Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

Since the 1950's wireless signals have been banned in Green Bank to protect its radio telescope from interference. With no cell phones and no wifi, the small Appalachian town has attracted a number of people that claim to suffer from Electro Hypersensitivity seeking respite from the modern world. This is the story of the peculiar relationship between these people, the small town folk, and the massive radio telescope in the middle of it all, aimed at the sky above. Official Selection IDFA 2020 - Competition for Mid-Length Documentary - World premiere

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An exploration of mental health in the drag community, centred around NYC drag queen Blackie O.

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Haunted by the ghost of war, a stoic Syrian Barber is trying to build a home for himself and his family on a remote Scottish island. He must find a way to survive this new unfamiliar life and protect the memory of Syria for his young children. Official Selection Sheffield Doc/Fest 2021 - World premiere

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LOLA is about the break up of a family from the perspective of their beloved pet dog, an English Pointer named Lola. As the family teeter towards a breaking point, we’ll draw perspective on the modern domestic, the actuality of a failed marriage and the implications for the familial unit.

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A Ugandan mother tries to navigate her past traumas through participating in the country's first beauty pageant for plus-size women. Grierson British Documentary Awards 2020 - Winner - Best Student Documentary BAFTA Film Awards 2021 - Nomination - Best British Short Film

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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.

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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