Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

Two Polish families in the UK discuss the experience of their migration. 19-year-old Ola came to UK to join her boyfriend. They both work hard and save money for the wedding. For 36 -year-old Kamila love is not enough anymore, but she has a safe life with an Englishman.

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Paula Rego is one of the most important living artists. She was the first artist in residence at the UK's National Gallery, has a public museum exclusively dedicated to her work and a Damehood from the Queen. And yet, despite over 30 books about her pictures, very little is known about her life. Now, at 81, she has agreed to tell her extraordinary story to her son, the filmmaker Nick Willing. The result is an incredibly intimate and personal account of her battles against the facist dictatorship in Portugal, the misogynistic art world in England, and her own demons of manic depression.

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Five years ago Kisilu, a Kenyan farmer, started to use his camera to capture the life of his family, his village and the damages of climate change. When a violent storm throws him and a Norwegian filmmaker together we see him transform from a father, to community leader to an activist on the global stage.

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Born in a violent and neglected favela community in Rio de Janeiro, Alan Duarte suffered immense personal tragedy. However, he dreams of finding salvation and building a better future for his son and his community through his boxing project.

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Two trans people and their journey to learning to love their bodies. A film about the effects hormones can have on your body as a trans person. Mainstream narratives often sensationalise the experiences of trans people with medical interventions, but this film explores the issue of hormones in more depth, in an honest, bold and vulnerable way.

Synopsis

Seventeen-year-old Ying Ling is away from home training to become a mortician at one of China’s largest funeral homes. Despite her fear of ghosts and dead bodies, she learns the spa rituals; cleaning and massaging the corpses while the grieving families look on. Ying Ling finds solace from her macabre role through her playful banter with another of the young morticians. Together, they spend their time off talking about their hopes, fears and plans for the future. As one of many rural-to-urban teenagers working to support her family, Ying Ling must immerse herself in the surreal and grinding world of China’s industrialisation of mortality. With intimate access and moments of humour, we follow Ying Ling as she learns about life while surrounded by death. Official Selection Berlinale 2017 - Generation 14plus - World premiere

Synopsis

‘Bo’ Gritz is one of America’s highest decorated Vietnam veterans and the alleged real life inspiration behind Rambo. He also killed 400 people, turned against Washington and moved to the Nevada desert where he now sleeps with many weapons. Filmed over ten years using impressive visual material, Zimmerman’s portrait of Bo embodies contemporary American society in all its dizzying complexity and contradictions. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2017 - Experimenta Strand

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An esoteric portrait of John 'Modge' Chancellor. An ex-tv star and red coat, living in the backwaters of the Suffolk countryside waiting for his time to shine once more.

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Frank wants to be a world champion. His chosen discipline? Competitive stone skimming. A tosser for as long as he can remember, Frank believes that with discipline, dedication and purposeful practice, he's sure for victory.

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SLEEPING IN PUBLIC is a new collaborative moving image commission, collaborating with writer Ellen Wilkinson for Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. Captured at night in Bristol, the video work shows details of empty spaces: functional but overlooked parts of the city that in daylight would be populated by people working. In these dark images people are distantly present: a blurry figure passes behind a semi-opaque loading bay door; chairs wait for sitters to return; discarded paper cups are lit by the blue flashes of an emergency siren; someone wearing a high visibility jacket pauses in the centre of a car park. The measured – perhaps weary – voice of the European narrator describes workers in a warehouse of artificial plants and flowers. Without a defined beginning and end, this looping video reflects the repetitive nature of the daily work that many of us do, depicting workplace hierarchies and the subtle ways in which people's behaviour is controlled.

Synopsis

A search for the truth behind a fishy tale. Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2017 - International Documentary Short Film Selection - World premiere

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In 1977, immigration divides Britain. What happens when a punk fanzine challenges the status quo? Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2017 - International Documentary Short Film Selection - World premiere