Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

A moving portrait of resilience chronicling the unprecedented journey of 24-year-old Tracy Edwards and the first all-female sailing crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World Race. The Whitbread Round the World Race (rechristened the Volvo Ocean Race in 2001) was considered an exclusively masculine endeavour when Edwards came along and, in the face of much sexist condescension, proved that skill, perseverance, and courage at sea know no gender. Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2018 - TIFF Docs - World premiere

Synopsis

Prolific director Werner Herzog’s candid conversations with the former Soviet head of state form the backbone of this illuminating documentary, co-directed by André Singer, on one of the 20th century’s most defining politicians. Across a six-month period, Werner Herzog conducted three interviews with Mikhail Gorbachev that are the foundation for this riveting film. Now 87, Gorbachev speaks like a man with nothing to lose. He is respected more outside Russia than inside, where he's blamed for the Soviet Union's breakup in 1991. He laments that "we didn't finish the job of democracy in Russia." And he worries that others took the wrong lessons from perestroika: "Americans think they won the Cold War and this went to their head. What victory?" Herzog applies his own unique perspective and narration to a deep archive of footage, often with his eye oriented toward the absurd. Other key eyewitnesses to this history from the US, Germany, Hungary, and Poland are also interviewed, building a personal and revealing picture of Gorbachev as a statesman and as a human. Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2018 - TIFF Docs

Synopsis

A genre redefining film starring the ultimate leading lady, Athena, an elephant matriarch who will do everything in her power to protect her family when they are forced to leave their waterhole. Narrated by Chiwetel Ejiofor, this epic story of love, loss and coming home is a timely love letter to a species that could be gone from our planet in a generation. Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2018 - TIFF Docs - World premiere Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2018 Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2019

Synopsis

On 12 February 2012, two journalists entered war-ravaged Syria. One of them was celebrated Sunday Times war correspondent, Marie Colvin. The other was photographer, Paul Conroy. Their aim was to cover the plight of Syrian civilians trapped in Homs, a city under siege and relentless military attack from the Syrian army. Only one of them returned. This feature length drama-documentary tells the epic story of what happened to Marie Colvin and Paul Conroy in Homs. One of the most dramatic stories yet to emerge from the Arab Spring, and the pivotal event in the tragedy of modern day Syria. A gripping account of bravery, heroism, and the triumph of the human spirit in the face of overwhelming and horrific adversity. The testimonies of those involved, woven together with never-before-seen archive footage and in the moment filming, goes deep into the intense, tragic drama of Conroy and Colvin’s journey into Homs and Conroy’s incredible escape from the city. A chilling, moment-by-moment, journey into the depths of hell. Based on the book “Under the Wire” by Paul Conroy

Synopsis

Mark Cousins' upcoming film project will be 16 hours when completed (in Spring 2019). The first four hours episodes are narrated by Tilda Swinton. The complete film will be made up of forty “chapters” to be narrated by Tilda Swinton and other key women in cinema. Following in the footsteps of Mark Cousins’ 'The Story of Film: An Odyssey', giving a guided tour of the art and craft of the movies. Using almost a thousand film extracts from thirteen decades and five continents, Cousins asks how films are made, shot and edited; how stories are shaped and how movies depict life, love, politics, humour and death, all through the compelling lens of some of the world’s greatest directors – all of them women. “Many films about cinema feature mostly male directors – 'Women Directing Film' challenges that. It tries to change the canon. It’s not about the lives of these great directors, it’s about their work. It is a film school, where all the teachers are female. The intention of this film is to, as Diaghilev and Cocteau said, “astonish us.” To campaign for equality in cinema is compellingly right and part of that campaign must be to celebrate the great women directors from around the world and from every decade, to insert them into the canon where they rightly belong and from which they have been excluded by many film historians, mostly male.” (Mark Cousins) “Cinema: the great empathy machine. The ultimate invitation to walk in other people’s shoes, to look through their eyes, follow their thoughts, make their connections. This is the radical project of cinema itself. It transforms - it liberates us as we watch. It makes us fit for evolution.” (Tilda Swinton) Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2018 - TIFF Docs

Synopsis

A feature documentary about Oscar Pistorius, the Paralympic and Olympic athlete who shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine’s Day in 2013, and whose culpable homicide sentence was later overturned and replaced with a murder conviction by the South African Court of Appeal in December 2015. The film explores the tragedy of Steenkamp’s death; alongside a look at South Africa’s turbulent society. Over twenty years after Nelson’s Mandela’s seeming triumph over adversity, the country, born out of the violence of apartheid, has so far been unable to overcome the profound damage inflicted upon it – mired in racial tensions, a culture of gun crime, corruption and violence – and failing institutions seemingly unable to resuscitate the dreams of a nation.

Synopsis

The Lebanese Civil War saw 170,000 dead, 1 million displaced and 17,000 people still missing. During the conflict thousands of teenagers picked up arms to fight. In 1990, the Taif agreement brought the war to a close, integrating warring parties into a power sharing government. With an amnesty pardoning all crimes against civilians and no plans to reintegrate militiamen back into society, many fighters became anonymous, silent and were left to disappear into a society ravaged by internal strife. Moving through the testimonies of Assad, a right wing Christian intelligence officer; Ahed, a Palestinian refugee fighter and Nassim, a Communist commander, About a War unpicks the personal motivations, trauma and regret of militiamen who picked up arms during the civil war. With no official account of the conflict, their testimonies build a multi-perspective picture of a crucial turning point in Lebanese history that radically transformed the Middle East. Nowadays, ex-fighters Ahed, Assad and Nassim work towards breaking cycles of violence among young people in Lebanon. While their own personal confessions delve deeper into issues of violence and politics in the Middle East, they also stand as a cautionary tale for a country that continues to be marred by inequality and sectarian divide.

Synopsis

AQUARELA takes audiences on a deeply cinematic journey through the transformative beauty and raw power of water. Filmed at a rare 96 frames-per-second, the film is a visceral wake-up call that humans are no match for the sheer force and capricious will of Earth’s most precious element. From the precarious frozen waters of Russia’s Lake Baikal to Miami in the throes of Hurricane Irma to Venezuela’s mighty Angels Falls, water is a AQUARELA's main character, with director Victor Kossakovsky capturing her many personalities in startling visual detail. Official Selection Venice Film Festival 2018 - Out of Competition - World premiere

Synopsis

The story about identity. A photograph of the filmmaker's husband from the time of his First Holy Communion at the end of 1950s in Poland became "the pretext", the beginning or the theme.

Synopsis

Following artist Bill Drummond over two years of his 12-year World Tour: At work in Kolkata, India, and in Lexington, North Carolina, doing his self-imposed 'work' – building beds, baking cakes, making soup, shining shoes – to the variously amused, perplexed or annoyed reactions of those around him.

Synopsis

An odyssey across a common land in the south of England told through the hands of the members of the Natural History Society who currently occupy it.

Synopsis

What does it take to change a child’s life? 'H is for Harry' is a coming of age story about Harry, a charismatic 11-year old boy, who arrives at secondary school in suburban London unable to read or write. With the help of Sophie, his extremely dedicated teacher, can he overcome the illiteracy ingrained across generations of his family? Against the backdrop of a Britain riven with debates around class, identity and social mobility, the film follows Harry over two years as he fights not only to improve academically but also to believe in a different future for himself.