Projects in genres: Climate / Environment

Synopsis

Robinson in Ruins is an account of a journey by a wandering, erratic scholar, through landscapes in the south of England. Its fictional narration begins: 'When a man called Robinson was released from Edgcott open prison, he made his way to the nearest city, and looked for somewhere to haunt'. Robinson ‘believed he could communicate with a network of non-human intelligences determined to preserve the possibility of life’s survival on the planet’ and ‘was equipped with an ancient ciné camera, with which he made images of his everyday surroundings’. He surveyed the centre of the island on which he was shipwrecked: 'The location,' he wrote, 'of a Great Malady, that I shall dispel, in the manner of Turner, by making picturesque views, on journeys to sites of scientific and historic interest.' The film consists of these views. The cinematography began in January 2008 and continued until November, just after the peak of that year’s global banking crisis. The film’s unplanned journey ‘rediscovers’ several locations associated with capitalism’s development since the 16th century and resistance to it. Vanessa Redgrave’s narration includes references to the deepening economic crisis, climate change and mass-extinction, but manages to reach an optimistic conclusion.

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In this short film, specially commissioned as part of the Royal Society’s 350th anniversary celebrations in 2010, Professor Uta Frith FRS and her young companion, Amalie Heath-Born, find out just what goes on inside our brains when we view the treasures on display at London’s world-famous Victoria and Albert Museum.

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'I don't know if you've ever heard a goat eating carrots? It's almost too much, it's so lovely'. The fascinating visually complex internal world of audio-visual synaesthesia is discussed, argued over, scientifically dissected and celebrated in this beautifully sensitive animated documentary.

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LONDON, 2024. Terror strikes at Heathrow Flight Control Tower. An unknown fault with the landing software has stranded nine planes over London. Onboard computers glitch as frantic Pilots radio in for emergency landing clearance. Fuel levels run low. Planes are in danger of crashing into each other. A race against time, our hero John Steel battles to prevent the impending catastrophe. The virus devours the Flight Control's network. Proving too powerful for John, Heathrow suffers a horrific air-traffic tragedy. But our hero is not that easily conquered. With the help of his top virus tech, Jack Beale, John sets out to destroy the virus. Imagine their surprise when they discover their nemesis AVATAR is a beautiful woman with a cruel-set sneer. In a dazzling array of skilled fighting, AVATAR gets straight to work making mincemeat of John and his team. Through a series of action packed encounters, John battles a seemingly unconquerable adversary. The story climaxes on the rooftop of Britain's tallest building, the Central Communications Tower. Running out of options, John finally discovers the solution to his problem.

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What happens when western anthropologists descend on the Amazon and make one of the last 'unacculturated tribes' on the planet, the Yanomami, the most exhaustively filmed and studied tribe on the planet? The film is an acute study of the clashing of these two tribes, the wars amongst them and uncovers the secrets that were buried.

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The simple movements of everyday reality on the New York subway are transformed into a choreography of fractured and fleeting impressions.

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This short film reflects on the swiftly shifting nature of the urban landscape, set in a working class area of South London that is currently being redeveloped and gentrified. This notebook film has no narration and depicts the architecture poetically in flux.

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The title Arrastre denotes a drag in dance terminology, but is also the name for a crude apparatus used for pulverizing ore. Between choreography and a purely mechanistic series of random actions, Arrastre is populated by unfamiliar objects that are the protagonists in a drama with unknown parameters and driven by obscure forces.

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Donor Unknown follows the story of Jo Ellen Marsh, 20, as she goes in search of the sperm donor father she only knows as Donor 150. Jo Ellen has always known her family 'wasn't like other families'. She grew up in Pennsylvania with two mothers, and a burning curiosity to know more about her anonymous donor father. When Jo Ellen discovers a unique online registry that connects donor-conceived children, she manages to track down a half-sister in New York. The New York Times picks up the story, and, over time, 12 more half-siblings emerge across the USA.   The New York Times article also falls into the hands of Jeffrey Harrison, living alone with four dogs and a pigeon in a broken-down RV in a Venice Beach car park. In the 1980s, Jeffrey supplemented his meagre income by becoming a sperm donor at California Cryobank. His number was Donor 150. Donor Unknown follows Jo Ellen from her discovery of her siblings, to the moment Jeffrey steps forward to identify himself as Donor 150, to her decision to travel to California to meet him.

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The story of a woman who gets lost every day of her life, in the streets she’s lived in for 20 years, even in her own house - when she wakes each morning, her walls seem to have moved overnight. Her world becomes different in the blink of an eye.

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Cangleska Wakan discusses the 'sacred hoop' of the Sioux Lakota with discussions from powerful and respected contributors on Indian reservations in South Dakota.

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A man finds himself trapped in a labyrinth of alleyways and must navigate his way to freedom. He is accosted by strange and terrifying figures. A young heroine steps in and saves him from a Cyclops, and a large ball like object chases them along a post apocalyptic tale of being lost in time and space.