Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

This film sets out to solve one of the greatest mysteries of our age: why despite rising material wealth, many Western countries are experiencing profound social breakdown. This real life detective story unravels the big story of the unprecedented shifts in income and wealth that have occurred over the last 35 years – the how, why and who. At the heart of the story is the shift to the freedom of the market, freeing businesses to create wealth for all, and make everyone better off. As markets were freed and the financial sector deregulated, the wealth flowed to the top. Between 1979 – 2007 the top 1% of US households gained 275%, compared to 18% for the bottom fifth. A series of human narratives piece together the realities of life for those at varying ends of the income spectrum in the developed world today - a harsher society where stress, crime and fear are rising, and we increasingly see those around us as "other". Could economic differences be driving these social differences? Inspired by he award-winning book 'The Spirit Level' by Professors Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, the film features Michael Marmot, Noam Chomsky, Alan Budd, Ha-Joon Chang and Alexis Goldstein.

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A WW2 RAF veteran remembers lost comrades whilst looking through old photos and letters.

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Constructed entirely from existing films, the film offers a journey through fear and cinema that asks whether horror movies know us better than we know ourselves. Encouraging viewers to interrogate a diverse range of images and sounds sampled from a hundred years of global cinema, the aim of the documentary is to change the way audiences watch horror movies for good.

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A shorthand term made popular by gay men in recent years for the use of drugs (specifically crystal meth, GHB and mephedrone) in a sexual context, ‘chemsex’ has been seen by some as a significant contributing factor in the rise of HIV diagnoses in London... In this unflinching documentary, we meet a host of men whose lives have been affected, from self-confessed ‘slammers’ to sexual health workers, each of whom talk candidly about the pleasures and perils associated with the scene. (LFF brochure) BFI London Film Festival 2015 - World premiere

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Turner prize-winning artist Mark Leckey’s autobiographical film started with a piece of found bootleg documentation of a Joy Division gig that he attended in 1979, and the realisation that many of our personal memories and experiences can now be found online. From there, 'Dream English Kid' attempts to create a record of all the significant events in Leckey’s life during the late 20th Century through found traces of film, adverts and popular music- Benjamin Cook, LFF Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2015 - Experimenta Strand

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Captain Maurice Seddon, an inventor and eccentric in the great English tradition, made electrically heated clothing for ‘paraplegics, sclerotics, arthritics, rheumatics, the poor and landscape painters’. The details of his extremely modest, uncompromising way of life are here unpicked through a rich weave of incredible archival TV appearances from around the world (he featured on amongst others, the David Letterman show) plus very touching 16mm and mobile phone footage shot by friend and director William English. 'Heated Gloves' evokes Ben Rivers' 'Two Years at Sea' and the Maysles brothers' 'Grey Gardens', whilst highlighting the codes of television reportage and remaining in and of itself very special and unique – just like its subject. (LFF brochure) BFI London Film Festival 2015 - World premiere

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When a vintage Nokia mobile phone is recharged, a compelling real life story is revealed, in this mixed media documentary short. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2015 - Journey Strand - World premiere

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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

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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