Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

Whitney Houston was the most awarded female recording artist of all time, with more consecutive number one hits than The Beatles, and on top of that she was America’s Sweetheart. Yet despite her fame, talent, and success, she died tragically at the age of 48. Featuring largely never-before-seen footage and recordings and interviews with some of her closest collaborators and friends, this moving documentary tells the story of the girl behind the voice, her extraordinary life and her tragic death. According to band members, “Can I Be Me” was her most used expression, so much so they sampled it and would play it at the start of rehearsals. Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2017 - Spotlight Documentrary - World premiere

Synopsis

A story about an extraordinary group of people who go to incredible lengths to save the planet’s last animals. The documentary follows the conservationists, scientists and activists battling poachers and transnational trafficking syndicates to protect elephants and rhinos from extinction. From Africa's front lines to behind the scenes of Asian markets, the film takes an intense look the global response to this slaughter and the desperate measures to genetically rescue the Northern White rhinos who are on the edge of extinction. Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2017 - Viewpoints - World premiere

Synopsis

A pre and post Brexit Mockumentary.

Synopsis

In 2017 housing rose to the top of the British political agenda for the first time in a generation. But despite the media spotlight, few stories examined the catastrophic long-term failures that resulted in a chronic shortage of social housing in the United Kingdom. This film seeks to explore the agenda behind the neglect, demolition and regeneration of council estates in the UK over the past thirty years. The film reveals how individuals and communities are fighting against the state and private developers, as they try to save their homes from demolition, while investigating the decisions that turned a crisis into a tragedy. The story of people who know that housing is not an expensive luxury, but a fundamental human right.

Synopsis

A black and white poetic journey into the legacy of Derek Jarman's life and the eerie landscape and nature of Dungeness, Kent, England. Project shot in 2010 and elaborated in the following years, with completion in 2017. Music Score by Cosmic Bird

Synopsis

A documentary chronicle of a rural landscape in transition, bearing witness to the struggles of three cattle farms to survive against the odds. For more than a year, starting in Spring 2015, film maker Mick Catmull followed farmers at work on 3 west Cornwall holdings, all less than 200 acres in size, filming every aspect of cattle rearing and recording often poignant conversations. In the last 10 years, more than a third of Britain’s small farms have vanished, unable to survive in a commercial world dominated by retail giants and modern agribusiness. The small farm has been a Cornish constant for countless generations. But for how much longer? Every year more small farms are broken up and sold off to large landowners, speculators and even city bankers wanting to try their luck at a bit of hobby farming.

Synopsis

A film created from the treasure trove of BFI archive. The story traverses a century of gay experiences, encompassing persecution and prosecution, injustice, love and desire, identity, secrets, forbidden encounters, sexual liberation and pride. The soundtrack weaves the lyrics and music of John Grant and Hercules & Love Affair with the images and guides us intimately into the relationships, desires, fears and expressions of gay men and women in the 20th century- a century of incredible change. Starting with the first gay relationship on film released in 1919, 'Different From the Others', this documentary offers a wealth of unknown newsreel and amateur film from the 20s and 30s, the sub textual references in 40s cinema, the arrests and prosecutions of gay men for ‘gross indecency’ in the 50s, the early gay rights marches and decriminalisation of the 60s and 70s, the campaigns for an equal age of consent and against section 28, the Pride movement and AIDS crisis in the 80s and 90s, the sexual liberation of the 00s queer and transgender scene and the chemsex, gay parenting and marriage campaign of recent years. Official Selection Sheffield Doc/Fest 2017 - World premiere

Synopsis

A meditation on a lost era and the regenerative power of the sea, this project grew out of the haunting photographs of Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen’s photography project 'The Coal Coast'. Following in the footsteps of Agnès Varda, the scattered clues of England’s post-industrial northern coastline lead to the vivid re-enacting of the death of a young coal miner Billy, by his workmate. The story inspired the New York-based percussion group So Percussion, who together with Amber created the film’s cathartic music.

Synopsis

Carne Ross was a government high flyer. A career diplomat who believed in Western Democracy. But working inside the system he came to see its failures, deceits and ulterior motives. He felt at first hand the corruption of power. After the Iraq war Carne became disillusioned, quit his job and started searching for answers. This film traces his journey across the globe as he tries to answer the question so many people today are asking themselves – isn’t there a better way? For Carne there is. Anarchism offers a solution to the brutalities of Capitalism and the dishonesties of Democracy. It offers a world where people have control over their own lives. From the protesters of Occupy Wall Street, to an anarchist collective in Spain, to Noam Chomsky, the grand old man of anarchism himself, Carne finds people who are putting the theory into practice. His journey eventually takes him to one of the most dangerous places on earth: Syria, eight kilometers from the front line with Isis, where a remarkable anarchist state has risen phoenix like from the flames. A powerful film about one man’s epic journey from government insider to anarchist.

Synopsis

How do we grieve? Why do we grieve? And why are we afraid of those that do grieve? Jane Harris and Jimmy Edmonds son Josh died in a road accident in Vietnam seven years ago. They are now on a road trip across the USA to meet other bereaved parents in search of some answers answers. What they find are stories of grief that refuse social expectations about moving on or letting go.

Synopsis

A rare insight into a community of Buddhist monks and nuns, who have given up all their possessions, left their homes, and parted with their life savings; for one common purpose - to master the art of mindful living under the guidance of the world-renowned Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh. With unprecedented access and filmed over three years in France and the USA, this intimate and meditative film reveals how this monastic community are transforming suffering within themselves and in those who they meet on their travels around the world. Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese monk Martin Luther King Jr. nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, is one of the most popular Zen Buddhist teachers of all time, and is widely acknowledged for introducing the concept of mindfulness to the western world. The film touches on the universal themes of belonging, love, loss, hope and death, relevant for not just Thich Nhat Hanh's monks and nuns but for us all. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2017 - Journey Strand

Synopsis

How much would you sacrifice to fight for what you believe in? An intimate and unique portrait of three people caught up in the chaotic and often violent development that is shaping modern-day Cambodia. Shot over 6 years, the film charts the growing wave of land-rights protests that led to the ‘Cambodian Spring’ and the tragic events that followed. This film is about the complexities – both political and personal, of fighting for what you believe in.