Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

From the confines of her home in England, a filmmaker embarks on a digital quest to track down an old friend who disappeared years ago in Japan. With the internet as her only resource, she stumbles upon ‘The Inquirers’, a website full of souls looking for lost people. As she gets closer to finding her friend, she finds herself wondering why it is so hard to forget about some people, and, equally, why is it often necessary to let them go. IN THE SPACE YOU LEFT is a film about the meaning of missed connections in the digital age.
Official Selection Sheffield Doc Fest 2021 - UK Competition - World premiere

Synopsis

The first feature documentary entirely in Scottish Gaelic, IORRAM (BOAT SONG) is an immersive and poetic portrait of life in the Outer Hebrides, as the islands and the language face an uncertain future.

Archive sound recordings of ghostly voices, stories and songs from the last century are mixed with stunning footage of daily life in the islands today, on land and sea, to create a lyrical and playful dialogue between past and present, and between sound and vision, set to an original score composed and performed by award-winning folk musician Aidan O’Rourke.

IORRAM began as an experiment to make a cinematic film entirely composed from archive sound and contemporary moving images. The sound archive at the heart of this project contains over 30,000 pieces of previously untranslated and largely unheard Scottish Gaelic recordings, representing a treasure trove of cultural history and memories which deserve to be heard.

Making documentaries from archive film footage is a long established practice, but there are also vast riches in sound archives around the world, which are gradually being digitized and restored, and represent a valuable resource for filmmakers interested to explore the relationship between past and present, and between the ears and the eyes. If cinema has historically prioritized vision over sound, IORRAM marks an ambitious effort to redress the balance, and provide audiences with a new and deeply satisfying kind of cinematic experience.

Synopsis

A cinematic insight into the world of Michelle Mansell, a cold, open-water swimming coach. Through her work Michelle gives people an effective way of regaining mental and physical health and shifting their perspective on how the world around them can heal.

Synopsis

Poly Styrene was the first woman of colour in the UK to front a successful rock band. She introduced the world to a new sound of rebellion, using her unconventional voice to sing about identity, consumerism, postmodernism, and everything she saw unfolding in late 1970s Britain, with a rare prescience. As the frontwoman of X-Ray Spex, the Anglo-Somali punk musician was also a key inspiration for the riot grrrl and Afropunk movements.
But the late punk maverick didn’t just leave behind an immense cultural footprint. She was survived by a daughter, Celeste Bell, who became the unwitting guardian of her mother’s legacy and her mother’s demons. Misogyny, racism, and mental illness plagued Poly’s life, while their lasting trauma scarred Celeste’s childhood and the pair’s relationship.
Featuring unseen archive material and rare diary entries narrated by Oscar-nominee Ruth Negga, this documentary follows Celeste as she examines her mother's unopened artistic archive and traverses three continents to better understand Poly the icon and Poly the mother.
Official Selection Glasgow Film Festival 2021 - World premiere
Official Selection SXSW Film Festival 2021 - North American premiere

Synopsis

The first official feature documentary celebrating the incredible life of one of the most influential icons of the 20th Century, fashion designer Dame Mary Quant. Featuring contributions from Kate Moss, Vivienne Westwood, Edward Enninful, Dave Davies, Charlotte Tilbury, Jasper Conran and Zandra Rhodes as well as Mary’s family and peers.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2021 - Create - World premiere

Synopsis

REBEL DYKES is the story of how a lesbian fetish club became a beacon of freedom and community for a bunch of outsider dykes struggling as punks, sex workers, activists, musicians and artists in 1980s London.
Official Selection BFI Flare Film Festival 2021 - World premiere

Synopsis

Having participated in competition surfing since he turned 11, a 14-year-old Scottish champion Ben Larg, is not afraid of a challenge, and what bigger challenge for a young surfer than one of the biggest and most dangerous cold water waves in the world at Mullaghmore, Ireland. If he gets it right, he joins an elite group. If he gets it wrong, the consequences are terrifying. Danger, opportunity, and parental dilemma collide propelling Ben and his family towards an unknown destiny.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2021 - Love

Synopsis

A filmmaker tries to communicate with the sheep now living where his parents were buried fifteen years ago.
Official Selection IndieLisboa Film Festival 2022

Synopsis

From the award-winning creative team behind Notes On Blindness and Listen To Me, Marlon comes a contemporary take on cinema’s most iconic figure. In an innovative blend of newly-unearthed audio recordings, dramatic reconstructions and personal archive, the film traces Charlie Chaplin’s meteoric rise from the slums of Victorian London to the heights of Hollywood superstardom, before his scandalous fall from grace.
Refracting his life through a kaleidoscope of previously unheard voices and perspectives, the film sheds new light on the many sides of a groundbreaking, controversial and visionary artist. For decades he was the most famous man in the world but who was The Real Charlie Chaplin?
Official Selection Telluride Film Festival - World premiere
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2021 - Create

Synopsis

How much can you trust your childhood memories? Director Sam Firth investigates, sweeping her parents into the experiment and on a journey into the past as she explores subjectivity, trauma, family dynamics and the stories we tell ourselves.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2021 - Journey - World premiere

Synopsis

Tina Turner overcame impossible odds to become one of the first female African American artists to reach a mainstream international audience. Her road to superstardom is an undeniable story of triumph over adversity. It's the ultimate story of survival - and an inspirational story for our times.
Official Selection Berlin International Film Festival 2021 - Berlinale Special

Synopsis

TRAPPED BY PLASTIC is a short documentary film about how award-winning photographer Mandy Barker highlights the impact of marine plastic pollution. Featuring Mandy’s photographs and behind-the-scenes insights, the film shows how she developed a distinctive ‘call to action’ using strikingly colourful, intricate images to confront viewers with unpalatable truths.