Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

Fascinating portrait of Sarah Lucas, who together with Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin conquered the art world as a controversial Young British Artist. Now almost 50, the artist is working on a solo show in Mexico, while smoking, drinking and reflecting on life and work.

Synopsis

In 1955 newly-weds Alfred and Jakobine made an epic, 4 year, journey around the world in an old London taxi. When it was over, without warning, he left her - breaking her heart. Now at 84 years old Alfred Hobbs wants to restore the old taxi, drive it across America with their son, and offer one last ride "before it's too late". 40 years after he left her, she has a deep love/hate regard for Alfred. How will the she react to this "gesture" and how will her "new" husband of 30 years handle it?

Synopsis

'Beyond Clueless' takes audiences on an exhilarating ride into the mind, body and soul of the teen movie, as seen through the eyes of over 200 modern teen classics. Part adolescent fever dream, part incisive visual essay, Beyond Clueless puts the movies themselves under the microscope on a quest to lay bare the genre's beating heart.
Sheffield Doc/Fest 2014 - International premiere

Synopsis

Conceived from the outset as a multidimensional, multimedia project that explores the creative nexus between music,nature and technology, Biophilia incorporated ten new compositions partly composed on an ipad and released an interactive apps, a series of live performances, workshops for children and an interactive website.

Synopsis

David Graham Scott’s 2004 film DETOX OR DIE documented how with a single dose of iboga he quit his drug addiction, inspiring many others to go down the same path.
The psychedelic plant root hails from Africa where it has been used in religious ceremonies through countless generations. A burgeoning movement in the west has promoted iboga as a quick fix route to painless drug withdrawal.
Now David wants to find out how truly effective iboga is. In a Dutch suburb several addicts embark on the long night of psychedelic detox under the watchful eye of an experienced iboga practitioner. One client collapses and ends up on life-support, the provider is jailed and David starts to question the safety of iboga treatment.
The film culminates with a nerve-wracking iboga session in London where the director himself administers the treatment. How does the filmmaker weigh up the ethics of involving himself so deeply in this controversial detox option and what will be his final resolve on the efficacy of it?

Synopsis

The Angel, in central Osaka, is one of the 30,000 love hotels to be found across Japan today. Love Hotels like The Angel can be rented by the hour or for days – they are used by all members of Japanese society including married couples and pensioners. Yet the special Fantasy or ‘concept’ love hotels like The Angel, that once boomed from the 1970s until a few years ago are now facing pressures from conservative lobby groups and rival chains, and many hotels are being forced out of business from a love hotel market that makes two times as much as Toyota Motors each year.
Sofia International Film Festival 2015 - International premiere

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 immerses the audience in John’s experience of blindness.

Synopsis

David Bond is a father. Things have really changed since he was a kid. His children are hooked on screens and don't want to go outdoors. They want iPads, TV and plastic toys. The marketing departments of Apple, Disney and Mattel control his children better than he can. Determined to get them up and out, David appoints himself as the Marketing Director for Nature. With the help of branding and outdoor experts, he develops and launches a nationwide marketing campaign to get children outside. PROJECT WILD THING is the hilarious, real-life story of one man's determination to get children out and into the ultimate, free wonder-product: Nature. Contributors include naturalist Chris Packham, writer and environmentalist George Monbiot, scientist Jaak Panksepp, writer Jay Griffiths, advertising guru Michael Wolff, and brain scientist Prof Baroness Susan Greenfield.

Synopsis

Israel Ticas is the only criminologist working in one of Latin America’s most dangerous countries: El Salvador. He’s made it his mission to find the hundreds of missing teenagers who have fallen victim to the country’s brutal gang conflict. The mothers of the disappeared affectionately call him The Engineer. But for The Engineer, death no longer evokes fear. Death is his every day, it has become his art. He calls the bodies he finds “friends” and his office walls are a macabre tribute to them all. Through the eyes of The Engineer this film offers a unique insight into the fight against gang murders in El Salvador.

Synopsis

The Possibilities Are Endless tells the incredible story of Edwyn Collins, a songwriter who suffered a stroke, an explosion in the brain so severe that it effectively deleted the contents of his mind. After a career as an internationally acclaimed lyricist, he lost all language and was only able to say two phrases: “The Possibilities are Endless” and “Grace Maxwell”.
The film is narrated by Edwyn, trapped inside his devastated mind and his wife Grace, the woman who pulled him back to life. This isn’t just a story of determination against all odds; it is an intimate and life-affirming journey of rediscovery.

Synopsis

The Rising is a short film which depicts an invasive alien species, Giant Hogweed, as it rapidly colonizes the British landscape. Filmed throughout its annual growth cycle, The Rising captures the plant's dramatic infestation along a lowland riverbank in northern England. Part natural history part sci-fi, The Rising features an atmospheric soundtrack score by Lord Mongo, and presents the alien interloper as both a dangerous toxic menace and impressive natural wonder.

Synopsis

The Uprising shows us the Arab revolutions from the inside. It is a multi- camera, first-person account of that fragile, irreplaceable moment when life ceases to be a prison, and everything becomes possible again.
Edinburgh International Film Festival 2014 - World premiere