Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

A personal essay film centred on copla - a form of Spanish lyrical song which powerfully communicates emotions of sorrow and the profound sadness of woman. The film combines filmmaker Nina Danino's interest in the female voice with archive and newly filmed performances. The film sets out to look for copla and the women and singers of copla and on her own memory and experience of it. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2019 - Experimenta Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

Based on the book 'Lost Lives', which records every single death and its circumstances since the beginning of the modern conflict known as the Troubles in Northern Ireland, this heartfelt documentary is a cinematic homage to those, from all sides, who lost their lives. Powerfully narrated by famous Irish and Northern Irish actors, including Kenneth Branagh, Brendan Gleeson, Roma Downey, Liam Neeson, Bríd Brennan and Stephen Rea, the film weaves archive footage with recordings of family and friends responding to the devastating news of the death of loved ones. A score performed by the Ulster Orchestra and striking cinematography complete this elegiac piece. The last entry in the book is Lyra McKee, a journalist who was fatally shot in 2019 – an essential reminder that peace can be a fragile process. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2019 - Love Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

Ronnie Wood is a genuine, 24-carat rock star guitarist. He has paid his dues, played hard, lived fast (in every sense) and somehow survived to tell the tale. And tell it he does, in this revealing, biographical documentary, which charts Wood’s stellar and storied career. From his childhood and entry into the 1960s music scene, through to his time with the Jeff Beck Group, achieving fame with The Faces alongside bandmate Rod Stewart and finally becoming an indispensable and permanent member of The Rolling Stones, Figgis captures it all. Featuring terrific archive footage, along with candid interviews with a very charismatic Wood and his many legendary friends, this is the perfect rock and roll treat. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2019 - Create Strand - World premiere Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2020 - Spotlight Documentary

Synopsis

What if every memory that haunts you could be erased? What if something truly horrific had happened to you and the person who loves you most could wipe that from your mind? Would you want them to? This is the ethical dilemma that 18-year-old Marcus Lewis faced when his identical twin Alex awakened after a motorcycle accident and Marcus was the only person Alex recognised. With no memories at all, Alex relied entirely on his brother as he tried to understand who he was. Working from an autobiography by the twins, Perkins and the Lewis brothers craft a powerfully cinematic adaptation that helps the audience explore their incredible story and remarkable 35-year post-accident journey. It’s a profoundly moving examination of memory and trauma, personal responsibility and, ultimately, love. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2019 - Debate Strand - European premiere

Synopsis

How does a feather sound as it drifts through the air and how do you feel when you hear it? Are we really aware of the sensations and feelings that our bodies experience? These are just some of the questions TERTIARY SOUND asks. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2019 - Create Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

Beginning in Vienna where the filmmaker meets her father, David, whom she hasn’t seen since she was two. Through a mixture of onscreen text, sit down interviews and archival footage, David’s early life as a teenage activist in Northern Ireland is revealed. The film then travels to Belfast and segues into an impossible reconstruction of David’s early years. In and attempt to better know him, Garnett uses previously recorded audio interviews to skillfully craft a lip-synced, cross-gender performance where she impersonates the his youthful presence and casts a transgender actress in the role of his girlfriend. The film cycles through various camera modes – narrative vignettes on RED alongside handheld camcorder footage of contemporary Belfast street life mixed with these verbatim re-enactments – to create a fragmented account of a teenager struggling to find an identity in a rapidly deteriorating society, and the parallel struggle of a filmmaker to connect with her estranged father. The layers of texture in this film mirror the fractured lens of history, and point to the impossibility of filmmaking as a container for 'Truth'. In TROUBLE, cinema is a means of rebuilding family ties of highlighting the complexities of representation and the construction of identity. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2019 - Experimenta Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

Exploring how punk influenced politics in late-1970s Britain, when a group of artists united to take on the National Front, armed only with a fanzine and a love of music. Developed from Rubika Shah's short film WHITE RIOT: LONDON (Sundance 2017, Berlin 2017). Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2019 - Documentary Competition - World premiere Winner Grierson Award for Best Documentary, BFI London Film Festival 2019 Official Selection Berlin International Film Festival 2020 - Generation 14plus - International premiere

Synopsis

Chuck Berry was the absolute instigator of Rock and Roll. Despite his iconic status, and reverence for his talent by rock’s heroes including: John Lennon; Bruce Springsteen; Keith Richards; Steve Van Zandt; Joe Perry; Alice Cooper; Berry was a family man. He was a prolific craftsman of word and chords, an undisputed and stunning combination of talent and charisma. Award-winning Director and Producer Jon Brewer ('BB KING: THE LIFE OF RILEY, 'NAT KING COLE: AFRAID OF THE DARK), was personally selected by the Berry Estate to produce and direct this exclusive insight to the man known as the bedrock of Rock and Roll. Official Selection Nashville Film Festival 2019

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.