Projects in genres: Experimental

Synopsis

Whilst leading an expedition to Africa, anthropologist Leonard Orlov (Hugh Bonneville) discovers a feral child living a brutal and primitive existence. Horrified, he brings the creature back to Victorian London, intent on civilizing the child, only to encounter evil freak show host, Umberto Farini (Andy Serkis).

Synopsis

A journey behind closed eyelids. Tokyo Dreams is a short Zen-like film about sleeping commuters on the Tokyo subway. Shooting without the knowledge of his subjects, director Nicholas Barker contemplates the stillness and vulnerability of his fellow passengers and wonders whether they will wake in time for their stop… In a departure from candid filmmaking, Tokyo Dreams deploys a highly formal ‘photographic’ film style and extremely high production values.

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Downfall follows Rob, a recovering car crash victim who has developed special abilities since his near-fatal underwater car accident. He goes to see an old friend, Nick but ends up seeing more than he would of wished for...

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Two filmmakers challenge themselves to get from London to Edinburgh with only their thumbs to guide them.They find most of their time is spent in a limbo of service stations and grassy verges. The drivers who are more game, however, offer insight into a country with a forever shifting landscape.

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An exploration of the mystical subconscious rituals that govern our lives and bind us or drive us apart. As constant and as intangible as the seasons of the earth; that ebb and flow like the tide; that nourish like a mother and torment like an unseen demon

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Lost and found images combined through systematic obscuration trigger suggestion and memories in distant locations.

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A building which has stood since the fourteenth century, and a strange attempt at preservation. Light falls into the dark interior, illuminating it directly and by reflection; the decay of the building offers views out. Ancient and modern structures interact as the sun works its way round each day.

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23 August 2008 consists of two shots. A brief opening shot, intercut with inter-titles, of the famous Al-Mutanabbi Street book market in Baghdad is followed by an unbroken eighteen-minute monologue, shot from a single, still camera position and simply recording the speaker’s words without interruption. In it, Faysal Abudullah gradually builds a portrait of his relationship with his younger brother, Kamel, and in the process evokes the lives of Iraqi intellectuals of the left, driven into exile in the early 1980s by Saddam Hussein’s regime. Faysal describes Kamel’s decision to return to Iraq in 2003, his work for the new Ministry of Culture and his tragic death at the hands of unknown assassins on 23 August 2008. While the film throws light on little known aspects of Iraq’s political history, primarily it is the story of the two brothers, of Faysal’s devotion to Kamel and their contrasting attitudes to exile and to life itself.

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A World Assembled represents Toby Tatum's creation of an improbable realm, stitched together from a kit of warring elements into a fantastic whole.

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In the industrial hinterland of England, Benjamin encounters a girl. Arcadian and beautiful, she offers escape from his lonely, repetitive life. But is she human? And does she even exist? Arterial is a short fantasy film inspired by the John Keats poem La Belle Dame Sans Merci.

Synopsis

Scenes appropriated from Antonioni’s famous film L’Avventura are centred on Monica Vitti as the central subject. The constant alternating positive and negative image appears to vary with the percussive sound of Gamelan music.

Synopsis

Dummy Jim is playfully adapted from the little-known journal 'I Cycled Into The Arctic Circle' (1951) by profoundly deaf cyclist James Duthie, who one day set off alone on his bicycle from a village in Scotland, bound for Morocco. How did he end up in the Arctic Circle? Led by deaf actor Samuel Dore on an increasingly bizarre 6000 mile journey, this eccentric road movie mixes documentary, fiction and animation. Killed on the road in '65, the film memorializes a quiet, determined maverick whilst offering an honest insight into his community, with village inhabitants emerging as creative participants and performers.