Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

An electrifying journey through the performance, private and public worlds of pop cultural icon Grace Jones. Jones’ bold aesthetic echoes throughout as director Sophie Fiennes creates a powerful cinematic experience, contrasting musical sequences with intimate personal footage and reaching beyond her iconic mask. The film includes unique performances of her iconic hits 'Slave To The Rhythm' and 'Pull Up To The Bumper' as well as more recent autobiographical tracks, 'Williams' Blood', 'This Is' and 'Hurricane'. These personal songs link to the film’s narrative that follows Grace on a holiday road trip across her native Jamaica where the story of her traumatic childhood are uncovered. Her stage is the fixed point to which the film returns, with 'Love Is The Drug' acting like an aria, bringing the film to its final and most touching scenes, including an encounter with French photographer Jean Paul Goude, father of Jones’ son Paulo and creator of her iconic album covers. This is a Grace we have not seen before, someone who reminds us of what it is to dare to be truly alive. In all her apparent contradictions, Grace Jones may appear an exception, but she is also a point of identification: she is the exception that proves the rule. Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2017 - TIFF Docs - World premiere

Synopsis

A short essay film by artist animator, Jessica Ashman. Using animation and recorded interviews of eight other women of colour artists, the film explores navigating the visual art and animation world as a black face in a white space.

Synopsis

A documentary portrait of Braziers Park School of Integrative Social Research (Braziers), the longest-running secular resident community in the UK. Centred upon insights from current residents and members, the film interweaves scenes of daily life with the natural features, architectural characteristics and diverse cultural history of the community. Set in the wider context of sustainable living and the economics of post-capitalism, Intentional Community explores the 'sociobiological' ideas of Braziers' founders, who established the community in 1950 as a social experiment in group co-existence. Today, Braziers continues to explore and live-out ideas of co-existence, collective work and our place in nature. Edited with a layered, non-linear approach, the composite film makes correspondences between the past and present, combing interior and exterior spaces of the gothic manor house with material from Braziers’ archive of photographs, audio recordings and film. Archival footage includes scenes from a 1964 Situationist gathering, attended by writers Alexander Trocchi, Jeff Nuttall, artist John Latham and psychiatrist R.D. Laing. Intentional Community also explores Braziers’ links to the Common Wealth political party, the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry, Kibbo Kift, and Grith Fyrd peace camps, reflecting Braziers’ deep-rooted, progressive social values, educational ideas, ecological awareness and connections to the counterculture.

Synopsis

A group of people, who suffer from a range of mental illnesses, gather together, to work together so that they can heal together.

Synopsis

What happens when the news cameras turn off? 'Another News Story' reveals the action behind the scenes of the news teams tasked with reporting the refugee story as it swept across the Balkans and into Europe at the height of the crisis. In an intimate display of how these two juxtaposed roles coexist in such tragic and unfathomable situations, the film follows through our characters to directly after when the Paris attacks have happened and the news rhetoric has changed against the refugees. Intercutting directly between the broadcast news and our own footage of reports going live, the film presents a unique insight into the news machine. Amid the current widespread popular move to the right and a world of "post truth", this film serves as an eye-opening account of how news is created, and a reminder that for many this was much more than Another News Story.

Synopsis

Dalibor K. lives in Prostjov, has a job painting gardening machinery, makes amateur horror movies and writes angry songs. He is a radical neo-Nazi, although he has never physically assaulted anyone. Approaching 40, he has never had a real relationship, as he still lives with his mother Vra (63). He hates his job, his boss, the Gypsies, refugees, homosexuals, Angela Merkel, spiders and dentists. He hates his life, but he has no idea how to change it. The filmmakers started filming this “portrait of an ordinary Czech neo-Nazi” at the point when Dalibor's mother Vra met Vladimír (47) on Facebook. A former cop from Topol’any, Slovakia, Vladimír also claims to be an active neo-Nazi, one of his favourite lines is that he’d love to “turn gypsies into tarmac”. At first Dalibor is blustered and opposed to his mother “bringing an intruder into his territory”. His attitude changes, however, when he himself meets Jana (29), a married neighbour, on Facebook. Jana takes Dalibor’s mother’s place in helping Dalibor make his videos, but eventually their relationship collapses. The story culminates with Jana’s initiative of bringing the main characters on a trip to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, where Dalibor learns that he has Jewish ancestors... Official Selection Karlovy Vary Film Festival 2017 - World premiere

Synopsis

A Danish woman who is deaf and blind travels to Nepal to meet a woman with her same condition. A story about the beauty and complexity of communication, exploring the boundaries between how we interpret the world and how we perceive ourselves.

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The animation was made as a result of an artist’s residency at University of Manchester, and the soundtrack is from voice recordings of interviews by medical humanities researchers at the university. The voices describe sudden and profound changes in people’s lives that alter their perceptions and sense of identity. The animation takes us on a journey through the social, psychological and physiological impact of a life-changing event. It is an intimate portrait of a group of individuals.

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A poetic and evocative visual study, taking the viewer on a journey into the world of a pigeon flying high above the bustling and crowded streets of Old Delhi. Official Selection Telluride Film Festival 2017 - World premiere

Synopsis

A short film exploring the life and work of prolific artist Faith Ringgold by eschewing linear narrative and drawing connections within her collection of works, in order to hint at a larger narrative at work. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2017 - Create Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

A modern day silent film - a city symphony - offering a poetic journey through the city of London. A cultural snapshot of London as it stands, and a celebration of the city's diversity. Stunning visuals are combined with James McWilliam’s stirring music, to take the viewer on a poetic journey through London, exploring its rich diversity of culture, architecture and religion. It is a meditative and blissful film that celebrates a vibrant and visually stunning city. Edinburgh International FIlm Festival 2017 - World premiere

Synopsis

A 60 minute 66 second feature film inspired by a walk from Waltham Abbey in Essex via Battle Abbey to St Leonards-on-Sea in East Sussex. The film documents a pilgrimage in memory of Edith Swan Neck. Bits of King Harold's body were brought to Waltham for burial near the High Altar after the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and his hand fast wife Edith Swan Neck is seen cradling him in a remarkable sculpture at Grosvenor Gardens on the sea front in St Leonards. The film re-connects the lovers after 950 years of separation. The 108 mile journey, as the crow flies, allows the audience to reflect upon all things Edith. A conversation in Northampton between Alan Moore, Iain Sinclair and Edith Swan Neck also is a key ingredient to the unfolding ‘story’. With images shot using digital super 8 iPhone apps and sound recorded using a specially constructed music box with a boom microphone, the film unfolds chronologically but in a completely unpredictable way. The numerous encounters and impromptu performances en route are proof, that the angels of happenstance were to looking down, with EDITH as their hallucination.