Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

Studio 54 was the epicenter of 70s hedonism--a place that not only redefined the nightclub, but also came to symbolize an entire era. Its co-owners, Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell, two friends from Brooklyn, seemed to come out of nowhere to suddenly preside over a new kind of New York society. Now, 39 years after the velvet rope was first slung across the club's hallowed threshold, a feature documentary tells the real story behind the greatest club of all time.
Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2018 - Doc Premieres - World premiere

Synopsis

Dame Vivienne Westwood: punk, icon, provocateur and one of the most influential originators in recent history. This is the first film to encompass the remarkable story of her life, her fashion, her activism and her cultural importance, as she fights to maintain her brand‘s integrity, her principles – and her legacy.
Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2018 - World Cinema Documentary Competition - World premiere

Synopsis

Drawn from a never before seen cache of personal footage compiled over the last 22 years, this is an intimate portrait of the Sri Lankan musician's remarkable journey from immigrant teenager in London to international popstar M.I.A., an artist who continues to shatter conventions.
Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2018 - World Cinema Documentary Competition - World premiere

Synopsis

“How can you be criminalised for being born the way you are?” asks George Montague, a 96 year old WWII veteran, beginning this documentary. His words echo through the film.
“ARE YOU PROUD?” meets key campaigners and investigates the organisations and events that have contributed to substantial progress within the western LGBTQ+ liberation movement, focussing on the history of Pride in the UK. It celebrates that progress, whilst exploring the controversial questions over the continuing relevance of the Pride march, and highlights the international battles still to be fought.
Combining archive footage, interviews, vox pops and reportage, the film guides us through the history of the Gay Pride movement in the UK. We meet founders of the Gay Liberation Front, founding members of Stonewall (The UK’s leading LGBTQ+ lobbying organisation), the organisers of various Pride marches across the UK, groups such as Black Pride, Trans Pride Brighton and Queer Picnic. The film celebrates the progress that has been made, we are also reminded of “the fact that there are an increasing number of people out there who feel emboldened in hating queers.”

Synopsis

British teenagers talk about all the "Big" words for approx one minute whilst being filmed against a blue screen, behind them either complementary or entertaining images are juxtaposed along with individual music tracks.

Synopsis

Everyone deserves their fifteen minutes of fame, but what would you say?
Young British people talk about all the "Big" words for around a minute whilst filmed against a blue/screen, behind them either complementary or entertaining images are juxtaposed, each segment also includes an individual original piece of music.

Synopsis

Poet Theophina Gabriel dispels the myth that black skin does not age - it's more complicated than that

Synopsis

The degradation of the environment is the main problem facing all of us. If that isn't enough, many people oppose action to save the environment or deny there is even a problem. Some of the most vocal and powerful of these people are conservative Christians in the USA.
Tri Robinson, a conservative evangelical pastor but also life-long environmentalist, has battled throughout his life to show that Christianity and environmentalism are not mutually exclusive. In fact, environmental stewardship is demanded by Christianity – “with dominion comes responsibility”.
Most environmental films are framed for a liberal audience and preach to the converted. This film addresses “unconverted” Christians, while offering liberal non-Christians a fascinating insight into evangelical values and mindset as Tri, at work on his ranch or church, builds up a Biblical case for environmentalism emphasising respect and responsibility that flies in the face of many on either side. This film is absolutely timely – the destruction of the environment is the most important issue facing all people, and many politicians and voters need to face it.

Synopsis

A documentary fiction work. Weaving together the lives of two men, this film draws upon their individual dealings with fire to expand across themes such as pyromania, anarchy, radicalism and enlightenment.
A film that gives voice to the anxiety and rage unleashed by Brexit Britain. With fire as the film’s central metaphor, artist Callum Hill welds together stories real and fictional, personal and political, to dwell on the contradictory impulse to destroy in the hope of progress. (Rotterdam brochure)
Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2019 - Bright Future - Tiger Shorts Competition

Synopsis

In the UK, euthanasia and assisted death is illegal. However, recent landmark cases have highlighted the issues surrounding assisted death and may be shifting public opinion in the direction of greater freedom. Yet it is one of the most challenging and complex debates of our time, with varied viewpoints presenting society with difficult questions, for which there are no easy answers.
In a world of idealised autonomy, legislation providing for assisted dying in the UK might, if ethically acceptable, not be risky. But we do not live in that world and there are wider implications to this most complex of issues.
The arguments, both for and against a change in the law are nothing if not complicated, but one thing is for sure, these legal challenges are not going to go away, and more people are taking advantage of Switzerland’s rather coarsely coined ‘suicide tourism.’ Whatever you conclude, however, these most recent legal challenges come nearly 20 years after the issue was first voted on in the House of Commons.

Synopsis

Based on documents found in Berlin archives, 'Four Parts of a Folding Screen' explores exclusion, statelessness and the legalised theft and sale of everyday family possessions by the National Socialist regime. A voice, enigmatic and sometimes uncertain, foretells of, relates and recalls the routine processes of injustice and their legacy: the creation of a diaspora of household objects, scattered amongst buildings that no longer exist. As the camera probes the secrets of ordinary spaces, streets and buildings around the city of Berlin, semblances of a person and a history begin to emerge and coalesce.
Official Selection Rotterdam International Film Festival 2018 - World premiere

Synopsis

A poetic documentary animation based on an anonymous online testimony of a Korean prostitute, exploring what it is like to be the subject of other people’s pleasure.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2018 - Lust to Love and in Between programme - World premiere
Official Selection Animafest Zagreb World Festival of Animated Film 2019 - Student Film Competition
Official Selection Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2019 - Graduation Short Film Competition