Projects in categories: Documentary

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

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A homage to the spontaneous prose of The Beats, from the mythical Cornish west. An audio-visual stream of consciousness. Entirely un-edited, in terms of writing, performance and visuals.

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'Hannibal in Rafah: A Reconstruction of One Bloody Day in the 2014 Gaza War from User Generated Videos' A detailed reconstruction of the events on one day in Rafah, Gaza during the 'Hannibal Directive', drawing on material produced by the Forensic Architecture project. The project stemmed from an examination of the Israeli army’s response to the capture of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin and its implementation of the Hannibal Directive – a controversial command designed to deal with captures of soldiers by unleashing massive firepower on persons, vehicles and buildings in the vicinity of the attack, despite the risk to civilians and the captured soldier(s). "Because our investigation team was denied access to Gaza, Forensic Architecture developed a number of techniques aiming to reconstruct the events from hundreds of images and videos recorded by professional and citizen-journalists. The images were thereafter located in a 3D model of Rafah. This resulted to the Image Complex, a device that allowed us to explore the spatial and temporal connections between the various sources and reconstruct the unfolding of events. Forensic Architecture... also located witness testimonies, delivered after the war, within this 3D model, and corroborated the reported events with other audio-visual material." The resulting report was presented as a Human Rights case by Amnesty International. 'Hannibal in Rafah: A Reconstruction of One Bloody Day in the 2014 Gaza War from User Generated Video' is a selection of clips taken from the project, composed and brought together in a text presentation. Official Selection Berlinale 2016 - Forum Expanded - Visionary Archives

Synopsis

"The four essay films which comprise ‘The Seasons in Quincy’ each take different aspects of British writer and thinker John Berger’s life in the Haute-Savoie, and combine ideas and motifs from Berger’s own work with the atmosphere of his mountain home. Each film was created as an individual work of art but they combine to make a feature film... showing how film can move beyond text, and beyond fine art, to offer a multifaceted and multi-layered portrait. These are more than documentary films – they are exercises in thinking in film." Derek Jarman Lab 'Ways of Listening', (Colin MacCabe), deals with fathers and friendship. 'Spring', (Christopher Roth), considers Berger's writing on our relationship with animals. 'A Song for Politics', (Colin MacCabe and Bartek Dziadosz), reflects on politics through archive footage, song and a discussion between Berger and several young left-wing thinkers. 'Harvest', (Tilda Swinton), revisits Quincy to meditate on belonging and continuity with Berger and his son Yves. Berlinale 2016 - World premiere

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Artist Jumana Manna sets out in search of the musical diversity of historical Palestine. Drawing on her research into the German-Jewish ethnomusicologist Robert Lachmann (1892-1939) and his work in Palestine, the film follows Manna’s exchanges with musicians as she encounters them in their homes and places of work and worship. Berlinale 2016 - World premiere

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Set to the verses of W.H. Auden's 1939 poem 'Refugee Blues', the film charts a day in 'the jungle', the refugee camp outside Calais. More intimate and unlike much of what has been seen in the mass media, this documentary poem counterpoints the camp’s harsh reality of frequent clashes with the French riot police with its inhabitants’ longing for a better future. Official Selection Berlinale 2016 - Generation 14plus - World premiere

Synopsis

Saar is a gay man from a religious family in Israel. After being kicked out of his conservative kibbutz because of his sexual orientation, Saar flees to London where he enjoys a gay lifestyle denied to him in Israel. He lives the dream, but wakes up to a nightmare when he discovers that he has contracted HIV. When he breaks the news to his family, they struggle with fears and prejudices. With the support and warmth of Saar's surrogate brothers - the London Gay Men’s Chorus - he begins a reconciliation process with his biological family in Israel. Saar finds himself torn between the two worlds and must make a decision: should he return to Israel and embrace his family once more, or stay in London and live in exile forever. Saar and the rest of the London Gay Men's Chorus provide a glorious soundtrack for this tender, honest and intimate film by acclaimed directors Barak Heymann and Tomer Heymann ('Mr. Gaga', 'Paper Dolls' and 'I Shot My Love'). Shot over several years, this documentary is about the power of forgiveness and the power that home has, no matter how far we go. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Journey Strand

Synopsis

A photograph circulates, showing five men staring out of a window. Actually, four look out; the last man breaks protocol and looks at the camera. The stage is a bombed out building. All five men wear military fatigues. The colour must have been olive green. The photograph, snapped by a Magnum freelancer, is a glowing artefact. Alongside it is a blurry newspaper photograph showing the Dhaka funeral of two men at the national Baitul Mokarram mosque: fighters for Palestine. The two photographs are evidence of the presence of Bangladeshi guerrillas in Lebanon in the 1970s, joining and fighting for the PLO in its struggle first for domination, then only survival. Official Selection Berlinale 2016 - Forum Expanded

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A beautiful, inspiring and bittersweet story about language and childhood in Africa. Steward, Elizabeth and M’barak are three first time school pupils in rural Zambia who struggle to make sense of an educational system where the language they speak at home is different from the language used in the classroom. Moments of perplexed incomprehension, both comedic and tragic ensue, as the children slowly come to terms with the fact that their tongue is no longer their own. At a time when nearly 40% of the world’s population lack access to education in their own language, this documentary offers an intimate and moving insight into a global phenomenon from the unique perspective of three innocent children.

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No one on the planet has drawn more than Laurie Lipton. Armed with only a pencil, her haunting images seek answers to the most uncomfortable themes in our culture. But what compels her to live a life of isolation drawing is neither black nor white.

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Filmed over the course of a year, David Robinson walks the fields he has farmed for all of his life, sharing his experiences, memories and knowledge of the land, the animals and the people he has worked with.

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A ground-breaking documentary, containing newly digitised archive footage available to the public for the first time, on the Deaf community's fight for civil rights and principally, the right to be heard. Combining social history and archive film with contemporary interviews the film explores the secret history and heritage of the Deaf community in the UK.