Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

A forensic documentary telling the story of Operation Ajax, the CIA/MI6 staged coup in 1953 in Iran that overthrew Prime Minister Mossadegh.
Official Selection Telluride Film Festival 2019 - World premiere
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2019 - Documentary Competition - International premiere

Synopsis

Under Paris' glittering Eiffel Tower, illegal Senegalese migrants sell miniature souvenirs of the monument to support their families back home. Far from their loved ones and hounded by the police, each day is a struggle through darkness in the City of Lights.

Synopsis

"To act is to begin something new" said Hannah Arendt, one of the greatest thinkers of all time. Arendt, who passed away in 1975, coined the concept of the ‘banality of evil’. This documentary attempts to explore the thinking processes and mechanisms of activism and risky thoughts, unravelling some of the reasons why Trump, Le Pen and others have captured people’s imaginations by reviving past ideologies.
Your guide in this adventurous journey is the alternative educator Nelly Ben Hayoun, who armed with puppets and dressed as Hannah Arendt, teases the greatest thinkers of our age whilst challenging them to an impossible pursuit; the search of the origins of knowledge. Featuring contributions from political activist Noam Chomsky, Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Hannah Arendt’s students: Arjun Appadurai and Leon Botstein, nonsense-artist Novbumichi Tosa of Maywa Denki, robot maker Hiroshi Ishiguro, Japanese Living National Treasures: Bunraku puppeteer – Kanjuro Kiritake II and Noh Theatre master – Hisa Uzawa, former Lord Mayor of Sheffield Magid Magid, cyborg artist Neil Harbisson and more.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2019 - Documentary Competition - World premiere

Synopsis

An intergenerational film that traverses the relationship between my grandmother (Raji) and my mother (Aruna), during challenging times. As Raji struggles to fight her hallucinatory demons, Aruna attempts to embrace her world.

Synopsis

An animated documentary about the precarious lives of African immigrants seeking their fortunes in Guangzhou, China - the centre of a booming global trade in counterfeit goods.

Synopsis

Released in 1974, Changin' Times was an extraordinary album recorded in extraordinary circumstances. This was the first-ever commercial album recorded inside a prison. The artist's name was Ike White and he was locked up from the age of 19, serving life for murder. His journey from prison to industry adulation to freedom is one of the greatest stories never told. On the cusp of stardom, Ike slipped out of the limelight, changed his name, and disappeared. This is his story.

Synopsis

As told through clips from 183 female directors, this epic revisionist history of the cinema focuses on women’s integral role in the development of film art.
Using almost a thousand film extracts from thirteen decades and five continents, Mark Cousins asks how films are made, shot and edited; how stories are shaped and how movies depict life, love, politics, humour and death, all through the compelling lens of some of the world’s greatest filmmakers – all of them women.
Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2018 - TIFF Docs - World premiere

Synopsis

'Answered Prayers' was meant to be Truman Capote's greatest masterpiece, an epic portrait of NYC's glittering jet-set society. Instead, it sparked his downfall. Through never before heard audio archive and interviews with Capote's friends and enemies, this intimate documentary reveals the rise and fall of America's most iconic gay writer.
Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2019 - TIFF Docs - World premiere

Synopsis

CLOUDBERRIES was filmed in Arctic Russia in a village near an offshore gas field. The narrator is 'just visiting’, with villagers including the last Sámi. Sounds of the sea, wildlife, a music festival, a choir, and an abandoned school house accompany the filmmaker until she finally sets out to sea.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2019 - Experimenta Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

EVERYBODY FLIES discloses the never-before-seen documentation, scientific facts, and personal testimonies relating to the controversial issue of cabin air quality. With more than 18 years of research into the topic, filmmaker Tristan Loraine addresses a question not many passengers ever consider: ‘Is the air we breathe on a plane safe?’

Synopsis

Nicola, a successful actor, agrees to play Lucio Fulci in a biopic dedicated to the director. The actor begins a journey to discover Fulci man, so that he can interpret it in the best way. He will meet his daughters, friends, collaborators of the director, and the most profound scholars of Fulci's work. He will have access to new and unseen materials.
Nicola, divided between the preparation of the film and the study of the character, will deeply question the true nature of a man who, already in life, had rewritten his biography.
A biography in which myth, creation and legend have rewritten an exhilarating and dramatic life.

Synopsis

The story of whisky has been told many times. But this film takes a different view, showing how it has been shaped by geology and climate, by tales told on the side of the road and in the corners of pubs. Whisky is a product of folklore and myth, of music and alchemy, of chance rather than design. This is the twisting, shifting and multi-layered tale.
In this journey through the lesser-known parts of Scottish whisky culture, we follow spirits writer Dave Broom on his quest to gain a deeper understanding of his national drink. While whisky has never been as popular, it is often seen in the context of being a brand which sits outside people’s lives. It’s often thought of as a drink which speaks of the past rather than engaged with a dynamic present.
Dave has been writing about spirits for over thirty years, but whisky is his particular passion and a subject on which he has many strong opinions. This film traces his journey back to the roots of whisky and show how it is an integral part of a wider Scottish culture, rather than just a product.