Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

When Madge Elliot complained about the announced closure of her local train station in Hawick, her mother told her to do something about it, and that’s just what she did. It’s Quicker By Hearse The Tale of the Petitioning Housewife, the Protesting Schoolboy and the Campaign Trail Student tells the story of Elliot who, together with her 11-year-old son Kim, Harry Brown the piper and Edinburgh University Railway Society president Bruce McCartney, marched to Downing Street to deliver a petition of 11,768 signatures on 18 December 1968. When final closure was penciled for January 7 1969, Madge and her campaign group continued their protest by posting a coffin on the last train to leave Hawick station and travel to London. The coffin was emblazoned with the words ‘Waverley Line – born 1848 killed 1969’ and was addressed to the then Minister of Transport Richard Marsh.

This work investigates how the national changes recommended in the infamous Beeching report, titled The Reshaping of British Railways, impacted Elliot and her local community. Like Sir Walter Scott’s historical novel Waverley (the railway lines namesake), Elliot’s grassroots campaign raised questions of the need for social progress that does not reject the traditions of the past.

Synopsis

Having left family and parents behind, teenagers from Afghanistan, Iran and Ethiopia find themselves caught in limbo at a Danish Asylum Centre. Their everyday life is filled with waiting and uncertainty, whilst staff prepare for one of the toughest days on the job.

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Sylvester, a Roma youth worker, explores the issues of crime, migration and anti-social behaviour in Redbridge, East London. Includes interviews with community leaders, former youth gangs and Bashir Chaudhry MBE, Chair of the League of British Muslims.

Synopsis

In the middle of the Mohave desert lays the entertainment capital of the world. At the peak of the economic crisis, three residents of Las Vegas struggle to make their American dream come true. Working as a peculiar portrait of the city, this film reveals a surreal, tragicomic reality hidden behind the shiny neon lights. The reality that a tourist would never see.

Synopsis

Natan tells a story of turn-of-the-century Paris, the dawn of cinema, and how one man’s extraordinary talents were turned against him, and his name blackened. A pioneer of cinema was imprisoned, defamed as a pornographer and eventually handed over to the Nazis. How did this happen? And why did it take seventy years to set the record straight?

Synopsis

Juma is unemployed and like many other young Kenyans he dreams of a better life abroad. One day he meets a British woman and Europe suddenly gets closer.

Synopsis

Two filmmakers challenge themselves to get from London to Edinburgh with only their thumbs to guide them.They find most of their time is spent in a limbo of service stations and grassy verges. The drivers who are more game, however, offer insight into a country with a forever shifting landscape.

Synopsis

1945 was a pivotal year in British history. The unity that carried Britain through the war allied to the bitter memories of the inter-war years led to a vision of a better society. Director Ken Loach has used film from Britain’s regional and national archives, alongside sound recordings and contemporary interviews to create a rich political and social narrative.The Spirit of ’45 hopes to illuminate and celebrate a period of unprecedented community spirit in the UK, the impact of which endured for many years and which may yet be rediscovered today.

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A building which has stood since the fourteenth century, and a strange attempt at preservation. Light falls into the dark interior, illuminating it directly and by reflection; the decay of the building offers views out. Ancient and modern structures interact as the sun works its way round each day.

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An anonymous body in the Arizona desert sparks the beginning of a real-life human drama. The search for identity leads us back across a continent to seek out the people left behind and the meaning of a mysterious tattoo.

Synopsis

23 August 2008 consists of two shots. A brief opening shot, intercut with inter-titles, of the famous Al-Mutanabbi Street book market in Baghdad is followed by an unbroken eighteen-minute monologue, shot from a single, still camera position and simply recording the speaker’s words without interruption. In it, Faysal Abudullah gradually builds a portrait of his relationship with his younger brother, Kamel, and in the process evokes the lives of Iraqi intellectuals of the left, driven into exile in the early 1980s by Saddam Hussein’s regime. Faysal describes Kamel’s decision to return to Iraq in 2003, his work for the new Ministry of Culture and his tragic death at the hands of unknown assassins on 23 August 2008. While the film throws light on little known aspects of Iraq’s political history, primarily it is the story of the two brothers, of Faysal’s devotion to Kamel and their contrasting attitudes to exile and to life itself.

Synopsis

This drama documentary for cinema explores the pacifism that was such a powerful influence on composer Benjamin Britten’s life and work.
The story begins in 1929 at Gresham’s School in Norfolk, England. Our young actors take us into a world where social and political issues are actively addressed and young Ben Britten’s hatred of all things militaristic is formed.
As we explore the music that illustrated that hatred throughout his life, illustrated by new performances and unique observations from experts and friends, we frequently return to dramatic interludes at Gresham’s, which cement the narrative – spoken by legendary actor John Hurt.
The transcendent music of the War Requiem accompanies the climax of the film, before we return to Gresham’s School 2012.