Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

Cottage Cheese is a glimpse into the world of cottaging. While procuring sex in public toilets was almost the only choice for gay men in the 1950s, this aspect of gay culture has remained remarkably widespread through the years of liberation and the pink pound. Cottage Cheese features interviews with people who go cottaging, including a married man and someone who has been caught and prosecuted.

Synopsis

A documentary journey into the life of a Buddhist nun as she goes in search of a female approach to spirituality.

Synopsis

As pure style, dreadlocks cross social boundaries of race, politics, sex and even economics. But for some their dreads are a statement of being, a way of life - and their only connection with their African origins and identity. Is white appropriation of dreadlocks the theft of black culture or a sign that the African spirit will lead us into the next millennium? The future's dread, the future's bright, the future's black.

Synopsis

In a small Tehran courtroom, the stories of three strong-willed women unfold as they use reason, charm, pleas for sympathy, anger, even a disarming wit to win what they each need - a divorce. Divorce Iranian Style is a unique window into the impassioned but very practical business of divorce - and marriage - in three Iranian women's lives. Jamileh, whose son saved her from the hand of her abusive husband; Ziba, an outspoken 16-year-old who proudly stands up to her 38 year-old husband and his family; and Maryam, remarried and desperate to regain custody of her two daughters. Stirring and poignant, this fly-on-the-wall look into the real circumstances of Iranian women's lives shatters the stereotype of women as passive victims in the Muslim world. (Edinburgh Film Festival Review)

Synopsis

Midway between the supernatural shenanigans of Halloween and the official pomp of Remembrance Day, 5th November is Bonfire Night in Britain. People go down to their local park to watch the fireworks and the burning of Guy Fawkes, executed for treason 400 years ago. Fire Festival takes a municipal Bonfire Night in Brixton, South London, as focus for a film about autumn, death and the spectacle of sacrifice.

Synopsis

Omar Sharif, the one Arab above all others who has bridged the cultural divide between the Middle East and the West, presents this independent television programme about the transformation of the United Arab Emirates from rags to riches. Judicious use of archive library material highlights the changes that have occurred in the society of the UAE over the 25 years of the federation. Local people, the Arab in the street, tell their own stories and give the programme a strong human interest.

Synopsis

Behind every face lies a story. Bobby, Sumi and TJ draw people's portraits in Leicester Square. What do they think about while they sit and wait for customers all day in this busy place? Where did they come from? Why are they there? The filmmaker explores themes of migration, memory and loss by drawing her own portrait of their lives.

Synopsis

A Rave is on. We follow a DJ from 'Insanity Sound System' as he breaks into a warehouse and rigs his equipment. He explains why and how he organises illegal raves. We meet two ravers, one who calls himself a 'techno-tourist' since he travels all over Europe to party and a girl who goes to raves every weekend and enjoys taking drugs.

Synopsis

From Nashville, Washington and New York, to Dunkeld, Butterstone and the Isle of Lewis, this film tells the story of how the hugely successful American female country singer Kathy Mattea fell in love with the songs of the charismatic Scottish singer-songwriter Dougie Maclean, and how they influenced the development of each others' music.

Synopsis

The Manhattan Brothers wrote and sang 'Township Jazz' music during 1940s and 50s in South Africa. With over 150 hits, they sold millions of records, but their record company, Gallo Records, paid them using petty cash vouchers and hardly anything in royalties. Exiled from South Africa for almost thirty years, Joe Mogotsi now returns to find out if, in the 'new' South Africa, past injustices will be redressed.

Synopsis

A story of humour, energy and friendship, Spindrift chronicles a day in the life of two Soho drifters who work as rent boys. Combining documentary style material with expressionistic sequences, the film builds up a series of snapshots which encapsulate the boys' desire for freedom and love.

Synopsis

If you have ever had a tenner on the winner of the Grand National then you may have experienced the gambling buzz. But if you've put your last £40,000 on Ajax to win the UEFA Cup, you've Stood For This Massive. This is a film about Harry Findlay, one of Britain's most notorious sports gamblers.