Projects in categories: Fiction

Synopsis

An enthralling montage of magical moments of cinema-going extracted from movie history exploring the entire film-going experience: underage boys attempting to get into a cinema to see some bare flesh; pretentious debates in the queues; loading choc ices into trays, and of course the trailers and the main feature. Films from every genre play as lovers meet, criminals hide in the dark and rapt audiences watch on. Witness how the industry works, with red carpet premieres and stars appearing in iconic scenes. Selected from titles too numerous to mention, there are favourites from the Golden Age of Hollywood, Italian Neorealism, British cinema classics and much more, all seamlessly brought together to resonate with our own emotional memories of the cinema. (LFF brochure) Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Experimenta Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

Set in the late 1990s. After a prank goes wrong on the estate tensions run high. Sarah-Lee learns that it's not always fun and games when it comes to growing up. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Journey Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

Pee. Wait. Panic. Steph is in a happy, long-term relationship, but now that she might be pregnant she has no idea what she wants. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Journey Strand

Synopsis

A lone hiker searches for her sister across moorland, despite an invisible and deadly threat in the air. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Journey Strand - World premiere

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