Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

The music never had to be explained. For childhood friends Yoshiki and Toshl, forming their band X in 1982 was a way of living through music. Soon they were selling out international stadiums by perfecting their own style of amps-to-11 glam rock dubbed “psychedelic violence crime of visual shock” (imagine Iron Maiden with a David Bowie spirit animal) and connecting with millions of fans. Their journey to play Madison Square Garden amidst a Beatlemania-shaped maelstrom is expertly captured by director Stephen Kijak and editors Mako Kamitsuna and John Maringouin, who dismantle the kitsch and dig into the cult of personality to reveal a story of misfortune and tragedy that has shadowed the band time and again. Just as it is for their fans, music becomes a lifeblood for X Japan, as they are forced to reinvent and regroup in order to survive. Cameos by artistic giants including Marilyn Manson and David Lynch mark some memorable moments in this roller-coaster musical experience. (Sundance Film Festival brochure) Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Sonic Strand

Synopsis

Take a journey across time to the birth of modern music, when the musical strands of a diverse nation were first combined, thereby sparking a cultural revolution that forever transformed the future of music and the world. The event will include clips of the film, an extended conversation with the creators including executive producers Robert Redford, T Bone Burnett and Jack White, and live performances featuring The Avett Brothers and other special music guests. Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2016 - Special Events

Synopsis

In 1983, writer and theologian John Hull went blind. To help make sense of his loss, he began keeping an audio diary. Encompassing dreams, memory and imaginative life 'Notes on Blindness' creates an impression of his new world, immersing the audience in John’s experience of blindness. A feature-length version of Middleton and Spinney's 2014 Sundance-selected short 'Notes on Blindness'. Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2016 - New Frontier - World premiere

Synopsis

In the aftermath of the Korean War, ambitious young film director Shin Sang-ok and actress Choi Eun-hee enter into a glamorous romance. They rise to the top of the South Korean film industry and are drawn into the inner circle of dictatorial President Park. Their groundbreaking films become instant sensations. But their movie-world idyll is shattered after Shin has a scandalous affair with another actress and confronts the President over censorship, who retaliates by shutting down his studio. Unable to reconcile, Choi and Shin divorce. Then their lives take a bizarre turn. Choi is lured to Hong-Kong by the promise of work, but is bundled onto a boat and sedated. After a grueling sea voyage to North Korea she is welcomed ashore by whimsical dictator's son and movie-obsessive, Kim Jong-il, who imprisons her in his summerhouse. Sundance Film Festival 2016 - World premiere

Synopsis

1969. A local FA Cup soccer match. 1 sending off 1 man hospitalised 23 men booked, including a linesman and a man who wasn't even there. Booked is an investigation into this unique event which has somehow all but disappeared from the record books...

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.