Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

In this personal and intimate film writer-director Elizabeth Sankey uses her own story of being admitted to a psychiatric ward after the birth of her son to explore the unexpected yet compelling connections between perinatal mental health illness and the history and portrayal of witches in western society. Using clips of cinematic witches to illustrate her own experience and those of fellow sufferers, alongside interviews with medical professionals and academics, Sankey creates her own spell book for all to use.
Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2024 - World premiere
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2024 - Documentary Competition

Synopsis

Documenting the annual round up of wild Carneddau mountain ponies in Wales - organised by local farmers, it's the only intervention in the ponies' lives, who otherwise graze undisturbed whilst conserving their mountain habitat. The film follows the event, becoming increasingly engulfed in complex dynamics of capture and care.
Official Selection International Short Film Festival Oberhausen 2024 - World premiere

Synopsis

A fly on the wall mini doc on the daily activities of engineers in London fixing elevators - showing a day with the teams out on various sites and showing the works that are undertaken by the site teams.

Synopsis

After enduring decades of embarrassment, the filmmaker admits that possessing the most common name in the English-speaking world has had a profound impact on his psyche. Peppered with disparate fragments of autobiography, BEING JOHN SMITH takes us on a confessional journey that reveals just how important a name can be.

Synopsis

Tony Klinger's amazing and emotional journey to celebrate the 50th anniversary (+Covid) of his late father's (Michael Klinger) great film production, GET CARTER.
The documentary traces all the elements that went into the iconic film including interviews with Michael Caine, the late director Mike Hodges, and Britt Ekland, and harvests information from experts, historians, film social media academics, and the huge family of people who simply rates it as the greatest British gangster film ever!
We take the journey with Tony and share his immense joys, deep sadness and enlightening discoveries.

Synopsis

Throw away all common sense and tap into your madness as you follow Dr. Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian - a London-based artist and educator of Armenian and Algerian descent - on a fascinating journey to build a new civilization on the moon. Along with her doppelgängers, Myriam and Lucia, Nelly challenges us to defy power structures and reject planetary exploitation by letting go of the constraints of borders, gender, and religion to embrace what diversity could be in the vast landscape of our imaginations. Prior to their mission, Nelly and her parallel version of self speak with a wide-ranging collection of experts. There’s an LGBTQ+ rights activist, an astronomer, a political scientist, an archaeologist who also makes wine, a theoretical physicist, an environmental designer, a horror filmmaker, and a mathematical economist. They are all crucial to their quest to uncover the key to a queer, eco-feminist future devoid of generational trauma, colonization, and imperialism. However, as the analog space mission takes unexpected turns, the future remains as uncertain as the condition of Schrödinger’s Cat.
Featuring the music of Pussy Riot and Colin Self.
Official Selection SXSW Film Festival 2024 - World premiere
Official Selection Munich Film Festival 2024 - European premiere

Synopsis

Gori, Georgia, the birthplace of Joseph Stalin, becomes the backdrop for the intertwined stories of two women from different generations: die-hard Stalinist Nasi and anti-Stalinist Zhana. Both women, scarred by the loss of their fathers to war, grapple with their contradictory interpretations of history.
Their contrasting views expose the absurdities within historical legacies, while the dialectical tensions lead Zhana to confront her adoptive grandmother, Nasi, over her vigorous defiance of the dictator’s memory. It paints a picture of a town in conflict with its own past, holding onto a bygone era, and questioning the very foundations of the cult of Joseph Stalin.
As reality erodes, it exposes the illusory worlds we create for comfort amidst challenging realities.
Official Selection Hot Docs International Documentary Festival 2024 - World premiere

Synopsis

Filmed during five years of economic, social and political turmoil in the UK, we meet an extraordinary mix of people living in the county of Somerset: travellers, punk rock anarchists, fossil fuel-free communities living in the woods...They live on the edge of society, but as the UK becomes increasingly unstable, their alternative lifestyles start making more sense.

Synopsis

In an age of intersecting political, man-made and ecological disasters, this film is an ode to the sirens of a changing world. Will we hear them in advance? Does an alarm have to be alarming?
Official selection MOMA Doc Fortnight 2024 - World premiere

Synopsis

Under two feet of peaty soil in Orkney, lies the only recording of Scottish composer Erland Cooper’s unheard album. In an entirely unique attempt to collaborate with the natural world, it would be an experiment on patience, art and value. Will the tape emerge silent, and does it matter if it does?
RECOMPOSING EARTH takes you into the mind of an artist and the magic of the Orkney Islands that inspire him, with a story that reminds of music's importance as an expression of the human condition. With interviews including Paul Weller, producer Marta Salogni and Sir Ian Rankin.

Synopsis

THE CALLERS tells the stories of people who have called England’s oldest LGBTQ+ phone helpline for over 50 years, seeking guidance on everything from where to find the nearest leather bar to how to come out, navigate an open relationship, impress a new lover or mend a broken heart.

Synopsis

Somewhat of a "horse whisperer", Irish-born Hugh MacDermott, a troubled yet determined young man, embarks on a solo journey across Argentina with his horse, Pancho. Struggling with his sexuality and the loss of his brother, he is spurred on through pure grit and determination to succeed, inspired by a string of strange coincidences linking to a beloved childhood book, 'Tschiffely’s Ride'.
A journey of self-discovery, grief, endurance and personal growth, Hugh faces unforeseen hardships of all kinds, both mentally and physically, his quest a metaphor for life. With little money and speaking little Spanish, he sleeps on the side of the road, going for days at a time not speaking to a soul aside from his horse. His story unfolds as he battles his way through “The Long Quiet”. Along the way, Hugh encounters a series of characters who shape his life as adopted father figures, and we witness the magical bond between man and horse, and the transformation from boy to man. Guided by the founder of the Long Riders’ Guild, his epic two-year journey emphasises the spiritual outcomes of equestrian travel, his achievement an extreme rarity, with only a handful of long riders in every generation.