Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

A moving documentary that explores contemporary Northern Ireland, through the lives of four men living in the aftermath of violent conflict; a story about reimagined identity of place and the fragility of masculinity.
Contextualised by the country's past the film is firmly rooted in Northern Ireland today, as a population struggles to come to terms with the horrors and the sacrifices of its past and the men turn to face a future defined by their hopes, rather than regret.
Filmed over a year with the men in and around their homes, the filmmakers focussed on the stories that took place long after the news cameras had left the story that was Northern Ireland.
Thirty years of violence came to an end in a 1998 peace deal, and the door on almost relentless media interest also closed. But the lives of those affected indirectly or otherwise by the so-called ‘Troubles’ continued…
In a society where masculinity has long been measured in violence and aggression, what happens to the identities of men when the Troubles end and the roles previously held are no longer accepted or needed?

Synopsis

“for the time being” is a collage of moving images made thirty years apart and re-worked into seventeen sections of tentative autobiography. The soundtrack mixes music and environmental sound with conversation, not all of it intelligible. In the scraps that are, the film-maker and his partner talk together about how we document and re-interpret our lives.

Synopsis

In their debut documentary Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor take as their point of departure the compelling 18th Century figure, Ambrose O’Higgins - father of Bernardo O’Higgins, the first leader of Independent Chile - and attempt to retrace his remarkable journey from Ireland to Chile. Having long dreamt of making a biopic of O’Higgins, this wayward and wry documentary is the filmmakers’ attempt to realise this dream through a personal voyage into the idea of the cinematic location. However, as they speculate on the idea of place and what O’Higgins embodies, the filmmakers continually get sidetracked by a competing story of immigration and displacement. A story that began with a newspaper cutting from 1937, concerning an 11 month old baby who travelled unaccompanied, by ship, across the Atlantic from New York to Cobh. Gradually, and not without humour, these intertwining narratives uncover ideas about the transformative powers of travelling, as looked at through the peculiar prism of the Irish experience.

Synopsis

A film exploring what can be seen and what can not, how scientists imagine their work and how they describe it.
The film is based on the work undertaken in Dr Serge Mostowy’s laboratory on septin assembly in cells, using a zebrafish model. Lab members describe the intricate sub-cellular septin dynamics and structure. Their explanatory drawings, and discussion between scientists and filmmaker about how they see the research, are incorporated into the animation.

Synopsis

Routes Jukebox: The Documentary’, tells the story of the ever-evolving Liverpool music scene since the 1940s and its influences and connection with other music cities such as New York, Detroit, Nashville and Kingston. From the influx of Gaelic sounds and rhythms that came to the city with the mass Irish migration to the importing of Rock N Roll records from the United States via the historic Cunard line to the rise of Merseybeat, Punk and House Music, ’Routes Jukebox’ touches on the various social and cultural factors that led to the creation of such an prolific and enduring music scene. Additionally, the documentary touches on the stories of the oft-forgotten links between Liverpool music and Motown and Reggae.

Synopsis

He is the UK’s and Britain’s Strongest Man, ranked 3rd World Strongest Man & the first man in history to lift 500kg, but that’s not good enough for Eddie Hall. He needs to be the Strongest Man in the world. Driven by an insatiable thirst to be the very best, he is a man on a mission.
This powerful and truly inspirational feature documentary vividly illustrates the sacrifices that this extremely driven man must make to chase his dream. He will stop at nothing. He trains, eats, sleeps and breathes strongman, competing all over the world and breaking records. He faces not only gargantuan competitors, but his own inner demons as he strives to leave behind the scars of his teenage years.
This film gets under the skin of a man totally dedicated to becoming the greatest and offers an engrossing snapshot of an unforgettable character, Eddie – Strongman.
Featuring appearances from Arnold Schwarzenegger and multiple World’s Strongest Man winners Bill Kazmeier, Geoff Capes, Brian Shaw and Zydrunas Savickas.

Synopsis

Jennifer left Gibraltar and entered an enclosed community of Discalced Carmelites nearly 30 years ago. The cloistered community live out an ideal of work and prayer as a creative life. The quotes are from Teresa of Avila’s “Way of Perfection” the spiritual guide she wrote for her Carmelite nuns.

Seven years in the making, the project was realised through the collaboration between inside and outside the convent walls. Filmed inside the convent by Jennifer and Alejandro Roman a volunteer who for some years helps out the community and is the only person allowed inside.

The film gives us rare access to the monastery and her enclosed life within it.

Synopsis

A Documentary Feature about World Champion boxer Joe Calzaghe, and his extravagant father Enzo, who trained him throughout his 20 year career. Their journey started in a tin shed on the windswept hills of the Welsh Valleys and ended under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden – fighting for a final payday that neither could have ever imagined.

Some say he’s the real life Rocky. But Rocky lost... Joe never did.

The film charts Joe's life from impoverished beginnings in industrial Wales and a child-hood of gruelling training and horrendous bullying, to Joe and Enzo taking on the vicious world of Boxing, beating the best fighters that America could throw at them and getting out with their lives, relationship and fortune in tact.

A rags to riches tale of incredible sporting challenges and triumphs and an emotional study of a unique father and son team.

The film inspires us to look to a new breed of fighting champion. Do we want our sons and daughters to respect those who did it all regardless of the personal cost? Or those who can now look to a long and bright future and fresh new challenges with their loved ones by their side?

Synopsis

When denied freedom and everyday conveniences, people's resourcefulness grows. Former inmate Chris Wilson shows us how doing time at San Quentin taught him to free his mind, and his talent.

Synopsis

The rock of Gibraltar is shared between two primate species: people and monkeys. The monkeys populated the upper rock long before the latest human inhabitants, the British, arrived, and now, 300 years on, there are tensions between the two. Attempts to expel the monkeys from the town with peashooters are in vain, as the animals rise to the challenges of the new game. This leads the government to resort to more drastic tactics…

A warm and lyrical film about our territorial tendencies as humans.

Synopsis

In June 2015 Alex Smith completed an Ironman triathlon, known as the toughest single day challenge you can undertake, carrying his 40kg disabled son the whole way. An epic achievement for his son, who is dying from a fatal muscle wasting disease: Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Synopsis

Harness the power of hindsight.
'While they Watched' is a feature documentary about North Korea set in the future, that looks back atthe collapse of the Kim dictatorship. The film questions the morality of the current inaction by regional and global powers towards the North Korean dictatorship.