Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

This is a tale about the death of Goleshovo, a forgotten town in the mountains of Bulgaria. Here, a handful of old people struggle for survival: A couple fights with their donkey. A forgetful priest leads his congregation into confusion. A woman cheers up her friends with songs. Will their children ever return?

Composed with rigorous attention to form, this observational documentary is an austere yet ultimately rewarding portrait of hope.

Synopsis

5 years ago, film maker Elizabeth Stopford decided she wanted to document an extraordinary story that was unravelling within her own family.

As her outspoken and elderly grandmother Ruth clings to her gothic house as a symbol of status and position, dark memories of the family's early life in the house begin to surface. As tensions escalate over plans to hand ownership of the house over to one of her twin daughters, Ruth flees the country to France, to the home of her other daughter. However her journey shatters open a hidden world of painful secrets within the family's past. As everyone converges on the house the pain of the past and the resentment of the present forces the entire family to confront the legacy of 30 years of family trauma.

Taking the form of a parallel narrative, I'm Not Dead Yet draws on 20 years of archive film of the twins growing up within the family home. The past unravels in the present as each character is faced with confronting the secrets and the divisions within the family to this day.

I'm Not Dead Yet is a unique and personal film about the inheritance of a house, and one family's unspoken and unresolved past.

Synopsis

'identities' charts the multicoloured, multicultural transgender community in Ireland. Five personal stories give shape to the vibrant, parallel worlds of Transvestism, Transsexualism, Drag, Sexual identity, and Gender Dysphoria.

Intercutting black and white interviews with fly on the wall footage, each character's daily experience is laid bare. Vivid art performances offer more abstract and deeply personal self-representation. Opening our eyes to the potential of existing in fantasy, reality is thrown into sharp relief. At its heart, this is a film about the human spirit. Overcoming stereotype and categorisation, the gender construct breaks open, allowing personality and human emotion a path to expression.

Synopsis

A frequently overlooked and misunderstood community share their unique view of the world.

Synopsis

'He says he’s crazy? Of course he’s responsible! Insanity Defense is overused!'

Law and Disorder: the Insanity Defense is a fly-on-the-wall investigative documentary about criminal responsibility and the mentally ill, putting insanity on trial for the first time.
 

Synopsis

London Tango captures the excitement of dance and gives a privileged access into its world. The business, the showmanship, the glamour, and the sheer hard work.
 
Meet the stars of the dance world and the tentative beginners; those for whom dance is a calling they'd sacrifice anything for and those unsure of what they are looking for but willing to take a chance, to grow.

Get carried away. Your journey begins with a single step.

Synopsis

Lovetalk takes us on a fascinating journey. Interviews and visuals are intertwined with great advice on how to find, how to please and how to keep the perfect match.

Finally there is a film that will truly answer your most secret questions, by the greatest teachers of our time.

Synopsis

Bench Pressing isn’t a hobby for 73 year old Bill McFadyen – it’s a way of life. Stranraer’s very own bench press champion is on a quest to be the best in the world.

Synopsis

A film mixing real time documentary of an unedited conversation of two famous poets - one the father of Dub poetry and the other Nobel prize nominated, breaking the bread together on questions of identity, and a fictional element, of a young woman cruising through night time New York.

Synopsis

In 2001, director Chloe Ruthven got a job in a central London primary school, working with children who were failing in class. Nini and his friend Mario immediately stood out as two, bright adventurous Albanian children, and Chloe began working with them, encouraging them to use her video camera as a way of exploring their own lives.

Over the next seven years, the three develop a special relationship. But as the boys grow up, the lure of the street begins to prove too much, and only the director can stand in its way. This is the disturbing story of two boys growing up in a world where childhood is under threat, and asks fundamental questions about how we view and raise our children.

Synopsis

A story of ritual, sexuality and relationships, through the life and work of one of the UK's most exciting dancers. Classically trained, Bharatanatyam in India and ballet in London, Mavin Khoo is a household name in many of the international opera houses and clubs of London through his diverse work.

Synopsis

Midnight Madness is Europe's first basketball film.

The film follows Nhamo Shire, the founder of the Midnight Madness tournament, and two players, Mike Martin and Pierre Henry-Fontaine, as they battle through the summer to make it as one of the top 10 basketball players who will go to Los Angeles to train and compete against their American counterparts.

Nhamo recollects how in 1999 he launched the first Midnight Madness in Harlesden as a means of deterring teenagers from gangs and crime when they are most vulnerable: night time. 9 years on we follow him as this extreme basketball tournament rages in twelve cities across the UK. Midnight Madness culminates at Crystal Palace where 5,000 screaming fans attend the finals.

We also follow Mike Martin who lost his mum a couple of months before the summer and wants to win the tournament as a tribute to her memory and Pierre Henry-Fontaine who's dream of making the big time in the United States ended prematurely. He now sees the opportunity of playing against the Americans in their own backyard as a means of proving to himself he can play and compete with the best.

Far from the violent picture painted in the media of inner city life we discover through Midnight Madness passionate, hardworking and touching individuals trying to make a difference.