An observation, investigation and social record of the lives and thoughts of ten residents of the Golden Lane Estate, London. Built in the late 1950s by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, the Golden Lane estate exemplifies an utopian ideal of social housing. This film documents the life of the complex over half a century since its construction and asks questions about domestic and private space and of making a home in such an iconic and distinctive architectural environment.
Drawing on references from archaeology, philosophy, mathematics and ritual, Ultimate Substance departs from the hypothesis that the introduction of coinage in the ancient Greek world effected a profound cognitive shift that was key to the emergence of western philosophic, scientific and dramatic traditions.
'Piercing Brightness' is a science fiction film directed by internationally acclaimed artist Shezad Dawood and set in Preston, Lancashire. The film looks to play on the border between mainstream narrative cinema and experimental film making and utilises science fiction as a backdrop from which to contest fixed notions of race, migration and identity. The film combines digital and analogue processes, high production values and low-fi aesthetics to tell a story through both its narrative and distortions of time brought about by experiments with the various formats used. It incorporates local institutions and people as extended cast, in a process whereby there is a slippage between fiction and document.
Jiang and Shin, agents who have been dispatched from the home planets, land in a spaceship outside Preston, in the North of England. In the guise of a young Chinese boy and girl they are to re-establish contact and effect the retrieval of the 'Glorious 100', agents who were sent to this planet millennia ago to study and observe. Living through countless lives without any scope for return, many have become corrupted, forgetting their original purpose and slowly becoming influenced by and in turn influencing their adopted home.
3 Continents, 4 barbers, 1 story... The Fade is an intimate portrait of four barbers across the world over a week in their lives. The observational documentary reveals a portrait of their lives and shines a light on the profession barbering. Set in Ghana,Jamaica, USA and the UK the film interweaves their stories and examines the polarized opposites of the locations. Creating an international dialog of the colorful lives of four men who do they same thing in different time zones, with very different realities.
We are responsible for our dreams. This is the ultimate lesson of psychoanalysis – and fiction cinema. The makers of THE PERVERT'S GUIDE TO CINEMA return with THE PERVERT'S GUIDE IDEOLOGY. Philosopher and public intellectual Slavoj Zizek, and filmmaker Sophie Fiennes use their inventive interpretation of moving pictures to present a compelling cinematic journey into the heart of ideology – the dreams and collective beliefs that shape our political, social and cultural life.
Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2012 - World premiere
Inspired by the story of real-life identical twin dancers Michael and Jeremy Hodges, DOUBLE TAKE is a story of sibling rivalry and aging bodies. Part drama, part-documentary, the film plots the twins' journey to reconnect with each other after a lifetime apart.
Danielle is Eris; goddess of Strife in the Greek pantheon. She is a foster child, teen mother, victim of violence at home and from the state. This is a portrait of a life currently being lived. This film examines the nature of Strife in 21st century Britain.
Colin, a man beaten by failures, is forced to face his fears when they appear to him as variations of himself. In a tense, drug-fueled crisis of confidence, will he come through it a stronger man, or will his demons get the better of him?
Grandmother is a Crab borrows from an earlier digital video, made fifteen years ago, that itself used footage captured from a travel advertisement on television. Black and white, and mirror effects, take the image out of time, giving it both vividness and distance. The music is played in reverse. And the voice-over and under-titles are a poem that re-enters the magic world of a child on a beach.
Happy Returns
I bought a scrapbook collection of one woman’s Birthday cards from a house clearance shop a few years ago. She had only kept the cards from her children and grandchildren. It cost me £ 1.99.
The cards chronicle her life through changing design/slogans and written messages. I’ve bought things like this before and they just fill up my shelves.
A poetry film festival kick-started me into making a film using the scrapbook. I looked for a poem to base the cards around but couldn’t find anything suitable, so I tried to write my own.
