Projects in categories: Documentary

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?

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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.

Synopsis

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.

Synopsis

Dummy Jim is playfully adapted from the little-known journal 'I Cycled Into The Arctic Circle' (1951) by profoundly deaf cyclist James Duthie, who one day set off alone on his bicycle from a village in Scotland, bound for Morocco. How did he end up in the Arctic Circle?

Led by deaf actor Samuel Dore on an increasingly bizarre 6000 mile journey, this eccentric road movie mixes documentary, fiction and animation. Killed on the road in '65, the film memorializes a quiet, determined maverick whilst offering an honest insight into his community, with village inhabitants emerging as creative participants and performers.

Synopsis

This is the story of the most ambitious project ever conceived on the Internet. In 2002 Google began to scan millions of books in an effort to create a giant global library, containing every book in existence. They had an even greater purpose – to create a higher form of intelligence, (similar to what HG Wells had predicted in his essay "World Brain" as early as in 1937). But over half the books Google scanned were in copyright, and authors across the world launched a campaign to stop Google, which climaxed in a New York courtroom in 2011. A film about the dreams, dilemmas and dangers of the Internet.

Synopsis

How We Used To Live is effectively a prequel to Finisterre, a meditation on London life today and a glance back at a receding Britain. Using colour footage from the 1950s to the 1980s, taken from the BFI National Archive, the film covers the ‘New Elizabethan’ age from the optimism of the post-war era to the dawn of Thatcherism. Soundtracked by Saint Etienne’s Pete Wiggs and scripted by the band’s Bob Stanley with Travis Elborough, the film is for anyone who has ever tried to understand their city. Alluringly impressionistic, poetic and political, this is the most joyful and entertaining offering yet from a unique filmmaking collective.

Synopsis

"I believe there is such a thing as a search for beauty"

Saul Leiter could have been lauded as the great pioneer of colour photography, but was never driven by the lure of success. Instead he preferred to drink coffee and photograph in his own way, amassing an archive of beautiful work that is piled high in his New York apartment.

In a funny, intimate and moving film, In No Great Hurry follows Saul as he deals with the triple burden of cleaning an apartment full of memories, becoming world famous in his 80's and fending off a pesky film maker.