Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

As the Environmental Officer for Saint Helena’s doomed airport, Annina witnessed the unearthing of a terrible secret - a mass burial ground of 8,000 formerly enslaved Africans. Haunted by this injustice - and echoes of her childhood in Apartheid Namibia - she now fights for memorialisation of these forgotten victims.
Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2022 - Documentary Competition - World premiere

Synopsis

A reflection on how the weight of the past walks with us and the indifference of the ever-present, observant sea.
Official Selection International Short Film Festival Oberhausen 2022

Synopsis

Machines are checking and sorting nature in an industrial greenhouse. Human hands only intervene to straighten anything that is crooked, plant delicate items, or clean the mechanics to ensure things continue to run smoothly.
Official Selection Berlin International Film Festival 2022 - World premiere

Synopsis

Brothers Saud and Nadeem were raised looking at a sky speckled with black kites, watching as relatives tossed meat up to these birds of prey. Muslim belief held that feeding the kites would expel troubles. Now, birds are falling from the polluted, opaque skies of New Delhi and the two brothers have made it their life’s work to care for the injured black kites.
Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2022 - World Cinema Documentary Competition - World premiere

Synopsis

Professional wrestler Gia Adam and teacher Gabrielle Brown slowly unite and face their biggest challenge to date.

Synopsis

We follow the constantly shifting Thames downstream, in all its infinite richness, acknowledging how human intervention has shaped it, but also how the river continues to influence the lives of those who live around it, from source to mouth.

Synopsis

DUST & METAL (CAT BUI & KIM LOAI) brings together for the first time a live cinema documentary featuring past and present stories of freedom in Vietnam. With a population of 97 million, and 45 million registered motorbikes (the highest in South East Asia) that’s almost one bike for every two people. The urban roads and ‘hem’ alleys are only accessible by two-wheels. These roads are awash with the transportation of goods of all types and sizes on the back of motorbikes, including washing machines, entire families, and chickens. The sounds of engines and horns create a symphony of Vietnamese life. In a unique partnership with the Vietnam Film Institute, archive film is edited alongside contemporary footage and a live score composed/performed by Vietnamese artist Xo Xinh.
Official Selection Sheffield DocFest 2022 - Rhythms - World premiere

Synopsis

Although she is regularly featured in Vogue, designer Amy Powney of it-girl brand Mother of Pearl is an outsider, raised off the grid in rural England. Increasingly troubled by her role in fashion’s environmental impact, Amy makes a decision – transform her business model and make it sustainable or leave fashion entirely. Amy embarks on her quest, sparking a movement along the way.
Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2022 - Spotlight Documentary - World premiere

Synopsis

After 70 years of keeping a devastating secret, eccentric fashionista Allan Bradbury is on a journey to recovery. By opening up about his childhood trauma can he find true ‘appiness in later life?

Synopsis

King Crimson is a band that people literally are dying to be in. IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING recruits us into the world's most demanding rock band and introduces us to a world full of acute suffering, only alleviated by the applause of an audience so in love with King Crimson that their demands threaten to make the lives of the band members even more miserable. Filmed over several years and featuring exclusive performances shot in Pompeii and the UK, the film follows a dysfunctioning family of ageing artists determined to make meaningful work in the deepening shadow of their own mortality. The group's leader Robert Fripp, famous for his unique guitar work with David Bowie and Brian Eno, and aptly described as “a cross between Mahatma Gandi, Joseph Stalin and the Marquis de Sade”, has overseen an environment for over 50 years in which freedom and responsibility conspire to place extraordinary creative demands on the band's members, and ultimately the film’s maker Toby Amies. Not everyone survives the experience intact. IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING also contains excellent music and bad jokes.
Official Selection SXSW 2022 - 24 Beats Per Second - World premiere

Synopsis

The epic rivalry between iconic boxers Oscar De La Hoya and Julio César Chávez in the 1990s sparked a cultural divide between Mexican nationals and Mexican-Americans. A chronicle of a battle that was more than a boxing rivalry, and examining a fascinating slice of the Latino experience in the process.
Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2022 - International Documentary Premieres

Synopsis

An immersive journey through the New York music scene of the early 2000s. A new generation kick-started a musical rebirth for New York City that reverberated around the world.
Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2022 - World premiere