Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

'For the forty children who call it home, Mulberry Bush is their last chance. Excluded from school for extreme behaviour, and often having suffered severe emotional trauma, they are given three years at the Oxford boarding school to try to turn their lives around. Acclaimed documentary maker Kim Longinotto has once again turned her compassionate lens on to people living in extraordinary circumstances. The fragile young boys at the heart of her film lash out in shockingly extreme ways - hitting, swearing and spitting their way through the misery of their blighted childhoods. Endlessly patient and determined staff members verbally reason with the boys, whilst often having to restrain them physically. Hold Me Tight is ultimately a heartbreaking, engrossing study of dysfunction - of what happens when families break down. It also pays witness to the tremendous influence that adults hold - for bad and for good - upon growing children,' (Carol Nahra).

Synopsis

A contemplative look at one man's life living in a makeshift hut on the riverside in Tokyo. Akira asserts he has chosen a life that is better than one within society, because it is free from responsibility, but is he closer to a knife-edge than he lets show?

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Four films about everyday life in the Amazon region of Brazil. Four ordinary people living in an extraordinary place. From the luscious forest up the Rio Negro to the smouldering lands of Rondonia, these are the stories of those whose future the world is trying to decide.

Synopsis

A stylised animated documentary visually depicting and mapping journeys, exploring notions of belonging and home.

‘Ilford’ narrates the tale of a number of its residents. The film uncovers untold stories and experiences of Ilford’s local community members. Collecting and sharing these stories, documenting experiences, mapping lives and presenting a picture of the composition of Ilford today. ‘Ilford’ takes its audience on a journey from places as far and wide as India, Africa, Kenya, Jamaica and Bosnia to settlement in Ilford.

Synopsis

This film follows 25-year-old William Francome’s investigation into the arrest of Mumia Abu Jamal, famed death-row prisoner and award-winning Black Panther journalist. Francome, born on the day of Mumia’s 1981 arrest, engages intellectuals, writers and musicians in an effort to expose the truth about justice in America for black activists in general and Mumia in particular.

The energetic, poetic and deeply moving interviews of Alice Walker, Noam Chomsky, Mos Def, Snoop Dogg and Steve Earle raise questions about the repercussions and damage of racial injustice not only to those targeted, but to the American culture itself. And most pointedly the film asks, what does it signify that Americans are still determined to put to death potential leaders and powerful political voices of the African-American culture.
 

Synopsis

In the Shadow of the Moon is an intimate epic, which vividly communicates the daring and the danger, the pride and the passion, of an extraordinary era in history. Between 1968 and 1972, the world watched in awe each time an American spacecraft voyaged to the Moon. Only 12 men walked upon its surface and they remain the only human beings to have stood on another world.

In the Shadow of the Moon brings together for the first, and very possibly the last time, surviving crew members from every single Apollo mission which flew to the Moon, and allows them to tell their story in their own words. They emerge as surprisingly eloquent, witty, emotional and very human.

Synopsis

Filmmaker Julien Temple chronicles the transformation of a self-described 'mouthy little git', born John Mellor, into an antiestablishment icon known to the world as Joe Strummer. In his latest documentary, Temple uncovers the myth behind the front man of the seminal punk band the Clash.

Through previously unearthed interviews with Strummer himself and recollections of those who knew him best, Temple reveals a complex man who used his music as a bullhorn for his conscience, as well as a means to educate others about the injustices of the world. The film includes live concert footage spanning Strummer's career and tapes of his BBC radio program, all of which provide a fitting soundtrack to his distinctive and storied existence.
 

Synopsis

In 1976 four young men from ruined post-industrial Manchester, England went to see the Sex Pistols. They formed a band called Joy Division. It was 'a right laugh'. Three years later it was a matter of art, life and death. Thirty years later they are enjoying a larger audience and more influence than ever before with a profound legacy that resonates fiercely in today’s heavily careerist music industry and over-mediated pop culture. Featuring the unprecedented participation of the surviving band members, this documentary tells their story of beauty and loss in the city.

Synopsis

Starting at dawn and finishing at dawn we witness Bradford at work, at play and at odds with itself. The sounds and sights of the city can tell us more than what life is like in Yorkshire today, they point to the greater global challenge of what happens when east meets west and neither wishes to lose its cultural identity.

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Man On Wire is the dramatic retelling of Philippe Petit's daring, and illegal, scheme to walk the high-wire between New York's twin towers - the artistic crime of the 20th century.

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Ronny Long has been filming himself since he was nine-years-old, staging cryptozoological comedies, wrestling matches and horror movies in his suburban backyard in Texas. Now 19-years-old, he reflects on the phantasmagoric childhood he obsessively documented.

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A group of unlikely travellers make an overland journey to the Moroccan Sahara, and forge friendships through the experience. The feature includes some of the most beautiful evolving landscapes, and acts as a backdrop to this subtle documentary about travel, friendship and understanding. Told in a light-hearted, subjective fashion, the feature explores the perceptions and expectations of a young middle class white man on his first trip to Africa, using a first person - present tense narrative.