Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

Between 2011 and 2015 UK adventurer Sarah Outen traversed the globe. For her expedition London2London: Via The World, Sarah was the engine, travelling by bike, kayak and rowing boat across Europe and Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America and finally the Atlantic.

Sarah’s incredible four-year odyssey saw her travel over 20,000 miles. As she migrated between cultures, climates and landscapes under her own power, Sarah’s inspirational voyage was followed by thousands, hooked on her infectious humour and love of life.

But travelling mostly solo, the trip took its toll, and the punishing elements, ticking clock and months of solitude pushed Sarah to the physical and mental brink. Woven out of hundreds of hours of footage from the expedition, Home intimately and unflinchingly captures Sarah’s journey: the kindness of strangers, the wonders of the wild, the savagery of the elements, the near-death experiences, the demons of her emotional trauma and PTSD, and her discovery of love for a farmer called Lucy.

Home is a story of heart and soul, of hardship and joy, and one woman’s trek towards true emotional acceptance.

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A real life "superhero", a YouTuber and a camgirl explain why they choose to share -or hide- their chronic illnesses online. When you're too ill for IRL, where do you turn?

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An elderly couple search for Ausfahrt; a place they have only seen on signposts.

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11-year-old Andre and his story about his inspiration to pursue a ballet career in a one long take short film.

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Ed Accura is a black British man who develops phobia with water, and as a result wears a lifejacket everywhere he goes. Ed is torn between his friends encouraging him to learn how to swim and society dramatically dampening his confidence with stereotypes on black people and their inability to swim.

Synopsis

A visionary, innovator and originator who defied categorization and embodied the word cool: a foray into the life and career of musical and cultural icon Miles Davis.
Using words from Miles Davis' autobiography, this film offers an incisive insight into our understanding of the legendary musician. Newly released archival material, alongside interviews with pre-eminent historians and personal friends like Quincy Jones, illustrate a man of intensity and devotion to his craft. Despite the indignities of America during the time of segregation, nothing was going to stop Davis from realising his dream: to create a new form of musical expression. Davis worked like a physicist with his collaborators to push musical experimentation and widen the tones and lyricism of jazz - the effects of which are felt to this day.
Delving into his past loves, personal relationships and addictions, a clearer portrait of Davis the man emerges. Davis is fearless and engaging throughout, and his intellectual fervor is only tempered by his insecurities. Director Stanley Nelson’s epic biopic collects the strands of a creative life and weaves them together for us to understand one of the great modern American artists like never before.
Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2019 - Documentary Premieres - World premiere
Official Selection Hot Docs 2019 - Special Presentations
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2019 - Create Strand

Synopsis

When allegations of sexual abuse by Michael Jackson involving young boys surfaced in 1993, many found it hard to believe that the King of Pop could be guilty of such unspeakable acts.
In separate but parallel stories, James Safechuck (10) and Wade Robson (7) were each befriended by Jackson, who invited them into his singular, fairy-tale world as his career reached its peak. Their families were unaware of the manipulation and abuse he would subject the boys to over a period of years.
Through gut-wrenching interviews with the now-adult men and their families, LEAVING NEVERLAND crafts a portrait of sustained exploitation, deception and the complicated feelings that led both men to confront their abuse only once they each had had a young son of their own.
Playing out against the backdrop of our collective experience, the film documents the value of breaking a long-held silence, even when it implicates a powerful, revered figure.
Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2019 - Special Events programme - World premiere

Synopsis

A story of enduring love between Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse Marianne Ihlen. The film follows their relationship from the early days on the idyllic Greek island of Hydra in 1960 as part of a bohemian community of foreign artists, writers, and musicians, a time of ‘free love’ and open marriage; observing how their love evolved when Leonard became a successful musician.
Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2019 - Documentary Premieres - World premiere

Synopsis

The inside story of the meteoric rise and monstrous fall of movie titan Harvey Weinstein, revealing how Weinstein acquired and deployed his formidable power over the course of decades. Former staffers, college friends and reporters acknowledge the visionary qualities and brilliance of the man, while reflecting upon his ruthless attempts to preserve his power as scandal threatened to engulf him. In candid, emotional, often harrowing testimony - with many accusers speaking on camera for the first time - the documentary exhumes both the method and the collateral damage of Weinstein’s alleged abuse. As the criminal case against him continues, the film questions whether meaningful change in the justice system - and in the film industry - is really possible.
Director Ursula Macfarlane crafts a sinister cinematic landscape exposing the underbelly of the storied Hollywood fairy tale... creating a brilliant, haunting parable for our times and a beacon call for future generations. (Sundance Brochure)
Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2019 - Documentary Premieres - World premiere

Synopsis

A film sixteen thousand splices in the making. E-TICKET is a frantic (re)cataloguing of a personal archive and an opportunity for rebirth to forgotten images. 35mm photo negatives and moving pictures (taken during the artist's formative years) are obsessively cut apart, reshuffled then tape spliced together inch by inch in rigid increments. Fragmented views swipe between a school trip to India then culminate with a protest of a 2005 World Trade Organization summit in Hong Kong. My photographs may have all be cut up and mixed around, but at least they’re all in one place now. A retelling of Dante's Inferno for the streaming age; a freedom of movement reserved for the modern cloud.
Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2019 - Tiger Short Competition
Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2020 - New Frontier Shorts Program

Synopsis

A documentary that goes beneath the surface of our favourite films, seeking to better understand the way we view love, relationships and romance. From 'It Happened One Night' to 'Runaway Bride', from clumsy meet cutes to rain-soaked declarations of love, these films reflect our experiences but are often just as problematic as they are comforting.
They're hugely successful and deeply loved by many, but - being frequently dismissed as guilty pleasures - they have often avoided critical analysis. Helped by a diverse chorus of critics, actors and filmmakers, and with original songs by her band Summer Camp, director Elizabeth Sankey embarks on a journey of investigation and self-discovery.
Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2019 - Voices - World premiere
Official Selection SXSW 2019

Synopsis

A journey of relationships between women.
When society refuses to hear them, the Birangona, heroines of the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh, hold closely to tell their stories to each other and the next generation to understand their identity. To never forget how as women they have refused to be diminished as they have tried to heal and overcome the ravages of conflict, violence and prejudice. To create the future with the power of unconditional love.