WITH THESE HANDS shares challenging, complex and under-discussed stories of sexual assault and recovery. It explores the role of listening in the recovery of both survivors and those responsible for sexual harm. WTH is made in collaboration with contributing artists and in consultation with survivor-run organisation SLEEC.
In time for the twenty five year anniversary and cinema re-release in February 2023 of James Cameron’s Titanic, actress-turned-filmmaker Alexandra Boyd reconnects with actors she worked with on one of the last epic Hollywood blockbusters. Reading from diaries she asked them to write in 1997, they share untold memories of auditions, life on set and what it has been like to be a small part of the biggest movie of all time. Their stories intertwine with interviews with super fans talking about their obsession and deep love for the film as Alexandra seeks to find out why this film has captivated so many minds, hearts and imaginations for so many years.
THE ROAD OF EXCESS is a film about mental health, addiction, toxic masculinity, and the loss of fame through the eyes of ex-Dirty Sanchez star Matt Pritchard. Dirty Sanchez was a Welsh “Jackass” that was one of MTV Europe’s most popular shows in the early ’00s. After its end, Matt fell into darker times. Through the stories shared with his co-stars, his mother and his best friend, we learn about the fallout they suffered. From mental health issues such as depression to substance addiction and then more physical conditions. Dealing with these demons Matt exchanged one addiction for another, endurance sports. Each time the challenge has to be bigger and at the end of 2020 he decides to join a team to row across the Atlantic. THE ROAD OF EXCESS parallels Matt’s rise and fall with the arc of this row. Will fifty days at sea, rowing two hours on and two hours off help him find peace? He doesn't know why but since signing up it is all he dreams of. What will this latest expedition teach him? Will he find balance? Or has losing himself meant his journey will never end?
British writer Devorah Baum has to go tour America with her first book – a guide to guilt, paranoia, self-hatred, envy, and all the other feelings currently tearing our world apart. With two small kids in tow, she is stressed out.
Surely her husband, Josh, can help? But the feelings laid bare in the book soon get played out between them, revealing how much remains stubbornly unreconstructed in our supposedly modern relationships.
A searingly honest marriage comedy on the cusp between autofiction and documentary, it's a love letter to New York, literary life, and, er, Zadie Smith.
A shy, Jamaican radio repairman, invents dub music, and becomes a modern musical legend and indelibly changing the way contemporary popular music is made and issued.
Two Peruvian shamans take their three teenage kids on a 1000-mile journey by camper van into the Amazon jungle. They are on a quest to find a better balance between their ancestral beliefs in the healing power of plants and the technological addictions of the modern world. But with the van and their marriage on the verge of breakdown, will they reach their destination before the family falls apart?
1967. A militant white supremacist government dominates South Africa. Apartheid laws are ruthlessly enforced. Organised opposition is destroyed. Mandela is in prison. Underground networks smashed.
In exile, ANC leader Oliver Tambo has a plan to re-organise a new underground. That will take time. Right now, he needs to get a message of hope to the oppressed millions inside South Africa.
Using apartheid’s prejudices against itself, he recruits white sympathisers from London to run underground missions into the heart of the racist state. He tasks Ronnie Kasrils, a charismatic young ANC fighter, with leading the London operation.
Ronnie’s recruits smuggle leaflets into the country to put in the mail. Through Joyce, a black journalist and ANC activist, we see leaflets reach individuals, but attempts to inspire a wider audience result in torture and imprisonment. No message of hope to millions.
In response, a secret propaganda weapon is invented – the leaflet bucket bomb. Despite dangers, Sean, Steve, Kathy and other young Londoners, volunteer to deploy them in South Africa. Spectacular explosions. Thousands of leaflets. No one is hurt and the message gets through. Success. Under pressure, Ronnie selects Sean for another mission. It’s a trap. Sean is now on death row.
Eye-witness testimony. Archive. Reconstruction.
What do a peak fitness racehorse and a traumatised ex-soldier have in common? Both have been taught to do one thing well, and both are hyper-vigilant, reacting to the smallest stimulus. This documentary follows two infantry ex-soldiers over two years, from their first encounter with the horses until they emerge with a new sense of who they are and who they can be.
At its heart, this is a film about how we can start again.
From a war against Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan to a legal battle in the UK, Marine A (w/t) details one of the most controversial events in the 20-year war on terror. On the 15th September 2011 an unarmed and wounded Taliban insurgent was shot in the chest by a British Royal Marine, who went on to tell his men that he “just broke the Geneva Convention”. With an exclusive interview with Alexander Blackman, known to most as Marine A, it reveals the story of that one day in Helmand. The 1x90’ feature documentary includes never seen before, recently recovered, combat footage, and many who have never spoken on camera before, Marine A takes audiences into the dark heart of those minutes in battle and the ensuing four-year legal campaign that his wife waged to set him free.
THE WILD ONES is a creative documentary exploring the power of wild swimming. Set against a backdrop of the Scottish landscape, it tells the stories of loss, trauma, and healing. The film shows that water can provide freedom, emotional fulfilment and allow people to feel at home in their skin. It reminds us that it is good to be alive.
Combining interviews and observational footage, we come to understand our characters’ struggles and the way wild swimming inspires each person to overcome them. Theirs are stories of grief, depression, anxiety, PTSD, body confidence issues, chronic pain and healing. Life-affirming and lyrical, THE WILD ONES captures the sheer exhilaration of swimming in cold, natural water.
