Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

A documentary about a single man, Tom, who challenges himself to find his next date without the use of the internet.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2015 - Love Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

While investigating her late parents’ involvement with the Anglo Iranian Oil Company (BP), the filmmaker comes across the letters of a petroleum geologist in Iran in the 1930s who was later to embark on a search for the origins of civilisation. 'The Host' sets out on its own exploration, to decipher signs from the fragmented images buried in the BP (British Petroleum) Archive. This journey through the past interweaves a number of stories drawn from both personal memory and the records of an imperial history, which builds a picture of a 20th-century colonial encounter. 'The Host' is a personal essay film about the stories we tell about ourselves and others, the facts and fictions we live by, and their consequences. (LFF brochure)
BFI London Film Festival 2015 - World premiere

Synopsis

"I find that the most inexplicable behavior is motivated by very relatable human impulses," comments Louis Theroux as he heads to Los Angeles for this feature documentary, in collaboration with director John Dower and producer Simon Chinn, exploring the Church of Scientology. Following a long fascination with the religion and with much experience in dealing with eccentric, unpalatable and unexpected human behavior, the beguilingly unassuming Theroux won’t take no for an answer when his request to enter the Church’s headquarters is turned down. Inspired by the Church’s use of filming techniques, and aided by ex-members of the organisation, Theroux uses actors to replay some incidents people claim they experienced as members in an attempt to better understand the way it operates. In a bizarre twist, it becomes clear that the Church is also making a film about Louis Theroux. Suffused with a good dose of humour and moments worthy of a Hollywood script, this true life film is stranger than fiction.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2015 - Dare Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

Charting the band The Maccabees’s creative process as they record their fourth album, ‘Marks To Prove It’, working in self-imposed isolation in an anonymous studio in London’s Elephant and Castle... The film becomes a compelling, poetic portrait of the area and its local population... gardens are created in surprising spaces; a local musician is having a suit tailored, BB heals through prayer at the concrete-built Crossways church, and the 100 year old Arments Pie and Mash shop is, as ever an enduring local institution. All of these tales are woven through the band’s experimentation – their false turns, self-doubts and triumphs – as they create what will become an incendiary, life-affirming album - LFF
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2015 - Sonic Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

"I think art is powerful and I think it has affected all of us in some way, shape or form. Whether it’s you’re favourite character or scene from a TV show or a film or a play. Or maybe it’s just a line in a song. Sometimes it’s a line that you’ve heard one hundred times and it’s only on the one hundred and first time it clicked and meant something to you. Sometimes it’s a line that grabbed your attention straight away. And that’s what 'Lines' is about." Cecile Emeke
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2015 - Sonic Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

This film is a haunting collision of past and present, presided over by the high priests of the great tradition of American music, Jack White and T Bone Burnett, who also executive produced with Robert Redford. Long before digital file sharing, MP3, compact discs, tape and vinyl, a machine was forged from ingenuity. The Western Electric lathe, a marvel of analogue engineering operated by a weight and pulleys, pioneered the recording of American music. In an old Hollywood studio, one has been lovingly reassembled. In it, White gathers an extraordinary convocation of musical superstars, all keen to cut a record in the unforgiving three minutes the Western Electric provides. Featuring live performances from Elton John, Nas, Willie Nelson, Alabama Shakes, Steve Martin, Ana Gabriel, Merle Haggard, Taj Mahal and many more. (LFF brochure)
BFI London Film Festival 2015 - World premiere

Synopsis

In 1976, during the hottest summer on record, 'Star Wars' was shot in suburban North London. Nobody involved had any idea how big the film would become, many couldn’t even remember the title. Yet, for the extras and actors in smaller roles, their faces hidden in masks and helmets, this seemingly insignificant job would go on to colour their lives even four decades later.
BFI London Film Festival 2015 - World premiere

Synopsis

Through a series of oral testimonies and carefully composed portraits, Alone Together, the Social Life of Benches explores how individuals and groups spend time in two distinctive public London locations.

Made by Esther Johnson as part of an Arts & Humanities Research Council project, this poetic documentary illuminates the thoughts and memories of frequent users of General Gordon Square, Woolwich, and St Helier Open Space, Sutton.

Revolving around the micro-space of the humble bench, the film incorporates contributions from a diverse range of visitors. These testimonies highlight themes such as the psychological feeling of being in a space, the rhythm and flow of visitors to a place, the importance of design for everyday street furniture and access to communal outdoor space.

The film acts like a stranger who joins you to ‘watch the world go by’, and to break the ice by starting a conversation with their fellow bench user.

Synopsis

Cibo Di Violenza is an extreme shockumentary that tells the short and horrific story of cannibalism, it also hits you hard with what some cultures are alleged to eat and how far some company’s go to get their flavourings. This film is certainly not for the squeamish but it does ask more questions about us humans than it provides answers.


must be 18 to view this film.

Synopsis

From their first conversation the film set out to highlight reaction to unspecified places, as jump off points to something, offering a culture of play in " Ballardian" environments where past planning has lost relevance. Places that induce reaction to the architecture of existence.

Synopsis

Keeping Up With the Kashubians is an observational film taking place in Kashubia, a rural region of northern Poland. Through capturing the daily life – people at work, at home and on the streets ­– we see how, if at all, the local identity and language exist within modern-day Europe.

Synopsis

A story of migration from Jamaica to London during the 1950’s to the present.