Projects in categories: Documentary and with status: Post-production

Synopsis

An atmospheric journey into the heart of modern England. Filmmaker Louis Price weaves together scenes of everyday life within the Black Country in the West Midlands. An area once so industrialised the sky appeared black during the day, and red during the night, today the Black Country is a place of ghosts, existing in the aftermath of its industrial past. BLACK COUNTRY - A FILM FROM ENGLAND takes place entirely in one day, observing crematoriums, night clubs, UKIP pubs, living rooms and Council Chambers with a hallucinatory eye that presents no easy answers, or neat narrative resolves. Mixing a combination of industrial archive footage, experimental sound design (wax cylinder recordings, player piano, distorted 78 RPM records), with stripped back austere camera compositions and mysterious, mundane and sometimes unsettling subjects, a distorted postcard from a confused and increasingly indecipherable England.

Synopsis

An English photographer looks back at his latest assignment: a reportage on Father Renato Chiera an Italian missionary working with children in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Mixing documentary and narrative DEAR CHILD tells the stories of teenagers caught up in drug trafficking, and their attempt to change their lives. It is a poetic film about the fight of a community against violence, poverty and despair. It is a film about love.

Synopsis

The KLF (the “Kopyright Liberation Front”) was one of the biggest British music acts of the 90s, and for a period, the biggest selling singles act in the world. Bizarrely, they achieved global success from a damp squat in south London, and ultimately burnt most of their profits (1 million quid) in a legendary act of nihilism on a remote Scottish island. The explosive artistic partnership of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty is utterly unique in the history of music and art and continues to inspire artists and audiences the world over. But due to their secrecy and distaste for the press, the story of the KLF’s meteoric rise, epic self-destruction and dark exile, has never been told in their own words. Until now.

Synopsis

A heart-warming story about two marathon runners in Sierra Leone: Idrissa Kargbo and the country’s champion runner Mamie Konneh-Lahun. Their only sponsor is Jo Dunlop, an Australian aid worker with a big personality, and a passion for supporting the Sierra Leone’s young athletic talent. Jo’s dream is to get Idrissa and Mamie to as many high profile national and international competitions as she can. Though tragically, during the course of the film, Mamie defects after coming 20th in the London Marathon, leaving Jo and Idrissa heartbroken. Over 18 months of races, Jo and Idrissa formed a unique and touching friendship with the shared dream of bringing a story of positivity and hope to a country still struggling to recover from the devastating effects of the civil war. But their journey has been far from smooth; from near-hypothermia to malaria, death-threats and corruption, and an Ebola outbreak which affects them all, Idrissa and Jo have had to ght to keep their dream alive. And of course united in their hope for Mamie’s return. Through these stories, the film offers an intimate glimpse into life in Sierra Leone, which vibrantly features as a character in its own right.

Synopsis

An expansive journey through the Kazakh steppe, this film piece seeks to excavate layers of myth, history and geology to reveal the shifting fault lines between a government, its people and their land. The film brings into focus Kazakhstan’s search for a post-Soviet identity and a state-sponsored programme of cultural production that on the one hand connects back to the ancient folklore and belief systems of the Silk Road, while on the other, seeks to embrace the values of Western capitalism. Adopting an experimental documentary form, On A Clear Day provides a meditative faux observational film about the continual process of construction involved in nationhood and national identity. Shot on 16mm, the camera is drawn across the terrain of Eastern Kazakhstan through a series of encounters that offer a translation of a reality within the challenging social and political context of Kazakhstan. The Kazakh steppe creates a rhythm for the film as the vast terrain forms the conditions for each encounter with locations including the Bogatyr open quarry, Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, Ekibastuz generating station and the newly constructed city of Nur-Sultan. De-literalised through the use of constructed as well as un-orchestrated scenes; the film attempts to apprehend truths. Its facts, however, are always based on fictions - the ancient myths and folklore of Kazakhstan itself.

Synopsis

When the Calais Jungle was ignored and condemned by authorities, ordinary people stepped in to support the refugees. This is the untold story of the volunteers and those they tried to help. ON OUR DOORSTEP delves deep into an aspect of the refugee crisis that rarely reached the press. With NGOs being blocked by red tape and the absence of any positive action by French or British authorities, the film is a behind-the-scenes look at the unprecedented grassroots movement that rose to aid the refugees in Calais, and the community that sprang up there, before it was forcefully demolished. This is the story of what happens when young and inexperienced citizens are forced to devise systems and structures to support 10,000 refugees; and are left unguided to face the moral and emotional conflicts, blurred lines and frequent grey areas of giving aid to vulnerable people. People who do not want to be there. Originally arriving at the Calais Jungle as a volunteer, Thomas Laurance ended up documenting what he saw over the year he spent there, until the camp’s destruction in October 2016. This film is the result of the remarkable and intimate access he gained to both volunteers and refugees.

Synopsis

Every year cowboys travel from all over the American West to share their poetry at cowboy poetry gatherings.

Synopsis

14 Women, 3000 Nautical Miles, X Trillion Pieces of Plastic. X TRILLION is a film about an all-woman crew who sailed 3000 nautical miles to one of the most remote places on Earth - the North Pacific Gyre or the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The aim was to research the densest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world. It was a journey that promised to change not only their lives but the very future of our planet. Director Eleanor Church was part of a team of 14 women from around the world - from scientists to packaging designers, engineers, teachers, artists and more - each one looking and learning about this issue from a very different perspective. This was eXXpedition's 10th voyage. The crew spent three weeks sailing through the middle of this gyre, collecting scientific data for international research projects with a focus on how these trillions of pieces of micro plastics are impacting human, and particularly women’s, health. This is a story of hope, filled with life, magic and a call to action that burns with optimism.

Synopsis

iHuman is a political thriller about artificial intelligence, power and social control. From the inside of the booming AI-industry this film shows how the most powerful and far-reaching technology of our time is changing our lives, our society and our future. iHuman follows pioneers at the frontline of the invisible AI-revolution to see how this technology is developed and implemented. Through some of the brightest minds in the AI-industry iHuman draws the roadmap to where we are going. How does AI impact who we are? iHuman shows a growing conflict in the tech world and investigates the consequences of the power concentration of the multi-billion-dollar AI-industry. The film explores the need for international standards and regulations for the development and implementation of AI and asks if it possible to regulate AI. What is coming our way? At this turning point in history, what goals and values do we program into our AI systems? What is at stake? Who punches in what codes for our future? iHuman is made for both theatrical and broadcast release. With strong character-driven stories this film is made to entertain and inform a wide international audience about the impact of the most powerful technology of our time.

Synopsis

Accused of killing her new-born baby, young mother Ashley Ard is going on trial for murder. But what really happened that winter night in Anchorage, Alaska? Alison Millar's probing documentary reveals the secrets and lies in a case that has gripped America.

Synopsis

A portmanteau documentary made by displaced Syrian filmmakers through workshops in Beirut, Amman and Istanbul. Each film is distinct, but what they have in common is their ability to surprise and move us with otherwise untold known stories told in a highly accessible and creative way, reminding us of the strains of exile and the resilience of the human spirit.

Synopsis

"Defeat isn't when you fall, but when you fail to get back up." The story of a former athlete’s painful breakdown and his comeback as a boxer.