Projects in categories: Fiction

Synopsis

After her mum disappears in mysterious circumstances, Lorna grows up with a fascination for the unexplained. She and her boyfriend, Gordon, set off together in search of the truth.

Synopsis

Unmade Beds is a black comedy about vanity and desire in modern America. Set in the sexual jungle of the New York singles scene, two men and two women frantically pursue their impossible dreams. Equipped with ample provisions of self-delusion, misogyny, anti-semitism and homophobia, Brenda, Michael, Aimee and Mikey are on the road to heterosexual fiasco. Barker hired a research staff who combed New York for potential characters. Their search led them deep into the New York singles scene. They attended singles events, played the personals, and ran ads in the back page of the New York Press. Disguised as singles on the prowl, they canvassed bars and cafes in Manhattan's diverse neigh-bourhoods, until they found the 'cast'. Employing his unique brand of 'real-fiction' Barker then directed his 'cast' under feature film conditions during the summer, fall and winter of 1996-97. During this period he wrote and rewrote his script in response to the unfolding events in their lives. 'I'd say 90% of the script was based on the actual behaviour and language of the four principal characters' says Barker. 'The rest is a pack of lies'.

Synopsis

The British career of an American sports therapist is going nowhere, in fact it has ground to a halt and he contemplates a return to the United States. Young widow, Suzanne, is the proud mother of underachiever, Ben and six year old Natalie. Whilst she worries about Ben, her friends worry about her and frequently meet to confer on her future and find her a new romance. Meanwhile friend and philanderer, Frank, a dentist who practices hypno-therapy, uses this method to further his chances with Suzanne. However, in the tradition of all the best romantic comedies, nothing goes according to plan...

Synopsis

Tord is a 16 year old who spends most of his time watching films, TV and playing computer games and fantasizing. In his daydreams he can do virtually anything: be a popular comedian, star in a new Die Hard film and pick up the girl of his dreams. While his friends go to the hottest disco in town and pick up girls, Tord can do nothing but daydream about the same things. But all this is about to change when he meets Marvin....

Synopsis

The state of society now is caricatured in a well-to-do but dysfunctional family contrasting sharply with the smoothly operating society of wasps in a nest over their heads. Wasps is a film about insects, infestations, nervous energy, control, chaos and untimely extinction.

Synopsis

A chance reunion in a cafe; a remembrance of a childhood acquaintance set against a vivid landscape of recollection.

Synopsis

In this richly funny London-based romantic comedy, a young female barrister takes on an arrrogant defence lawyer in a high-profile case, only for them to fall unexpectedly in love with each other.

Synopsis

Filmed on the streets of Glasgow, When I'm 21, is a short documentary that touches on the hopes and objectives of seven dispossessed young people.

Synopsis

The work of one of Wales' greatest story writers has been adapted into a full-length feature film. Y MYNYDD GRUG (The Heather Mountain) is based on Dr Kate Roberts' classic volume 'Te yn y Grug'. The framework is a simple story: a year in the life of an 8 year old girl called Begw, who lives in a cottage on the quarry-mining uplands in Caernarfonshire, North Wales, at the turn of the century. From winter to winter, from snow to snow, Begw's experience of life deepens, and her imagination as a budding author matures. Coinciding with Begw's story, as a background to and underlying the whole film, is a portrait of the hard mountain people, the chapel-goers and the rough-necks, the whole close-knit community which struggles to live on the stark slopes of the Heather Mountain.

Synopsis

Yellow explores that disturbing combination of naiveté and power possessed by pre-pubescent children. When the car breaks down next to a rape field on a family outing, Natalie, a seven year old girl, takes the car keys and disappears into the sea of yellow flowers. When her mother's boyfriend follows, he finds himself far from the road confronting a naked girl and a deeply uncomfortable situation reaches a climax.

Synopsis

Yoman's Dance, a contemporary London story, investigates how a young Senegalese man with a lack of English, copes in the cosmopolitan metropolis. The central theme of the story is Yoman's battle to overcome his inability to express and articulate. Not naive to the difficulties of moving to a new and foreign city, and armed with a complex history and optimistic attitude, Yoman is well able to meet the many challenges that face him. However, the constant wear of misunderstanding climaxes with the failure of his first short lived encounter, which leads to a final sense of isolation.

Synopsis

Richard, a struggling artist in the midst of a breakdown that has left his career and his love life in tatters, attempts an ill-conceived insurance fraud and gets caught. He is sentenced to 120 hours of community service in lieu of jail. His assignment: to act as a 'caregiver' for Jane, a young woman confined to a wheelchair due to a rare degener-ative neurological disorder. Jane turns out to be anything but a timid and helpless paraplegic. Sheepish Richard finds his charge sarcastic, profane and mischievous, and as uninhibited as he is repressed. At first, Richard is convinced that he's the wrong man for the job, but he and Jane soon settle into a truce that blossoms into a deep and mutually supportive friendship. Then Jane shocks Richard by announcing that it is his responsibility to help her achieve her fondest, most impossible wish: to experience, along with the rest of humanity, the joy of sexual intimacy ... a request that forces Richard into a tailspin of conflicting feelings and wild adventures.