Projects in categories: Fiction

Synopsis

Inspired by true events, the story of the first American women who tested for space travel. Their psychological and physical endurance broke records. They were pioneers and adventurers who battled the inequalities of their time, whose exploits remained a state secret for some time. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Journey Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

When Ella was twelve, she had her first fight. And when she was twelve, she discovered sex. Now eighteen, Ella reflects on how her obsession with her older brother Michael's best friend Moses left her with a secret she still carries. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - World premiere

Synopsis

Transcending the sound and visual of the drum, using nature’s most destructive forces fire and water as catalysts for destruction and creating a mood piece of raw, ritualistic, drumming phenomena. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Cult Strand

Synopsis

Acclaimed documentarian Mark Cousins moves into fiction with this intriguing musical film, perhaps best described as a city symphony. 'Stockholm My Love' follows the footsteps of Alva Achebe (Neneh Cherry), a Swedish architect fascinated by the way buildings influence lives, but haunted by a tragic event in her past. One year ago, Alva was involved in a car accident, and ever since, her trauma has held her hostage in her daily life. On the anniversary of this shocking event, she’s at breaking point and can’t face the day ahead, so tries to get lost in the historic city of Stockholm. But her wanderings only draw her back towards her past, and the site of her tragedy. There she starts to take her first hesitant steps towards recovery. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Journey Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

Taking its title from the French Surrealist artist, Claude Cahun’s (1894-1954) incomplete memoir 'Confidences au miroir', Sarah Pucill's film brings life to the photographic and written archive of Claude Cahun amidst a visual extravaganza of costumes and hand-made sets. Following Cahun’s text, the film includes Cahun’s early and later life and work, including her political propaganda activity and imprisonment in Jersey with her partner Suzanne Malherbe during the Nazi occupation of the island. The tracing of a life is made conscious through the projection of images of the couples' home in Jersey into a domestic London setting. As a sequel to director Sarah Pucill's previous film 'Magic Mirror' (2013), this film continues her experiment to bring cinematic life to the photographic and written archive of Claude Cahun. In this film Pucill animates re-stagings of Cahun’s black and white self-portrait and still–life photographs with voices from Cahun's text 'Confidences au miroir', collaging and transposing black and white stills and words, into colour and soundscape. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Experimenta Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

An intimate and vivid account of a young girl’s real and fantastical adventure in a remote forest one evening. Glasgow-based artist-filmmaker Margaret Salmon's debut feature is not only a loving homage to classic children’s films such as Ray Ashley’s 'Little Fugitive', Jean Renoir’s 'The River' and Albert Lamorisse’s 'The Red Balloon', but draws from nature studies of the past, such as Mary Field’s 'Secrets of Nature' series. Shot on 35mm in various locations around Scotland, Salmon draws inspiration from a range of cinematic movements as well as wildlife documentaries to produce a lyrical and sensual portrait of a child’s eye perspective on the natural world. (LFF brochure) Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Experimenta Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

Washed-up actor Richard Thorncroft peaked with hit 1980s detective show 'Mindhorn', playing the titular Isle of Man sleuth with a rather unique ability. As a captured MI5 Special Operative, Bruce Mindhorn's eye was replaced by a super-advanced optical lie detector, which meant he could literally 'see the truth'. Mindhorn escaped and fled to the Isle of Man, to recuperate in the island’s temperate microclimate, and became the best plain-clothes detective the island had ever seen... Decades later, when a deranged Manx criminal demands Mindhorn as his nemesis, Thorncroft returns to the scene of his greatest triumphs for one last chance to reignite his glory days, professional credibility and even romance with former co-star/paramour Patricia Deville. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Laugh Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

The real-life episodes contributing to a devastating hate crime are powerfully told in one shot. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Debate Strand

Synopsis

A multimedia feature film about gentrification in Brixton, London, incorporating fiction, documentary, performance art, photography and animation. Nina, is a young stifled artist who returns to her community after a long absence - she is soon painted as a symbol of gentrification. As she struggles with her own complicity, she embarks on a mission to create a piece of art that can bring her community together. Real life testimonies from people directly affected by gentrification in Brixton are woven alongside the story of Nina's journey, blurring the lines between fiction and reality. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Debate Strand

Synopsis

In 1919, a tea lady eavesdrops on a top secret government meeting called to solve the latest, gravest problem facing the British Empire... A satirical comedy which wryly suggests that today’s obsession with female appearance was borne out of one official government meeting. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Laugh Strand

Synopsis

When a middle aged couple decide to attend the local swingers party, in the hope to save their frozen marriage, they are disappointed to see they are the only attendees, worse yet the hosts are a couple of stuck up liberals who have a opposed their planning permission. What follows is a night of brutal honesty and small town politics. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Laugh Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

Stanley finds himself in prison for a crime that he believes that he didn’t commit. After many years in solitary confinement he begins to talk to his comedy heroes from the past as each one tries to help him remember what he has done. We follow Stanley through his journey of hallucinations as he faces up to his unusual upbringing and his parents’ bizarre religious beliefs. Stanley becomes desperate to learn the truth about what happened to his daughter and what lead to having this ordinary life he has already dreamed of. Award-winning actor Timothy Spall plays Stanley and all the characters in his hallucinations; from the flamboyant Noel Coward to the grotesque Max Wall to the ukulele king George Formby, to Egor in a Transylvanian castle.