Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

On 10th and 11th August 1996, 250,000 young music fans converged on Knebworth Park to see Oasis play two record breaking, era defining shows. The landmark concerts sold out in under a day with over 2% of the UK population attempting to buy tickets. This was a time when the UK was slowly recovering from a decade of recession. A surging confidence in arts and culture ushered in Cool Britannia and Oasis meteoric rise reflected the country's new-found conviction and swagger. Featuring a setlist packed from beginning to end with stone cold classics, including Champagne Supernova, Wonderwall and Don't Look Back In Anger, the Knebworth concerts were both the pinnacle of the band's success and the landmark gathering for a generation. OASIS KNEBWORTH 1996 is the story of that weekend and the special relationship between Oasis and their fans that made it possible. It is told through the eyes of the fans who were there, with additional interviews with the band and concert organisers. Directed by Jake Scott from extensive concert and exclusive never-before seen footage, this is a joyful and at times poignant cinematic celebration of one of the most important concert events of the last 25 years.

Synopsis

In the early 90s a group of gay activist nuns, the London House of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, decide to canonise Derek Jarman, a prominent queer filmmaker and the most public figure living openly with HIV at the time. They declare him Britain's first living gay saint.
Official Selection Frameline San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival 2022
Official Selection BFI Flare London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival 2022

Synopsis

A group of British Black youths from one of London’s most notorious estates defy public perception by supporting their local community when they needed it the most. Not all superheroes wear capes. Sometimes they come dressed in hoodies.

Synopsis

THE RESCUE chronicles the dramatic 2018 rescue of 12 Thai boys and their soccer coach, trapped deep inside a flooded cave. An outing to explore a nearby system of caves after soccer practice transformed into a two-week saga of survival and a story that would capture the world’s attention. With exclusive access and never-before-seen footage from the rescue, the film tells the story of the imagination, determination and unprecedented teamwork displayed during this heroic edge-of-your-seat mission with life-or-death stakes.
Official Selection Telluride Film Festival 2021 - World premiere

Synopsis

THREE MINUTES - A LENGTHENING presents a home movie shot by David Kurtz in 1938 in a Jewish town in Poland and tries to postpone its ending. As long as we are watching, history is not over yet. The three minutes of footage, mostly in colour, are the only moving images left of the Jewish inhabitants of Nasielsk before the Holocaust. The existing three minutes are examined to unravel the stories hidden in the celluloid. The footage is imaginatively edited to create a film that lasts more than an hour. Different voices enhance the images. Glenn Kurtz, grandson of David Kurtz, provides his knowledge of the footage. Maurice Chandler, who appears in the film as a boy, shares his memories. Actress Helena Bonham Carter narrates the film essay.
Official Selection Venice Film Festival 2021 - World premiere

Synopsis

When filmmaker Oscar Harding's grandfather passed away in the rural English county of Somerset, his family inherited an extraordinary video tape - a feature-length home movie from neighbour Charles Carson, which can best be described as "Monty Python meets The Texas Chainsaw Massacre".

But there's so much more to the man behind the videos - Charles was an inventor, an outsider artist, and a pioneer of death positivity, to name just a few of the filmmaking farmer’s achievements. Charles’ life and work are examined by those who knew him best, as well by a whole new generation of fans from across the world who have been inspired by the legacy he left behind.

A LIFE ON THE FARM is an exploration and celebration of Charles Carson and his movies, rescued from obscurity, which present a moving and laugh-out-loud document of a time and place in danger of being lost to history.

Synopsis

Weeds aren't just weeds. They're like friends. During the first Covid-19 wave, plants and flowers are allowed to grow wild.

Official Selection Edinburgh International Film Festival 2021 - Shortcuts World premiere
Official Selection Dinard Festival of British Film 2021
Official Selection Cork International Film Festival 2021 - International Shorts
Official Selection Thomas Edison Film Festival 2022
Official Selection Aspen Shortsfest 2022

Synopsis

An intergenerational documentary that follows Barry, a Jamaican-born beekeeper. Despite the pandemic slowing down the campaign to keep his beloved Caribbean centre open, Barry takes inspiration from his bees and is still reminded that hope and togetherness can be found in all situations.
Official Selection BlackStar Film Festival 2022

Synopsis

Tracing the journey of the four members of Led Zeppelin, the 'Stairway To Heaven' rockers, through the music scene of the 1960s to their meeting in the summer of 1968. Culminating in 1970 when Led Zeppelin II's 'Whole Lotta Love' knocked The Beatles off the top of the charts and launched what would become the biggest band in the world.
Featuring new interviews with Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones, as well as rare archival interviews with the late drummer John Bonham, and previously unseen archive imagery, state of the art audio transfers of the band’s music, and music that influenced the band’s sound.
Official Selection Venice Film Festival 2021 - Out of Competition - World premiere

Synopsis

FREEDOM SWIMMER documents a mass migration story from the 20th century, which is relatively untold in the Western world— and offers context for a city in turmoil, today.
A granddaughter asks her grandfather to recount his journey from China, swimming to Hong Kong in the 1970’s.
One of two million mainland residents who swam across the southern sea border. Many others died trying or were captured and sent to labour camps. He was one of the lucky ones.
From the 1950’s to 1980’s Hong Kong was a symbol of freedom to many Chinese, glimpsed across the water. The grandfather, like many others, went on to have a successful life in Hong Kong and was part of the working-class movement that helped transform the city into a financial success story.
FREEDOM SWIMMER explores the effect of past cultural trauma, exploring a new perspective on the current situation. It reflects the depth of a symbol that is ‘freedom’ - that Hong Kong both represents and holds onto so tightly.
On a wider-scale, this is a universal story of the dispossessed— what it takes to flee your country, what it means to fight for freedom, what it is like to leave everything in hope of liberty.

Synopsis

The Universe is revolving around me in a bad way.”
Through mind-bending animation, GOLIATH: PLAYING WITH REALITY explores the limits of reality in this true story of so-called ‘schizophrenia’ and the power of gaming communities.

Synopsis

A poignant and challenging archive documentary that looks for the roots of the climate crisis in post-war history. Are we heading into new territory, or could we be caught in a cycle of familiar promises?
Is climate change the inevitable consequence of our quest for energy and growth? Where does culpability lie? Living Proof searches for the roots of the crisis in our recent history. Archive footage from Scotland's national archive portrays a country shaped by the demands of modernity while an eclectic soundtrack amplifies the voices of the past in powerful and unsettling ways.