Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

Many queer people are alienated from the idea of undressing for a massage, entering a typical barbershop for a 'men's haircut' while being perceived as something else, or facing the repercussions of a 'controversial' tattoo. BEING SEEN follows three individuals as they each attend an appointment with queer practitioners.
Official Selection Encounters International Film Festival 2023

Synopsis

A captivating feature-length documentary that offers an intimate glimpse into the lives and journeys of six extraordinary burlesque performers
from across the United Kingdom.
Through this documentary, the film aims to challenge misconceptions surrounding burlesque and showcase its empowering nature as a
celebration of body positivity, creativity, and self-expression.

Synopsis

As Italy lurches to the far right, a Malian finds a place amongst a family of charcoal burners in the remote Calabrian mountains.
Official Selection AFI Fest 2023

Synopsis

The film features a group of women who reside in a care home in a small market town of Sefrou, Morocco. HER PLOT OF BLUE SKY is a record of one of the days in which the Amazigh women inhabitants of the care home were seen using the cameras. The images they create - of themselves and others - are playful yet harrowing, they point to the invisibility of women, non-hetero normative, neurodiverse, functionally diverse and elderly people in media more general. Woven into the women's narratives is Rachida Madani’s poem, Tales of a Severed Head.

Synopsis

Meet Special K, Peanut, Charlie, and the rest of The Brentford Penguins, a soccer team with a difference: all the young players have Down’s Syndrome. MIGHTY PENGUINS follows Coach Allan, the players, and families as they prepare to be the guard of honour for a Premier League match.
Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2023 - World premiere

Synopsis

An intensely intimate documentary about the extraordinary life and death of one of Britain’s most controversial photographers, Lanre Fehintola.
Lanre took the idea of immersive photography to another level, applying the method approach to his journalistic research. From homelessness to heroin addiction, even drug dealing, Lanre completely embodied his subject, becoming a character in his own story, often to his detriment. Together with his close friend, filmmaker Leo Regan, the pair have documented Lanre’s remarkable journey over thirty years.
My Friend Lanre follows Lanre as he faces his ultimate adventure, his own terminal illness. Unsurprisingly, he embraces the challenge with characteristic fearlessness, candour and humour. The documentary is deeply moving, funny and heart-breaking. A celebration of living and dying. A hymn to the soul.
Official Selection Sheffield DocFest 2023 - World premiere

Synopsis

For eight years, 68-year-old Louise has been looking after her mum Rita, who is 92 and living with dementia. As both women grapple with Rita’s rapidly deteriorating condition, Louise must decide the best path forward for both herself and her mother.

Synopsis

When a Filipino victim of modern slavery in the UK stops responding, her rescuers fear the worst. By exploring their own memories and experiences of slavery, her would-be rescuers find strength in their community and resolve to save her.
Official Selection SXSW Film Festival 2024 - International premiere

Synopsis

As Carnival approaches, three Samba drummers reflect on the impacts of parental upbringing and the freeing effects of the artform on their lives.

Synopsis

How far would you go to defend the idea of an open press? This documentary is the extraordinary story of a man who risks everything to preserve freedom of speech in Russia.
In December 2021 Dmitry Muratov is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He is the editor-in-chief of Russia’s only independent newspaper, Novaya Gazeta. Six of his journalists have been murdered, after their reports displeased the state. In February 2022 Russia invades Ukraine. In early March, using the cover of a documentary film festival, Muratov secretly negotiates free passage for forty journalists with the Latvian government. Then he returns to Moscow to look after his paper and its remaining staff. In May he announces that he is going to auction his Nobel medal and give the money to Ukrainian refugees. Days later, he is on a train. Suddenly a masked attacker pours red paint all over him. The paint is laced with acetone. Dima’s eyesight is permanently damaged. Undaunted, he goes ahead with the auction. And on June 21 Muratov’s medal sells for a record $103 million. To this day, he refuses to leave Moscow, whatever the pressure on him and his team. "Putin stands for death. I stand for life."
Official Selection Sheffield DocFest 2023 - World premiere

Synopsis

Tish Murtha was a photographer whose images of people on the margins of society in 1970s Newcastle challenged and documented the inequality she herself lived through and wanted desperately to escape. However, despite early acclaim for her work she was unable to make a living from photography and lived in poverty until her death. In this new feature length documentary we ask: who was Tish Murtha and why did she not receive her due? The documentary will question the value society places on working-class communities and working-class artists, both in the past and the present day.
Official Selection Sheffield DocFest 2023 - World premiere

Synopsis

The past collides with our precarious present in Steve McQueen’s bravura documentary, informed by the book 'Atlas of an Occupied City (Amsterdam 1940-1945)' written by Bianca Stigter. McQueen creates two interlocking portraits: a door-to-door excavation of the Nazi occupation that still haunts his adopted city, and a vivid journey through the last years of pandemic and protest. What emerges is both devastating and life-affirming, an expansive meditation on memory, time, and where we’re headed.
Official Selection Cannes Film Festival 2023 - Special Screenings - World premiere
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2023