Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

The story of a failed Hollywood epic considered one of the worst films ever made and the terrible consequences filming near an atomic test site had on the cast and crew not to mention the community.

Synopsis

2024 marks the 50th anniversary of ABBA’s iconic Eurovision victory, a milestone that calls for a celebratory cinematic tribute fitting for the ultimate pop band. ‘ABBA: Against the Odds’ unveils the epic journey of ABBA’s rise to global fame. Starting with the moment they won Eurovision, it tells the story of how they overcame critical backlash, societal attitudes and marital break-up to deliver their ground-breaking music and prove themselves as a live act. Under the direction of the award-winning James Rogan, known for his impactful documentary storytelling, the film weaves a rich narrative using a treasure trove of rare archive footage, bringing to life the love, struggle, and fame behind the unforgettable hits. While ABBA’s music has touched millions, ‘ABBA: Against the Odds’ presents their saga in a manner as compelling and personal as never before.
Official selection CPH:DOX Film Festival 2024 Special Premieres Sound & Vision - World Premiere

Synopsis

This emotionally charged journey, filmed over seven years, follows the extraordinary story of Rudrani Chettri and her friends from baby blessings, red light districts and dazzling Hindu festivals to the glamorous world of photoshoots, designers, hair and make-up, lights and electrifying action. We discover the transgender trans - Hijra community of Delhi as they set about creating India’s first ever trans modelling agency and an extravagant, paradigm-shifting, catwalk event.
Far from a bleak story of suffering and discrimination, this film explores the world of India’s ‘third gender’ (Hijra) in a positive way, full of laughter, drama, excitement, and pathos. We discover a complex world where traditional Hindu values clash with modern human rights. We immerse ourselves in unfamiliar places but find identifiable stories of love and loss, hope and poverty, beauty, glamour, and catwalk glory.
Official selection BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival 2024 - UK premiere

Synopsis

APOLLO THIRTEEN: SURVIVAL is a visceral archive-led, cinematic re-telling of an iconic space story. In April 1970, NASA faced the greatest crisis in its history; three astronauts halfway to the moon on a spacecraft that had suffered a catastrophic explosion. This iconic space story is brought to life with rare access to the complete recordings of the Apollo 13 mission, alongside archival interviews with the crew, their families and members of ground control.
As the spacecraft haemorrhages critical power and oxygen supplies, our approach immerses the audience in the unfolding drama of the crisis; from inside the spaceship, at mission control and within the families' homes. What transpired was one of the great survival stories in human history. A triumph of ingenuity, teamwork and human resilience as the world watched. Waited. Held its collective breath.
Official selection - CPH:DOX 2024 Special Premieres - World premiere

Synopsis

Epic forests of the Siberian Taiga and black lava landscapes of a Hawaiian volcano are woven through this quietly powerful film that opens outwards from a personal story about living with uncertainty.
Rebecca E Marshall draws from footage she has shot over twenty years in an intimate address to her child in the future. She builds connections between Agafya Lykova, an elderly woman surviving alone in the Siberian forest who scares bears away by banging space-rocket debris, a crew simulating life isolated on Mars and her young child discovering the world minute by minute. This endlessly surprising journey offers up images that shake ideas of past, present and future to form a deeply tender vision of the timeless human connections that continue to weave through an increasingly divided world.
Xylouris White (drummer Jim White, Dirty Three; lutist Giorgos Xylouris and Guy Picciotto, Fugazi) provide a haunting original score.
Official Selection Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival 2024 - World premiere

Synopsis

Following up on a questionable suicide, a reporter and her cameraman venture into an apartment complex looking for answers. Escorted by the building's concierge they begin to uncover the truth, and discover something terrifying roaming the hallways with them.

Synopsis

Against the backdrop of the Women, Life, Freedom protest movement in Iran, filmmaker Elahe Esmaili is helping her parents to pack up the family home. As the boxes stack up, discussions flare between the generations: Elahe does not wear the hijab, embodying the courage of her generation’s struggles. But can changing a society be as simple as moving house?
Official Selection Visions du Réel 2024 - World premiere
Official Selection Sheffield DocFest 2024
Official Selection Telluride Film Festival 2024
Official Selection Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2025

Synopsis

This XR piece brings us into to the world of Tim and Pam Fogg, rope access specialists and speleologists who see exploring caves akin to an archaeological dig that reveals geological and climate history. Set in Northern Ireland, this is a portrait of what drives two passionate individuals to discover new caves despite the dangers, darkness and the unknown that lays ahead. While following their descent, the entire cave system is revealed in stunning miniature detail capturing otherworldly formations and sounds. Plunged into darkness, experience the bottom of the cave in true scale and hear from Tim and Pam how vital it is to preserve these environments in the age of the Anthropocene.
Official Selection SXSW Film Festival 2024 - XR Experience Spotlight - North American premiere

Synopsis

A cinematic love letter to the Moviola film editing machine, led by Academy Award winning editor Walter Murch, detailing how it dominated English-language filmmaking for most of the 20th century.
Invented in 1922, the Moviola remained for a long time the dominant machine for editing film in English-language cinema. Mastering it allowed an editor, in tandem with the director and producer, to create a language and rhythm within a film. Her Name Was Moviola sees Academy Award® -winning sound and film editor Walter Murch working with a team to rebuild a Moviola editing suite to take us through the process of how a film was pieced together. Using two scenes from Mike Leigh’s 2014 drama Mr. Turner – reverse-engineered from digital to 35mm prints – Murch and his collaborators take us through the way the Moviola was employed to bring a multitude on individual shots together into one cohesive narrative. It’s a riveting deep-dive into a process that is key to every form of filmmaking.
Official Selection Sheffield DocFest 2024 - World premiere

Synopsis

The feature-length documentary is an attempt to answer one of the most vital questions in all our lives: What is the meaning of home? The film focuses on family, identity, emigration (through the lens of Polish-Irish-South African-English ties), as well as the circle of life, death and rebirth. The axis of the film is a house which connects and shelters, and which allows the lives of the characters to be transformed. It's genesis and inspiration was a seven-year collection of films and photographs covering the lives of residents who lived and worked under the cover, protection and generosity of the house’s owner – a 90-year-old, bed-bound writer – Elizabeth – in Hampstead Garden Suburb, north London.
Official selection Kinoteka Polish Film Festival 2024 - UK premiere

Synopsis

Andreas Waldem, a Korean-Swedish Elvis impersonator enters an Elvis Tribute Act Competition that takes place Porthcawl a faded seaside town in South Wales. The film follow his journey as he delves into his hopes, fears and dreams whilst simultaneously peeling back the layers of Andreas' conflicts within his identity.

Synopsis

What happens in your mind when you act on impulse? This project, narrated by Tilda Swinton, playfully explores what it means to live with ADHD - employing Mixed Reality to capture the visual cacophony of our thoughts and what it means to be neurodivergent.
Through captivating gameplay, this Mixed Reality piece follows four outsider characters whose rollercoaster of emotions leads them to a life on the edge. As the characters explore their thought patterns, users can uncover their own to reach a state of empathy and understanding.
Official Selection SXSW Film Festival 2024 - XR Experience Spotlight
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2024