Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

Five lives, one city, the fate of a nation at war. A civil servant, a tea lady, a motorbike medic and two street boys, five stories weave together in search of freedom through dreams, revolution, and civil war from the metropolis of Khartoum Sudan to escape in East Africa.
In 2022 four Sudanese filmmakers, in collaboration with a British director/writer, began documenting the lives and dreams of five citizens in Khartoum. After a military coup brought down the civilian government, a war broke out between the army and the RSF militia that displaced over ten million people. Filmmakers and subjects escaped to East Africa and determined to continue the film another way.
This film is a lyrical and cinematic window for global audiences to emotionally connect into the lives and dreams of the everyday people of Khartoum at a pivotal moment in African history.
Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2025 - World premiere
Official Selection Berlin Film Festival 2025 - European premiere
Berlin Film Festival 2025 - Berlin Film Festival 2025 - Winner - Peace Film Prize

Synopsis

As Marlon looks back over home movie footage of his relationship with his first childhood friend, Murry, he is forced to reflect on the moments that shaped them. Raw, intimate and honest, MUREWA is a tender coming-of-age story of friendship and a quest to understand what happened along the way.
Official Selection SXSW Film & TV Festival 2025 - World premiere

Synopsis

Follow the stories of guests and staff over a summer season like no other at Kuyalnik Sanatorium in Odessa, where people come in droves for their Soviet-style wellness treatments, particularly the mysterious mud believed to cure myriad health problems.
Official Selection CPH:DOX 2025 - World premiere
Official Selection Visions du Réel International Film Festival Nyon 2025

Synopsis

Following electronics teacher and father Cam Cameron as he attempts to survive 60 days on Rockall, the UK’s most remote and dangerous island. Driven by a need to reconnect with his family, Cam’s quest is a test of endurance and a deeply personal challenge. Having already lost his father and two brothers, Cam is his mother’s only surviving son - a burden that weighs on him as he prepares to break the world record.
Only five people in history have spent more than one night on Rockall - a statistic lower than those who’ve been to the moon. Facing brutal conditions and isolation, Cam’s journey raises questions: What drives a man to risk his life? And what toll does it take on those who love him?
The documentary explores the true meaning of adventure and the sacrifices made in the pursuit of legacy, keeping viewers on edge of their seats.

Synopsis

This is more than a film, it is a cry of revolution from children all around the world who continue to ask "Can I Go Home Now?" while being terrorized by wars. Filmed in the current war zone of Ukraine as missiles flew overhead, CAN I GO HOME NOW? is a heartbreaking, moving, and powerful documentary film that gives a voice to children suffering from ongoing horrific wars. No adults are allowed to speak in this film. Rarely do children get to have a say in a war fought by adults, and this film gives the children a voice and a chance to speak up as they tell the story of this war in their own words. The film witnesses their experiences, fears, and hopes in a war zone. Despite their circumstances, they dream and hope for a better future. The film is a lesson in courage about the impact of wars on children worldwide and a testament to human resilience. This film is a testament to the fact that wars that affect children cannot be allowed to happen anymore.

Synopsis

Using both verbatim reconstruction and lip-synched archive, NO MAN IS AN ISLAND examines a tragic story of social shaming in a small island community. As panic about the imminent decriminalisation of homosexuality rises, the media provides a mechanism beyond the judicial one of keeping gay men in their closets.

Synopsis

Aa'La'Ma'Ni means worldly in Arabic. It's a significant term in the Middle East, where secularism is controversial. SECULAR | Aa'La'Ma'Ni a documentary based on academic research, explores the depiction of secularism in Middle Eastern cinema and TV channels. Filmmakers and producers from the region, openly discuss religion, sectarianism, authorities, minorities, and industry challenges.

Synopsis

An experimental film that recreates the experiences of dementia through spoken word, documentary, dramatic reconstruction, and never-before-seen deteriorated archival footage: 16mm films from the 1930s to the 1960s, featuring major historical events and world travel. THE MEMORY BOOM is framed from inside the mind of Pops, a hospitalised grandfather with severe dementia. The decayed footage serves as a visual exploration of Pops' memories.
Pops' grandson narrates from his bedside, attempting to preserve Pops' memories while struggling to comprehend memory loss. Pops' confused thoughts rise to the surface, and he shares them with his grandson as if it were 'storytime' leading him down rivulets of muddled tales and garbled memories spanning his lifetime. Pops' Filipina nurse supports the grandson, sharing her inability to care for her own dementia-affected father in the Philippines. The film charts the trio's journeys through emotional turmoil, leading to a deeper understanding of the nuances of memory.
THE MEMORY BOOM was created with documentary participants from community groups across rural England and features anonymously donated archival materials, courtesy of Exeter Phoenix. The film was made in memory of the filmmakers’ relatives who lived with dementia, and explores memory preservation and photographic consent.
Official Selection PÖFF - Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2024 - World premiere

Synopsis

Light, without which life itself is impossible, is the working medium and obsession of director Thomas Riedelsheimer. Light, seen only in interaction with matter, allows us to explore the origin of the universe. In Tracing Light, science and art interact to illuminate the birth of stars and secrets of the molecular world. Einstein’s work on light changed our understanding of the world forever and revealed it as more complex and magical than was thought. Now, at a radical moment in physics, we bring together leading scientists, and artists who sculpt with light, across Scotland and Germany – from the Max Planck Institute at Erlangen, to Glasgow University’s Extreme Light Group and western reaches of Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, in a quest to understand and embody the ineffable. New questions are given voice, visually and sensually, in the language of matter; in the language of film – light.
Official Selection DOK Leipzig 2024 - World premiere
Official Selection CPH:DOX 2025 - International premiere

Synopsis

Genre-busting tale of how unemployed amateur cyclist, Bryan Allen, and heavily in debt father-of-three, Paul MacCready, together with a rag-tag team of neuro-diverse outliers, set out on a death-defying and madcap quest to untangle the mystery of human powered flight and in doing so win the most coveted prize in aviation.
Built from a remarkable trove of recently discovered 16mm footage along with an arsenal of innovative techniques, this uplifting story of ingenuity, courage and determination, challenges us to question the assumptions we make about about society’s outliers and reminds us of how the stories we tell can help us to understand and perhaps change the world.

Synopsis

You can't choose what you inherit.
This documentary offers an uncompromising look at what gets passed down. Framed around a contested house in the west of Ireland, it is a coming-of-age story - a survival story - about the cost of love; and how difficult it can be to escape.
Official Selection International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2024 - World premiere
Official Selection True/False Film Festival - North American premiere
Official Selection Sheffield DocFest 2025

Synopsis

A landmark feature documentary about astronaut Eileen Collins, the first woman to pilot and command the Space Shuttle.
Eileen’s incredible journey starts with her smalltown beginnings, sees her smash through many glass ceilings, and culminates in four dramatic space shuttle missions, the last being possibly the most dangerous and most important of them all.
At its heart the film is the moving human drama of one family, where a mother’s extraordinary career takes us straight to the big philosophical question of what is the level of acceptable risk in human endeavour?
This film celebrates Commander Collins’ trailblazing NASA career which opened the way for women to become spacecraft pilots and commanders, and proved a perfect riposte to a previous generation of male astronauts who thought there was no place for women to lead the way in space.
Official Selection DOC NYC 2024 - World premiere
Official Selection CPH:DOX 2025 - European premiere