Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

The side of Silicon Valley you never see, a tale of how great vision and epic failure can change the world.
Spun out from Apple in 1990 to create the ‘next big thing’, the ideas that now dominate the tech industry and our day-to-day lives were born at General Magic. The first smartphones. Social media. E-commerce. Even the beloved emoji. But this was before the web, before 3G, before Google, before everyone had a mobile phone in their pocket. The world was not ready in 1994 to hold the world in its hands. And though General Magic died, those concepts and the people who pioneered them went on to change almost everything.
Combining rare archive footage with contemporary stories of the Magicians today, this documentary tracks the progress of anytime, anywhere communication from a thing of sci-fi fiction in 1994 to a reality in our pockets and on our wrists today.
With members of the original Mac team and the creators of the iPhone, Android, eBay and more, this is the story of one of history’s most talented teams and what happens when those who dream big fail, fail again, fail better and ultimately succeed.
Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2018 - Spotlight Documentary - World premiere

Synopsis

Soccer stars were at the centre of the scene in the glamorous nightlife meccas of 1980s Brazil. But in their midst Carlos Kaiser, one of the biggest sports celebrities of his generation harbored a secret: He had never played a single game.
Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2018 - World premiere

Synopsis

“My shows are about Sex, Drugs and Rock n’ Roll. It’s for the excitement and the goosebumps. I want heart attacks. I want ambulances.” (Alexander McQueen)
‘Lee’ Alexander McQueen’s rags-to-riches story is a modern-day fairy tale laced with the gothic. An unremarkable working-class boy from East London, he harnessed his demons and went on to become a global one man fashion brand and one of the most iconic artists of the century. How did this punk rebel overturn the silver-spoon world of Paris haute couture, ushering in the heady, revolutionary era of ‘Cool Britannia’? And why, at the height of acclaim and power, did he shockingly put an end to it all?
Mirroring the savage beauty, boldness and vivacity of his design, this film is an intimate revelation of McQueen’s own world, both tortured and inspired, which celebrates a radical and mesmerising genius of profound influence.
Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2018 - Spotlight Documentary - World premiere

Synopsis

In three small American towns, young men’s adolescent dreams intersect with the realities of their adulthood. Spanning nearly a decade, this searing documentary is a meditation on youth, tradition, and the evolving hopes and dreams of modern adolescents in the forgotten industrial towns across America.
Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2018 - Documentary Competition - World premiere

Synopsis

A cinematic hybrid film which tells the tragedy of Australia’s biggest offshore refugee detention centre against the backdrop of seemingly ordinary life on this remote island.
Christmas Island, home to the famous red crabs, itself is a protagonist and in its beautiful yet threatening landscape we witness past and present moments of chaotic human migrations, that play out in stark contrast to its own ancient rhythms. Through stories of the island's first human migrations and the natural phenomenon of the annual crab migration, we come to arrive at a darker side of this seemingly idyllic paradise. Hidden in the core of the jungle sits Australia’s biggest offshore refugee detention centre. It was built to not be seen, yet in this film every encounter takes us closer, every direction leads us there.
The crab migration comes to serve as an allegory for the natural movements of migration ancient and timeless. The natural spectacle sits in stark contrast to the chaotic human movements and entrapment that are senseless and absurd.
Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2018 - Documentary Competition - World premiere

Synopsis

Experience MY AFRICA, a virtual reality journey to Northern Kenya, where the futures of wildlife and people are intertwined. Stand in the midst of a thundering wildebeest migration, witness a lioness snatch her prey, go nose-to-trunk with an inquisitive baby elephant and meet a community dedicated to saving Africa’s wildlife.
Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2018 - World premiere

Synopsis

Discover the feeling of caring for an endangered baby elephant, in this groundbreaking VR project. Viewers are put in the shoes of a keeper at the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in Northern Kenya caring for the newest arrival, a baby elephant named Dudu.
Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2018 - World premiere

Synopsis

In Idaho’s rugged Treasure Valley, the Followers of Christ believe in God, family, and faith healing. As an investigation into the community’s high infant mortality rate closes in on the church, one patriarch fights for his right to his faith.
Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2018 - Documentary Competition - World premiere

Synopsis

Mark, a 60-year-old fledgling storm chaser recently diagnosed with lung cancer, sets out across the Midwest with his friend's nephew in search of tornado before the two month season comes to an end.
Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2018 - World premiere

Synopsis

A documentary about grand utopian dreams and stark concrete realities. The challenging, funny and sometimes tragic story of the British new town of Basildon, Essex.
An audiovisual journey through populated ruins, guided by the artists, musicians and poets of Basildon. Facing austerity, adversity and personal battles these people are driven by their creative spirit to help their community through art, poetry, music… and some rather angry puppets.

Synopsis

The Tate Gallery recently staged a retrospective of the surrealist Leonora Carrington (1917- 2011), famously the lover of Max Ernst. Novelist Chloe Aridjis, who knew the artist from her native Mexico, was made guest curator of the exhibition. Set between the real-life curation of the Tate show and something more fantasised, FEMALE HUMAN ANIMAL sees Chloe increasingly disappointed by her milieu - and increasingly haunted by Carrington’s strange artworks.
When an elusive, brooding man seems to offer more, Chloe begins to pursue him, but is she hunter, or hunted? Enabled by Carrington’s own defiantly mysterious mythology, she descends into a world of obsession.
Shot on a rare '80s video camera with a unique look, and deftly weaving fact and fiction, the film offers a darkly romantic fantasia of a woman who goes beyond societal norms, putting on screen the lurid unconscious of our new sexual politics.
Official Selection BAFICI Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival 2018 - World premiere

Synopsis

The pioneers enrolled in NASA's first female astronaut training program finally open up about their top-secret testing, which pitted them against the established boys' club of American astronauts of the 1950s.
Official Selection Hot Docs 2018 - International premeire