Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

An immersive cinematic experience about a young Deaf boy's emotional journey to express himself; a love letter to the power and magic of human communication. Lawand is a young Kurdish boy, deaf since birth. After a treacherous journey and a year in a Dunkirk refugee camp, the help of a deaf volunteer brings his family to Derby, where Lawand joins the Royal School for the Deaf. As he grows older, the film follows his dramatic progress in learning British Sign Language, revealing a bright, charismatic, and inquisitive boy who discovers friendship and a new way to express himself. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2022 - World premiere Official Selection Hot Docs 2023 - International premiere Grierson Awards 2023 - Nomination - Best Single Documentary – Domestic

Synopsis

BECOMING PLANT follows six dancers who participate in a therapeutic group experiment with psychedelics, while temporarily ‘living’ together on the demilitarised industrial site. While they are subjected to the plant’s consciousness and to each other’s presence, they perform a choreography, aligning their naked bodies with each other and with the architectural ruins. The film serves as a catalyst to discuss wider social and relational issues such as science, spirituality, psychiatry, healing, healthcare and the problems of collective depression and trauma resulting from living in the age of Late Capitalism. Featuring a specially composed soundtrack by London based electronic musician and visual artist Gaika.

Synopsis

Exploring the dying whistling traditions of the Hmong people of northern Laos, whose sonic exchanges straddle the boundary between music and speech. The film follows the personal stories of three individuals from Long Lan village, as they reflect on their experience as practitioners of a vanishing musical language. Official Selection Aesthetica Film Festival 2022 Official Selection SXSW Film Festival 2023

Synopsis

A story gleaned from material collected over a lifetime. Lisa Selby, an artist and lecturer, has always documented her life in paint, words, photographs and film. As Lisa struggles to comprehend why her mother Helen didn’t raise her, Helen dies. Helen was charismatic, articulate, beautiful and addicted to heroin. Lisa now begins to get to know the woman she never called Mother, through the things she left behind and the memories of people who knew her. Lisa’s partner, Elliot, relapses on heroin and is incarcerated. Through her own sobriety and her love for Elliot, Lisa comes to understand addiction, and Helen, differently. She also uncovers a new possibility towards motherhood deep within herself. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2023 - World premiere - Audience Award - Winner Official Selection Thessaloniki Documentary Festival 2023 - International premiere - Film Forward Competition Golden Alexander - Winner

Synopsis

A short animated documentary that explores the experience of telling the world that you are autistic when you also identify as LGBTQ+. Official Selection Kaboom Animation Festival 2023

Synopsis

“Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations” This travel documentary explores, Rajasthan state in India as a paradox through the lens of Myths and its cultural Mood. Threading 6 cities in 3 chapters to form one narrative. Chapter 1: Power of Beliefs We experience ancient rituals in a tribal village with a transcendental congregation (Banswara) and a pre-historic city (Pushkar) where Lord Brahma was cursed. Chapter 2: Lessons in Humility In Udaipur, we hear stories from a royal aide of servitude of the longest reigning royal family in the world since 934 AD. While in Ajmer, we hear from the descendent of a Sufi Mystic and how he had humbled a great Mughal Emperor. Chapter 3: Women Power In Jodhpur (blue city), we witness the palace archives to understand the virtues of Old Queens.While in Jaisalmer(Golden city), we meet a present day princess on how she has been a patron of music and education in the desert state with one of the only inhabited forts in the world.

Synopsis

Have you ever fallen in love with a tree? When the residents of the Woodberry Down Estate in Hackney, London, find out that a property developer has been given permission to fell a much-loved 150-year-old London Plane street tree - which even has its own name, the 'Happy Man Tree' - they start a campaign to try to save it. The film charts the ups and downs of the nine-month David and Goliath battle from the point of view of the brave and endlessly creative local activists who range from 7-year-old Lucas to 82-year-old Sylvia who has lived on the estate for 60 years. This is an innovatively-made grassroots-style film with the charismatic Happy Man Tree as its central character.

Synopsis

In our wealthiest nations, old age homelessness is on the rise and so is the number of pensioners using foodbanks. Is Old Age Poverty an unstoppable global disaster? With a unique mix of comedy animation, interviews with experts and personal stories from all around the world, YOUR HUNDRED-YEAR LIFE explains how we got ourselves into this mess and what we can do to get out of it.

Synopsis

In 1968, art students Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey “Po” Powell made a trippy photo collage for their musician friends Syd, David and Roger. The resulting album and album cover, 'A Saucerful of Secrets', helped launch two careers: that of Pink Floyd, one of the 70s megabands, and of Hipgnosis, which, over the course of the next 25 years, designed a stream of iconic album covers. Photographer, filmmaker and designer Anton Corbijn fills his Hipgnosis history with case studies of album art from Pink Floyd’s 'Dark Side of the Moon', considered by many to be the greatest album art of all time, to Led Zeppelin’s mind-altering 'Houses of the Holy'. Fuelled by Powell's vivid storytelling, Corbijn captures the energy of a team making iconoclastic art amidst one of the most hedonistic eras in music history. Official Selection Telluride Film Festival 2022 - World premiere Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2023

Synopsis

An exploration of dance as a way to ease coming off anti-depressants. The film is a journey of sorts from isolation to connection, and an artistic montage of city life, revolving around the theme of dance. BAFTA Film Awards 2023 - Nomination - Best British Short Film

Synopsis

A road movie in search of the work of renowned Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa. The film follows a protagonist scouring the island for the ‘lost’ garden of Lunuganga. Finding the treasure might be the goal, yet her search is the catalyst for encounters with a series of characters and rarely visited buildings that reveal the story of Bawa’s life and work.

Synopsis

Set in the mid '90s Indi charts the world of emigre mother, Sheeru, and her British born son Indi, who dreams of playing professional football.