Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

A poetic portrait of an Iranian watchmaker, whose philosophical musings on craft invite us to reflect on how we engage with time in a fast-paced world. Moving between his colourful pared-down home and the streets and windswept marshes of East London, we discover the horologist's ascetic and beautiful private world.

Synopsis

A grim display of misguided patriotism and tribal thuggery during the England-Germany 2010 World Cup football match. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Debate Strand

Synopsis

In 2012, the Ivy House pub in Peckham was sold to property developers as part of the ongoing gentrification of south London. The locals opposed it. Unfolding from this scenario, the film weaves verbatim testament into folk operatic form with the Ivy House itself, embodied and imagined as a central character and inhabited by the memories of the generations who have passed through its doors. Sarah Turner films the community’s creative reanimation of the mourned pub through dance, poetry and song... which both records and creates a vision of social possibility... The activism that saved the pub is a metaphor for social and creative agency. This is not just a film about resistance; it is a film that itself refuses categorisation... a triumphant genre-blending documentary which turns community action into an exhilarating participatory opera. (London Film Festival) Public House premiered in the documentary competition at the 2015 BFI London Film Festival and was nominated for the Grierson Award. The film has since been re-edited and remastered in a new version for wider audiences.

Synopsis

Cairo cardiologist Bassem Youssef ('the Egyptian Jon Stewart') quit surgery to front the hugely popular TV satire Al Bernameg (The Show) amid the country’s turbulent Arab Spring-led political upheavals. Youssef ultimately fell foul of government crackdowns. His programme was cancelled and he was forced to flee the country with his family. This fascinating, fearless and often very funny documentary charts Youssef’s incredible late-career shift, detailing his and his team's determination and courage in standing up to successive totalitarian regimes, reminding us just how potent and dangerous comedy really can be. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Laugh Strand

Synopsis

In the late '80s and early '90s, daredevil entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson made an audacious attempt to cross the Atlantic and Pacific in the world's largest hot air balloon. This film is a personal revelation; a dramatic tale of survival and drive. Branson recounts his experience with uncanny vividity, and reveals how baiting death forever changed him. Tribeca Film Festival 2016 - World premiere

Synopsis

Passionate in his anti-Semitic beliefs, Csanád Szegedi was the rising star of Hungary's far-right party until he discovered his family's secret - his maternal grandparents were Jewish. The revelation prompts an improbable but seemingly heartfelt conversion from anti-Semite to Orthodox Jew. This confrontational film explores the complex and contradictory character of Szegedi, prompting deep questions about Szegedi's supposed epiphany. Tribeca Film Festival 2016 - World premiere

Synopsis

March 2004. The artist known as Banksy illegally erects a ten-foot statue in a small square off Shaftsbury Avenue in central London. Titled 'The Drinker', this sculpture is a replica of Rodin's 'The Thinker' - with a traffic cone placed on its head. The only clue as to who put it there is a stencil on the plinth that merely says 'Banksy'. Then, one day, in broad daylight, masked thieves pull up with a flatbed truck and cart 'The Drinker' away - a reporter from a national newspaper receives a ransom note from a man calling himself AK47, claiming to represent a group of 'art terrorists' calling themselves 'ART KEIDA'. After several years back and forth between the media, Banksy and Art Keida, it is alleged that the artist called Banksy 'arranged' for the statue to be destroyed by any means necessary... Now, after all this time, it seems that AK47 is about to breathe new life into the saga. Tribeca Film Festival 2016 - World premiere

Synopsis

A biographical documentary about the remarkable and turbulent career of British film and TV director Antonia Bird - the first British woman to direct a Hollywood movie, who died in 2013. The film explores her battles to break down the barriers against her gender and her politics, to get her voice heard, and to bring a radical edge to popular drama. It reveals the secrets of her greatest work - Safe, Priest, Face, Ravenous, Care, The Hamburg Cell - through the testimony of her closest friends and collaborators, including Robert Carlyle, Mark Cousins, Kate Hardie, Irvine Welsh and Steven Mackintosh.

Synopsis

An original and compelling documentary depicting one father’s long-term struggle with heroin addiction, told through the uniquely intimate perspective of his own son. After years of acrimony and estrangement, young film-maker Phillip Wood seeks out his father to try and understand what’s happened to him. But his father is now seriously ill and over the next few months Phillip’s visits force both to confront some uncomfortable truths about their past. This documentary offers a strikingly stark exploration into a subject that significantly affected the film-maker's childhood. An intimate, revealing documentary which shows addiction from a different side and challenges assumptions about how families can rebuild their broken relationships.

Synopsis

A ‘pop-u-mentary’ following award-winning performance artist Bryony Kimmings and her 10-year old niece Taylor as they try to combat the hyper-sexualised and commercialised world of pop by creating their very own alternative popstar role model for Tweens (7 – 12 year old girls). They launch their creation into the world and measure her impact against a series of ‘Fame Aims’, including one million hits on YouTube and national radio play for one of her songs. Bryony and Taylor’s adventure sees them perform to thousands of children, garner national media attention, and takes them to the other side of the world and back. But the impact it has closer to home is perhaps the most powerful of all. This feature-length documentary is an upbeat and inspirational film for anyone who cares about the impact of the media we consume.

Synopsis

The extraordinary life and career of underground DJ icon, music producer, and global trip hop mogul, James Lavelle. The story of one teenager’s ambition to passionately pursue creating quality music at any cost, and the friendships, fall outs, successes and failures that come with it. Spanning three decades, with exclusive access to personal home footage, this is a rare opportunity to watch a boy become a man in the world of music. Witnessing him experience a whirlwind journey of personal and professional highs and lows, from the rapid rise of his record label Mo'Wax, to becoming a millionaire by the age of 21 and forming the super band UNKLE, with DJ Shadow. A profile of one man's constant battle between art and commerce and how to survive as he continually strives for more. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Sonic Strand

Synopsis

At the end of the 1970s, Gary Numan found himself to be one of the world’s biggest-selling recording artists, 'Are ‘Friends’ Electric?' and 'Cars' were huge hits, no one had heard, or seen, anyone like Gary Numan. The Asperger’s syndrome that helped forge Numan's tunnel-like ambition, informing his music and image, also brought problems. At a time when the public knew little about the condition, the press labeled him a freak, one paper suggested his parents should have been doctored for giving birth to him. Depression, anxiety, near bankruptcy and a long period in the wilderness followed. Then Numan fell in love with his biggest fan, Gemma, who helped him rediscover his passion for music. (SXSW Film Festival brochure) SXSW Film Festival 2016 - World premiere