Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

In a suburb of London sits Britain’s answer to Dogtown, the hallowed birthplace of skateboarding in the US. “Rom Town” as it is affectionately named by the locals was one of the first skateparks in the UK to be built and with its unique architectural features was granted historical status by English Heritage in 2014. So it is one of the world's oldest and most unique skateparks, but following a devastating fire, it is financially on its knees. Meet the park’s middle age skaters, BMXers and street artists, who against all the odds, are fighting to keep it alive for the next generation. Shot in stunning full 4K this is the first time a feature length documentary has looked at the early British skateboarding scene and the first generation of skaters and BMX riders from the late seventies and eighties who are still going strong. Rom Boys features archive footage from the past 40 years and over thirty interviews with some of the worlds biggest names in skate and BMX from the UK and US.

Synopsis

A beekeeper on the island of Anglesey faces losing her ancestral home to the development of a nuclear power plant.

Synopsis

Based on the book 'The Reason I Jump' written by Naoki Higashida, a non-verbal autistic Japanese boy. Translated from Japanese in 2013 by acclaimed novelist David Mitchell, the book is now a worldwide bestseller, offering an illuminating and life-enhancing guide to Planet Autism – a planet that has very different laws from the one most inhabit. The book, written when its author was unknown and only 13, is now a bestseller in 27 languages, and has become one of the world’s most widely-read guides to Autism, offering an extraordinary passport to another world. The book's question-and-answer format gives a remarkable insight into the thoughts and feelings of an autistic person who cannot talk; a Rosetta stone that allows us to hear what it’s like to be autistic. This feature documentary is a cinematic translation of the experiences revealed in the book, weaving Naoki’s writings around stories of non-verbal autistic people across the globe, immersing us in their unique sensory worlds, full of intensity, richness, and beauty - and sometimes shadows and terror. Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2020 - World Cinema Documentary Competition - World premiere Grierson Awards 2022 - Winner - Best Single Documentary – International

Synopsis

In 1971, after being rejected by Hollywood, Bruce Lee returned to his parents’ homeland of Hong Kong to complete four iconic films. Charting his struggles between two worlds, this portrait explores questions of identity and representation through the use of rare archival interviews with loved ones and Bruce’s own writings. Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2020 - World premiere

Synopsis

Described by Nkiru as what a relic finding of a Detroiter’s public access TV watching patterns which make up the constellation of Techno might be, BLACK TO TECHNO, through a visually rich and diverse collage of intersecting narratives, conceptual frameworks, archival references and original imagery, asserts Techno not just as a musical gesture but as a philosophical, sonic and anthropological one; a model for the overcoming of alienation, the undoing of oppositions: between the individual and the means of production, body and tool, soul and machine. Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam 2020 - Perspectives - World premiere

Synopsis

Exploring the fallout of MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini’s startling discovery that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces accurately and her journey to push for the first-ever legislation in the U.S. to govern against bias in the algorithms that impact us all. Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2020 - US Documentary Competition - World premiere

Synopsis

A loving 16mm ode to Scottish poet and avant-garde filmmaker Margaret Tait. Artist filmmaker Luke Fowler circles her Orkney home surrounded by red tulips and buzzing insects, visits her films' locations, and zooms in on her notebooks of ideas. We also listen to Tait's poem 'Houses', about what it means to feel at home. Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2020 - Bright Futures - European premiere

Synopsis

The starting point for this video piece is an image of artist Maryam Jafri's sculpture 'Anxiety', that has been turned into a stock photo for licensing on a major photographic agency's website without the artist's prior knowledge or permission. A voiceover traces the work’s trajectory from a readymade sculpture for sale at an art fair to a stock photo for licensing online and finally, to a video commissioned by a Kunstahalle, a space meant to guarantee the autonomy of art. The work reflects upon the role of originality, artist labour and copyright in our culture of sampling and remixing. Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2020 -Bright Future

Synopsis

Once upon a time, the Venezuelan village of Congo Mirador was prosperous, alive with fisherman and poets. Now it is decaying and disintegrating - a small but prophetic reflection of Venezuela itself. Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2020 - World Cinema Documentary Competition - World premiere

Synopsis

A creative documentary about the relationship between fathers in prison and their children at home. In addition to the focus of presenting three incarcerated fathers, we gain insight into the changed lives of their families and children. As we become familiar with their daily lives, we witness the distance and even the closeness that grows between the inmates and their families. As a way of keeping contact, the inmates write fairy tales for their kids which we then make into films with the children playing the lead roles. The stories convey messages that the fathers have come to see as basic truths during the course of their own lives and believe are important to pass on. Within these stories, in the freedom created by fiction, father and child can be united once again.

Synopsis

A sociological meditation on the different "exits" that young Palestinians choose, in order to cope with life in the refugee camps. Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2020 - Bright Future - Ammodo Tiger Short Competition - World premiere

Synopsis

A monster film with no monsters. Inspired by the existence of taxonomies of monsters at the heart of Early Modern European science, the film explores and reinterprets a way of seeing the natural world that is almost impossible to imagine from today’s vantage point. Early Modern naturalists were guided by a logic in which scientific truths were discovered through visual analogy. The word ‘monster’ comes from the latin ‘monstrare’, meaning to show, to reveal, to demonstrate. A DEMONSTRATION picks up on these themes in a poetic exploration of the boundaries of sight and the metamorphosis of form. Official Selection Berlin International Film Festival 2020 - Berlinale Shorts - World premiere