Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

A short film about a remarkable woman called Joanne Bruce who has lived with cerebral palsy since she was very young. Cerebral palsy is a neurological condition affecting muscle control, movement and co-ordination, for which there is no cure. As Joanne shares her week with us, we see a full mix of activities – her work at Boots in Customer Care, her Tai Chi, swimming and social club, and a day out in Brighton.

Synopsis

A heartwarming documentary featuring six women aged between 77 and 89. As young women they left their homes in the Caribbean, Ireland and South Asia to answer post WWII Britain’s call for workers. The film uses archive film and photography to interweave pivotal moments in women’s social history with the interviewees’ memories of life in Britain. These are the moments and movements that impacted women then and now. They include the Notting Hill uprising and the fight for racial equality in housing and jobs. The immigrant workers’ rights fought for by the Grunwick factory strikers and the lengths mothers went to in order to ensure their children received a proper education. Today, these fearless women are almost invisible to modern society, but as the film shows, they are still vibrant, engaging and full of mischievous fun.

Synopsis

As youth violence rises in London, a wild and rebellious community of young people tear through the city’s streets in the name of ‘Knives Down, Bikes Up’. Community elder Mac fights for their problems to be seen, but their already precarious existence is jeopardised when they are forced away from the safe spaces of central London. Meanwhile, rider Miles finds solace from his previous life of crime in this unofficial family, but his world is threatened when the past comes back to haunt him.

Synopsis

The isolated mountainous region of Tusheti, in Northeast Georgia, is the site for a reflection on the importance of ritual, the maintenance of community ties, and how modernisation and migration are transforming rural landscapes. Shot over several years, Let Us Flow uses inovative audio-visual techniques to make visible the symbolic and physical division of sacred spaces within the community and offers a nuanced perspective on a culture where ancestral shrines are only accessible to men. In a verdant mountainous region of Georgia, tradition and modernity intertwine. Carrying on the traditions of their ancestors, the men in the film race on horseback down mountains and across wide, expansive valleys in a performance of masculinity. The filmmaker states, “As the film progresses it becomes a film about distance: the twenty meter distance the Tushetian women have to observe from their shrines, the distance between me and my protagonists, between languages and translation.” Medoidze is never seen in front of the camera, made visible only through her voice. Yet even with this distance between her and her subjects the film, as shot from her perspective, makes for a truly immersive piece of observational filmmaking.

Synopsis

An immersive audio-driven film that asks you to listen. Why is it that BPoC communities in the UK do not feel like they belong in the outdoors? The film is based on audio interviews taken from a group of BPoC women outdoor activists who are changing the story.

Synopsis

For years now, Wayne, father of 12-year-old JayDee, has been into banger racing, a rough style of racing in self-built cars. Now that JayDee is nearly 13, his debut race is finally in view.

Synopsis

Architects gaze out across oceans. Away from the land, their intentions grow focused. In the flurry of debate, the cities of the future emerge. A hand-printed film. Official Selection Internationales Trickfilm-Festival Stuttgart 2023

Synopsis

The colonial project produced billions of images of ‘exotic’ women and distributed them worldwide. This collage-film poses the question whether these images can be seen from new perspectives to reveal not only their violent and constructed nature, but also the presence of the invisible image-maker.

Synopsis

Fefor, Norway. Nestled deep in the Norwegian Mountains is an event, a special event which sees strongman come from all four-corners of the world to compete in an array of Viking strongman events. But, there's more to what means the eye deep in the mountains of Norway...

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