Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

In 1984 the National Union of Mineworkers went on strike. The dispute lasted for over a year and was the most bitterly fought since the general strike of 1926, marking a turning point in the struggle between the government and the trade union movement. The Orgreave coking plant was the site of one of the miners' strike's most violent confrontations with the police. It began in a field near the plant and culminated in a cavalry charge through the village of Orgreave. Artist Jeremy Deller’s work 'The Battle of Orgreave', staged seventeen years later, was a spectacular re-enactment of what happened on that day. It was orchestrated by Howard Giles, a historical re-enactment expert and the former director of English Heritage’s event programme. More than 800 people participated in the re-enactment, many of them former miners, and a few former policemen, reliving the events from 1984 that they themselves took part in. Other participants were drawn from battle re-enactment societies across England. Jeremy Deller's reenactment of the 1984 clash between striking miners and police at Orgreave in South Yorkshire on 17 June 2001 was filmed by Mike Figgis for Artangel Media.

Synopsis

A tribute to the director’s Mother who has Rheumatoid Arthritis, this audio-visual essay on the preparation of samosas is a record of her skilled hands, in case they become affected. The film was inspired by the boxing sequences from 'Raging Bull' ©United Artists/MGM.

Synopsis

An experiment in personal history. The footage was shot in the London docklands, and its trains and bridges prompt a meditation on nationality, identity and language, spoken in German with English subtitles. The speaker's first words, in German, are " I don't speak German".

Synopsis

A Death In The Family, a film about greed and desire. Rechard Cajee was a devoted and adoring husband, a postal worker who regularly worked long hours at night at the Mount Pleasant Sorting Office. On 3rd July 1997 Rechard Cajee was found brutally murdered in his bed by his wife and Step Father. He has been shot times in the back of the head. Rechard Cajee was 30 when he died.

Synopsis

A short film-essay detailing the relationship between two women as they go on a series of walks around Glasgow. The film features the work of Art Nouveau architect, James Salmon Jnr (1873-1924).

Synopsis

Holiday memorabilia on a passage wall. Medicine bottles beside an unmade bed. An ironing board. The unsettling answerphone message of an elderly man. So begins Belongings, a film about a man who died alone, and the tragic circumstances that came to haunt the last years of his life.

Synopsis

Camera Obscura is an experimental documentary which draws sounds and images from the Dartington Hall Estate in Devon and constructs an idiosyncratic portrait. Verbal and textual definitions attempt to pin down what it is and play against elusive images. Archive material and re-invented historical events evoke the ethos of the past and combine with stories and contemporary details to illuminate the spirit of the place.

Synopsis

An experimental documentary which has at its heart a poignant character study of a 17 year-old lesbian living in Newcastle, England, Closer innovatively explores the process of documentary filmmaking and boldly challenges traditional forms of storytelling. Produced without a script and in close collaboration with the subject, Annelise Rodger, the filmmaker presents a hypnotizing array of montages and fictive sequences to introduce the day-to-day happenings of this extraordinary person. From the streets of Newcastle - where we find Annelise speaking frankly to the camera about her experiences as a young lesbian - to the emotionally charged reenactment of hercoming out to her mother, this highly original film provides a rare auto-portrait wherefiction and documentary collide. In the end what emerges is not only a remarkable encounter with a young woman, but also a story that has broader implications about being young, being at the cusp of adulthood, and finding one's identity.

Synopsis

In the holiest city Benares or Varanasi on the sacred River Ganges a 3000 year old way of life is threatened by sewage. One man is uniquely placed to fight back. Veer Bhadra Mishra is a Mahant or Hindu Temple Leader at the heart of this traditional culture but also a skilled engineer and now figurehead in this struggle for survival.

Synopsis

A set of variations, in picture and sound. 14 interpretations of a keyboard prelude by J S Bach accompany images taken from a train leaving a station.

Synopsis

Harold and Marian are elderly friends living in Grantham, Lincolnshire. They reveal their very different journeys through the twentieth century, the special ways they have preserved their memories and the secrets of their contentment.

Synopsis

F.A.B.! is a funpacked whiz bang of a documentary. It centres around the making of the popular sixties series Thunderbirds. It is narrated by 'Brains' following a series of interviews with the people who worked on the series, including Gerry Anderson. It also includes film clips and the ever popular music.