Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

Nora is based on true stories of the dancer Nora Chipaumire, who was born in Zimbabwe in 1965. In the film, Nora returns to the landscape of her childhood and takes a journey through some vivid memories of her youth. Using performance and dance, she brings her history to life in a swiftly-moving poem of sound and image. The result is a film about family dramas, difficult love affairs and militant politics, which moves back and forth between the comic and the tragic, the joyful and the mournful. It is a film about a girl who is constantly embattled - struggling against all kinds of intimidation and violence - but who slowly gathers strength, pride and independence. Shot entirely on location in Southern Africa, Nora includes a multitude of local performers and dancers of all ages, from young schoolchildren to ancient grandmothers, and much of the music is specially composed by a legend of Zimbabwean music - Thomas Mapfumo.

Synopsis

During the Spanish civil war and its aftermath, thousands of people were executed and thrown into mass unmarked graves. Today people in Spain are beginning to face up to a past that has remained for 70 years an uneasy alliance of a determination to forget. In Not Reconciled, historic accounts of the civil war, novels, diaries of republican and fascist fighters, are combined with observation of the everyday lives of the villagers. The voices of the ghosts of Rosa and Carlos, young Spanish civil war republicans echo over the ruins of Belchite in Aragon, Northern Spain as they wait for the discovery of their unmarked graves. They tell the story of the town, talk about their part in the fighting, quarrel and make up, discuss philosophy and history and women’s rights and the terrible aftermath of the civil war. The sounds of wind, the echoes of voices, the crumbling ruins, the slow silent walks of tourists and the seeming oblivion of the present day town next door to those who lost their lives, are overlaid with conversations by the film maker with present day Belchite inhabitants as she tries to penetrate their indifference.

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August 2008. Two homeless alcoholics meet on Brighton beach. A short film about friendship, creativity and alcohol.

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A revealing portrait of contemporary China in the post Marxist era which explores the facets of Chinese socio-political life, by putting it in the context of globalisation and individualisation. Personal stories unfold in an unexpected straightforwardness and with a striking sense of humour: an old peasant who has lost his land, a millionaire chatting with his mate in a stock exchange office, a young migrant who came to the city to wash cars, a weapon factory worker who wishes Mao was still alive, a successful hotel owner who praises the government’s liberal economy policies, and young kids whose dream is to become a famous western artist - all addressing contemporary issues that trespass borders and blur the socio-political lines into a globalised world of shared values and collective problems.

Synopsis

In the early afternoon of 8 June 1968, following a funeral mass in St Patrick's Cathedral, New York, the Kennedy family and their guests boarded a train at Penn Station to take the body of Robert F Kennedy, assassinated two days before, back to Washington to bury him next to his brother, John. What had not been anticipated were the thousands of people who lined the route to pay their respects to the Senator and who were captured by the camera of Magnum photographer Paul Fusco, who was on the train. One Thousand Pictures tells the story of that journey and of America at the time through some of the people who were there and in the pictures, which in turn provide an extraordinary portrait of 1960's America.

Synopsis

A mix of documentary and narrative fiction, which follows the love story of a single character as he waits to be reunited with the love of his life while going about his daily routine as a casting agent. This leads to a multi faceted storyline as we enter the lives of the various figures in his everyday working environment. The film deals with themes of love, identity and time - past, present, and future.

Synopsis

An autobiographical documentary, a fiction that's also an essay and an extended poetic meditation on the ability of the image to represent experience. Sarah Turner's film is a ghost story that explores what we forget and how we remember. The stunning imagery comes solely from the window of the Trans-Siberian train, shot first in 1988 and then again in 2008, and culminating at the haunting expanse of Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world.  

Synopsis

Looking for photographs of Jesus, yetis and Hitler in 1948? Help is at hand with this documentary-fantasy based on true stories of requests for impossible images. Real-life archives become the stage where fact and fiction collide, belief runs amok and unruly images have a life of their own.

Synopsis

Planeat is a provocative challenge to our love of meat and dairy. Tracking a group of scientists, the film forces us to confront the evidence that a heavily animal-based diet is bad for our health, environment and future of the planet. However, with the help of some innovative chefs, these problems can be solved.

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What do the contents of your pockets say about you?

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Commissioned as part of the 'Bridging the Gap' production scheme, short documentary Pollphail is a startling portrait of imagined futures and a village in limbo.

Synopsis

An intimate and revealing documentary featuring Whitstable artist John Butterworth. John was predominantly an abstract artist until the untimely death of his brother Charles left him devastated and disconnected from his early work. No longer able to relate to the intangible nature of his art he began a series of figurative paintings that featured people falling from the sky. Portrait is about coming to terms with grief, and a reflection on art, life and mortality.