Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

June 1967, Lake Geneva Switzerland. A ball of energy named Claude Knobs embarks on one of the most exciting musical adventures of our time, one that shaped the history of live music forever. Over 50 years later the story of the Montreux Jazz Festival and its visionary creator is told in this ground breaking documentary by those who experienced it. Using unseen archive material and brand new interviews the film takes the viewer back in time to hear the trumpet of Miles Davis, the piano of Nina Simone and the guitar of BB King echo through 5 decades of candid recollections by dozens of the festival’s star performers and industry insiders. Never before has a documentary of this magnitude been made on the history of the Montreux Jazz Festival, offering a breath- taking panorama of half a century of music history and performances from some of the 20th century’s most important and greatest musical icons.
Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2024 - World premiere

Synopsis

Documentary focused on life in Kyiv since the beginning of the war in Ukraine
Official Selection Berlin International Film Festival 2024 - Berlin Special - World premiere

Synopsis

When a pioneering band stays true to their roots and follows their own path, the outcome is ‘bigger than words and wider than pictures’.
Over 25 years and 10 studio albums—using brute sonic force mixed with subtlety and grace—Mogwai have defined their own musical genre.
Described as “The blueprint for what an independent group should be” (John Doran, The British Masters), Mogwai built a cult following by staying true to their sound and true to their roots.
The film takes us on a journey from their very beginnings, in the mid 1990s, to the band writing and rehearsing their tenth studio album in their hometown of Glasgow, Scotland in 2020 - a record made during lockdown. While at first seemingly impossible to make, they ultimately made history with it.
Official selection SXSW Film Festival 2024 - 24 Beats Per Second - World premiere

Synopsis

Steven McRae is principal dancer at London's royal ballet. In the middle of a performance his Achilles heel ruptured. Refusing to see this as the end of his career, he sets out to return to the pinnacle of his art. A journey into the demanding world of dance and the daily life of a man fighting, both physically and mentally, to regain control of his destiny.
Official selection FIPADOC 2024 - French premiere

Synopsis

Never-before-seen home movies and extraordinary personal archives reveal how Christopher Reeve went from unknown actor to iconic movie star as the ultimate screen superhero. He learned the true meaning of heroism as an activist after suffering a tragic accident that left him quadriplegic and dependent on a ventilator to breathe.
Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2024 - Premieres - World premiere
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2024

Synopsis

From Academy Award nominated directors Jaimie D’Cruz (EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP) and Ed Perkins (TELL ME WHO I AM, THE PRINCESS), and executive produced by double Academy Award winner Simon Chinn (MAN ON WIRE, SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN), and double Emmy Award winner Jonathan Chinn (LA 92, WHITNEY) THE TROUBLE WITH MR DOODLE is the story of Sam Cox, an extraordinary boy born into an ordinary family in an unremarkable English town and how a childhood passion for drawing threatened to take over his life, his home and his mind.
Official selection SXSW Film Festival 2024 - World premiere

Synopsis

Young journalist Shiori Ito embarks on a courageous investigation of her own sexual assault in an improbable attempt to prosecute her high-profile offender. Her quest becomes a landmark case in Japan, exposing the country’s outdated judicial and societal systems.
Official selection Sundance Film Festival 2024 World Cinema Documentary Competition - World premiere
Official Selection CPH:DOX 2024 - European premiere
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2024

Synopsis

After serving two decades for drug charges, Craig Sweat launches Uncle Budd, New York's first black-owned cannabis brand in the legal market, but faces obstacles raised by his past.

Synopsis

Archive footage, music and voice combine to explore the choreography of childhood and the possibility of childish autonomy.
In a world ruled by adults, how does the child in film resist oppression and control? The childish imagination escapes in flights of fantasy, both brief and absorbing. Energy is directed and contained. "I'm live as a battery. Who am I to you?"

Synopsis

Acclaimed filmmaker Chris Smith (Wham!, Fyre, 100 Foot Wave, and Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond) captures the gloriously radical spirit that is DEVO – a rare band founded by a philosophy; a Dada experiment of high art meets low, hellbent on infiltrating American popular culture. Through never-before-seen archival and interviews with Mark Mothersbaugh, Bob Mothersbaugh, and Jerry Casale, Devo relishes in the highs, lows, surreal moments and incredible performances of a 50-year career, embracing the spectacle of the band from their lo-fi beginnings to pioneers of the music video in the early days of MTV’s cultural dominance.
Band members are open with their memories and archives, charting their origins as Kent State University arts students shaped by the activism of the late 1960s. Following the 1970 massacre on their campus, the band’s concept of cultural “De-Evolution” turned from satirical humor to urgent social commentary, and what began as subversive counterprogramming to KSU’s 1973 arts festival would go on to warn of, comment on, and reflect back the absurdism of the late 20th century. Finding mainstream success at the height of 1980s consumerism, Devo soundtracked the De-Evolution they’d long predicted – and influenced a 21st century they’d have never believed.
Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2024 - Premieres - World premiere

Synopsis

Visionary musician and artist Brian Eno– known for producing David Bowie, U2, Talking Heads, among many others; pioneering the genre of ambient music; and releasing over 40 solo and collaboration albums–reveals his creative processes in this groundbreaking generative documentary: a film that’s different every time it’s shown.
Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2024 - New Frontier - World premiere

Synopsis

Two out of work actors attempt the impossible task of mounting a full production of Hamlet inside the ultra violent world of Grand Theft Auto, shot entirely in game.
It’s January 2021. The UK has just entered its 3rd lockdown and all theatres remain closed. For actors Sam and Mark, the future looks bleak. As the pandemic drags on Mark, who lives alone is increasingly socially isolated, while Sam is panicking about how he is going to support his family. They channel their midlife frustrations by immersing their avatars in the horrifically violent yet beautifully rendered virtual world of Grand Theft Auto online. They steal cars and shoot strangers, but also find moments of calm reflection walking through meadows of wildflowers. In one gaming session they stumble across a theatre and have an idea. Why not stage Hamlet inside the game? Well, there are several reasons why not, chiefly that most people in the game are intent on murderous destruction, not polite appreciation of a theatrical production. But wasn’t theatre just as dangerous and rowdy a business in Shakespeare’s time, and isn’t Hamlet, a play about revenge the perfect choice for this place?
Official selection SXSW 2024 - Documentary Competition - World premiere
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2024