Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

A procession of the Italian Confraternity - an order of the Catholic church that perhaps, to the eyes of traditionally non-Catholic countries, triggers other very different movements. This confusion is dispelled by references, filmed in the same town, same day, to more recognizable aspects of Catholicism. Innocent, but still the power to shock?

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A recently arrived American notices a woman living in a partially demolished house on a massive development site in Shanghai, a row of welcoming red lanterns strung proudly over her doorway. This film captures the final days of the Red Lantern House and the beginning of an unlikely friendship.

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Rehearsals is an impressionistic snapshot of Belfast as Northern Ireland feels its way towards the future. The film revolves around groups of musicians and artists rehearsing in their homes or pubs whilst voices and images of Belfast remind us of the stark and poignant realities of everyday life.

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In August 2005, inspired by Harry Smith's anthology of American Folk Music, London DJ Alex Reuben set out alone on the American Road, fulfilling a lifelong dream to document the social dance of southern USA. His childhood inspiration to dance had been the music of New Orleans and Fats Domino. Reuben traveled from North Carolina to Memphis, Tennessee and onto Mississippi. Hurricane Katrina halted his journey towards Fats, and Louisiana. The result is a dance road movie that gives insights into lesser-known forms of American dance and music culture and the lives of extraordinary Americans. Set against the US federal governments' woeful response to the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina, at a time when Americans were questioning their position on the war in Iraq, we explore Appalachian Clogging, Hip-Hop, Stepping, Mamphis Marching Bands, Mississippi Fife and Drum, Cajun and Zydeco. A Capture commission for Arts Council England.

Synopsis

She Should Have Gone To The Moon tells the astonishing story of the pilot and pioneer, Jerri Truhill, who was trained in 1961, as part of NASA's top secret Mercury 13 programme, to become one of the First Lady Astronauts. The documentary is about Jerri Truhill's ambition to conquer the unknown and the filmmaker's fascination with a woman who dared to break down all barriers in aviation. Set against a momentous era in American history, the film constructs both an intimate portrait of Truhill and explores a unique chapter in American culture and society. In the film, the sharp-witted Jerri Truhill looks back on her compelling life via a phone call with the filmmaker. This conversation becomes the catalyst for the director's imagining of key events in Truhill's potent narrative and inspires a journey to meet the heroine in Texas. Along the way, the filmmaker places herself in Truhill's story, first wandering across the surreal landscape of White Sands and then suspended in zero gravity inside a water tank. Included are stylized and dreamlike scenes, which are counter pointed by shots from both Truhill's and NASA's film archive. The various strands produce the film's heady timeline, as they circle through real and imagined spaces and merge into a bittersweet interview with Truhill at her home.

Synopsis

It ain't East Coast. It ain't West Coast. This is South Coast. Forget the MTV-sponsored images of ghetto superstars and bling - South Coast is a quintessentially British take on hip hop 30 years after it emerged from the Bronx block parties. Three years in the making; this character-driven documentary features a host of engaging characters including Norman Cook (aka Fat Boy Slim), notorious Train Painter, Aroe and irrepressible MC, Buzz; break-dancers on Brighton's pebbled beach; Brighton's first gay rap crew, grimy MCs in word battles with poets; graffiti art galleries, and laid back but incisive rhymes about British seaside life.  

Synopsis

Springsummer is a digitally treated short film documenting Kei Kagami's Spring/Summer 04 collection. Fashion photographer Enamul and graphic designer Matt Moate have previously worked together on numerous photographic projects but this film represents their first collaboration in moving image. Springsummer seeks to explore the emotive undercurrents of Kagami's groundbreaking work in a delicate fusion of imagery and abstraction played out to a blistering original soundtrack by sound designer Rob Mullender.

Synopsis

A microscopic observation on the complexities of life.

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Tanju Miah opens in a misty landscape in rural Bangladesh, where a young boy waits for his mother. "I'm about eight or nine", he says in a voice-over. "When I grow up I want to become a rich man, by singing". He waits and works, and sometimes sings. Director Sadik Ahmed uses a series of graceful scenes to build a psychologically complex portrait of a child who might otherwise disappear into statistics. His bosses call him Blacky. "But in my village", he says, "my real name is Tanju".

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A day in the life of a traditional shoemaker - seen throughout the process of making a pair of shoes, then off for a walk in the countryside.

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A wry animated documentary about how Holocaust tourism distorts history. A whistlestop tour from Auschwitz hot-dogs to Krakow's kitsch Judaica.  

Synopsis

The Journalist and the Jihadi tracks the parrallel lives of Daniel Pearl the Wall Street journalist and the Islamic jihadi Omar Sheikh. Both men were highly educated and came from priviliged backgrounds and both passionately committed to fixing the wrongs of the world. One was born in the US and the other in London. September 11 changed the world and put these two on a path that would eventually end in tragedy. The film documents the events leading to Daniel's gruesome murder and the way his death is still affecting his family.