Projects in categories: Documentary

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The simple movements of everyday reality on the New York subway are transformed into a choreography of fractured and fleeting impressions.

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Filmed over four years, Vanessa And Maurice - an African American couple with five kids - leave Alaska for Las Vegas to find their fortunes as the economic downturn looms.

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Investigating the aggressive cancer, Burkitt's Lymphoma, through an intimate portrayal of a UK mother who lost her son to the disease. The film follows her to Malawi to learn more about the disease, observe children being treated and discover what can be done to speed up their diagnosis.

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This short film reflects on the swiftly shifting nature of the urban landscape, set in a working class area of South London that is currently being redeveloped and gentrified. This notebook film has no narration and depicts the architecture poetically in flux.

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A warm-hearted documentary about how Britian caught the flamenco bug. Elders of the British flamenco scene recount how they fell into the world of Spanish dancing which shaped their lives and influenced future generations. Personal stories are told against a vivid background of archive footage and photos. For this documentary, Spanish Steps Film organised a flamenco reunion party in a Soho restaurant, where the flamenco culture had been incubated in post-war Britain. Here flamencos gathered to play, dance, sing and remember the old days.

Synopsis

Millions of sales on both sides of the Atlantic, near bankruptcy, pills, thrills, spats, prats, success, excess, pick-me-ups, breakdowns and of course some of THE dening music of the late twentieth century. This is the definitive and fully authorised story of the UK's most inspired and dissolute label. Twenty-five years after its first proper release and ten years after it closed its doors we tell the Creation Records story, from the Jesus and Mary Chain at the Living Room to Oasis at Knebworth.  

Synopsis

Filmed from a tower block, the film takes in the city of London below. Filmed mostly in time-lapse with the camera tracking across this aerial field of view through the winter months, the intention is to create a cinematic map that exposes the neural networks of the post-modern metropolis.

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Donor Unknown follows the story of Jo Ellen Marsh, 20, as she goes in search of the sperm donor father she only knows as Donor 150. Jo Ellen has always known her family 'wasn't like other families'. She grew up in Pennsylvania with two mothers, and a burning curiosity to know more about her anonymous donor father. When Jo Ellen discovers a unique online registry that connects donor-conceived children, she manages to track down a half-sister in New York. The New York Times picks up the story, and, over time, 12 more half-siblings emerge across the USA.   The New York Times article also falls into the hands of Jeffrey Harrison, living alone with four dogs and a pigeon in a broken-down RV in a Venice Beach car park. In the 1980s, Jeffrey supplemented his meagre income by becoming a sperm donor at California Cryobank. His number was Donor 150. Donor Unknown follows Jo Ellen from her discovery of her siblings, to the moment Jeffrey steps forward to identify himself as Donor 150, to her decision to travel to California to meet him.

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The world's first street art disaster movie. Exit Through the Gift Shop, the first film by renowned graffiti artist Banksy, became the hottest ticket at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival where it made its world debut. Banksy is a graffiti artist with a global reputation whose work can be seen on walls from post-hurricane New Orleans to the separation barrier on the Palestinian West Bank. Fiercely guarding his anonymity to avoid prosecution, Banksy has so far resisted all attempts to be captured on film. Exit Through the Gift Shop tells the incredible true story of how an eccentric French shop keeper turned documentary maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner with spectacular results. The film contains exclusive footage of Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Invader and many of the world's most infamous graffiti artists at work, on walls and in interview. As Banksy describes it, 'It's basically the story of how one man set out to film the un-filmable. And failed'.

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Charting the glorious supremacy of the West Indies cricket team throughout the late 70s and 80s, this film describes how the bat and ball was more effective than gunfire in the battle against racial injustice and the struggle for black rights. It is told by the men who were there - such as Viv Richards, Michael Holding, Clive Lloyd. Fire in Babylon boasts dynamic archive, classic music by the likes of Bob Marley and the Wailers, Gregory Issacs and Burning Spear, this is a story that celebrates the emancipation of a people through the sport of cricket.

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The story of a woman who gets lost every day of her life, in the streets she’s lived in for 20 years, even in her own house - when she wakes each morning, her walls seem to have moved overnight. Her world becomes different in the blink of an eye.

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'A girl's life is cruel - A woman's life is very cruel', notes Sampat Pal, the complex protagonist at the centre of Kim Longinotto’s latest foray into the lives of extraordinary women.   Sampat Pal should know, like many others she was married as a young girl into a family which beat her often. But unusually, she fought back, leaving her in-laws and eventually becoming famous as a champion for beleaguered women throughout Uttar Pradesh, many of whom find their way to her doorstep.    Rekha, a 14 year-old untouchable, is three months pregnant and homeless unable to marry her unborn child's father because of her low caste. Fifteen year-old Renu's husband from an arranged marriage has abandoned her and she's threatening to throw herself under a train. Both desperate young women, reach out for their only hope - Sampat Pal.   Pink Saris is an unflinching and often amusing look at these unlikely political activists and their charismatic leader.  In extraordinary scenes, we watch her launch herself into the centre of family dramas, convinced her mediation is the best path for these vulnerable girls.  Her partner Babuji, who has watched Sampat Pal change over the years, is less certain.