featured in a television series about the movement of cocaine from fields in Peru to the streets of America.

In the wake of the film's success Mr Notman-Watt decided to launch SEE as the only event of its kind in the UK showing new documentaries and offering an insight on making and promoting new work. Producer Michele d'Acosta, from Brighton, will be answering questions after a screening of Nick Broomfield's Biggie and Tupac, a study on the life and death of the two US rappers.

Award-winning director Phil Grabsky, also from Brighton, will talk about his work, while Luke Holland will explain his decision to turn the camera on his home-town of Ditchling for the television series Storyville.

A new documentary, March Of The Penguins, is being tipped as the box office hit for this winter and follows Emperor penguins as they travel in their thousands through Antarctica to reach their breeding ground.

It is these real-life journeys which Mr Notman-Watt believes attract audiences which are already discovering the drama of reality television programmes such as Big Brother, X Factor and Wife Swap.

He said: "I love making documentaries because they are real.

"I am interested in real cocaine gangs, not the pretend ones."

For festival details go to www.seefestival.org or www.cine-city.co.uk