Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

This film follows the growth of the Afrocentric Black is Beautiful movement of the 60s and 70s through the lens of Kwame Brathwaite, pioneering Harlem photographer and its unsung godfather. Kwame Brathwaite spent his life documenting black American history, photographing and befriending some of its biggest stars over his lifetime. He also founded grassroots fashion shows he called "Naturally" that celebrated natural black beauty and Afrocentrism in a time when it was deemed controversial, and heralded a new dawn for blackness across the globe. Forgotten by history until his son uncovered his vast archive of photos in the 2010s, the film covers the revival of Kwame's legacy in the last few years of his life. Family, friends and artistic admirers championed Kwame's work in a bid to put his name on the map before his passing in 2023. Kwame's story weaves together the story of the black experience, cultural icons and activism, taking a Forrest Gump journey through the biggest names and moments in American culture. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2025 - Official Competition - World premiere

Synopsis

A wave of regeneration is hitting London’s working-class neighbourhoods. South of the river, the demolition of Elephant & Castle’s shopping centre has uprooted the community who made it their own. As they navigate an uncertain future, they carry with them the legacy of a place that once felt like home. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2025 - Short Film Competition - World premiere

Synopsis

The story of working-class women who, during the 1984–85 Miners' Strike, found themselves at the forefront of a battle against the British state. From Scotland down to Kent, women from the coalfields shed light on their experiences of the year long struggle, and how they became the backbone of the Strike. With many still active today, their actions reshaped the landscape of political activism for working-class women.

Synopsis

MODUPE is an experimental documentary that unfolds as a ceremony of queer belonging, inheritance, and sound. At its heart is a dialogue with Afro-Cuban priestess and musician Amelia Pedroso, whose legacy is invoked through archival traces, letters, and performance. Narrated as a letter to an ancestor, the film situates the search for connection within an interior, oceanic dreamscape where water, memory, and ritual become both setting and subject. Cinematically, MODUPE moves between a stylised ensemble rehearsal and a sacred library-archive. The ensemble of voice, drum, and dance provides the film’s pulse, collapsing rehearsal and ritual into one. Deep blue light, reflective surfaces, and submerged imagery create a sensorial architecture that is both intimate and expansive, with water presence throughout evoking both flood and transformation. Formally, the film resists linear storytelling, privileging atmosphere, rhythm, and sonic immersion. Objects, archives, and sacred materials hold the same cinematic weight as bodies in performance, reframing the archive as altar and sound as shrine. Narrative unfolds through resonance rather than resolution, drawing the viewer into a space of listening and reflection. MODUPE proposes cinema as a vessel for inheritance, where identity is fluid, memory is alive and liberation is lived through sound.

Synopsis

Delving into the life of a Palestinian in the UK, separated from a culture and a way of life, this film captures the power of the human spirit in the face of adversity, delivering a powerful statement about the intersection of personal struggle and political conflict and offering hope, challenging narratives, and inspiring solidarity. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2025

Synopsis

In Cambodia, former Khmer Rouge child soldier Aki Ra and his wife Hout help communities reclaim their land by undertaking the potentially lethal task of clearing unexploded landmines left over from years of war. Along the way they adopt unwanted kids whose childhoods and limbs have been destroyed by landmines, and open a war museum that soon becomes world famous. Aki Ra fights to break free of shadows cast by his role in the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, and rebuild his shattered family. But in a country grappling to come to terms with its history, the past always has a way of catching up.

Synopsis

Locked and loaded with film tape, a man explores an abandoned rave house, once known as The Warehouse, that was once the beating heart of the South West’s clubland.

Synopsis

Chronicling Pulitzer Prize-winning Lynsey Addario’s ascent in the male-dominated world of conflict photography. Her work is dangerous. She’s been kidnapped twice while on assignment in war zones - a cost she must wrestle with each time she leaves her husband and two sons to go on assignment. Behind the camera, Addario is torn between her unwavering commitment to the essential work of journalism and the powerful, competing demands of motherhood, grappling with what it truly means to follow your calling when it threatens everything you  love. Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2025 - World premiere Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2025 - European premiere

Synopsis

AFTER EIGHT uncovers the darker side of Britain’s post-pub curry culture. Telling the story of Satpal Ram, the film unveils a major miscarriage of justice in British history and sparks reflection on the ongoing struggle for racial equality.

Synopsis

A moving story of grief transformed into gratitude through the companionship of a rare creature.

Synopsis

FIRES AND FACISM shows the wildfires in Europe are more than just from climate change and mismanagement, but link also with politics, big business, organised crime, and the far right.  The film showcases how communities are engaging in direct action, protest, rewilding, and suppressing the rise of both uncontrollable fires and fascist attitudes. The aim of the film is to unite communities in an increasingly divided society. It shows some ways to bring people together for a common cause and the positive impact this has. Featured are the experiences and actions of 25 people from Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, and their actions to build community for a safer and more resilient future.

Synopsis

The story of George J. Mitchell, a working-class boy from Maine who would become the majority leader of the US Senate and one of the most respected political negotiators and leaders of his generation. From the basketball court of Bowdoin College to the streets of Berlin as a counterintelligence agent, Mitchell tells his incredible story in his own words. Filmed in his home state of Maine across the summer of 2023, this documentary showcases a problem solver who has worked across the worlds of politics, baseball, and business with an unending passion for understanding through dialogue in his country and around the world, working to bring peace to Northern Ireland.