Projects in genres: Woman Director

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When Madge Elliot complained about the announced closure of her local train station in Hawick, her mother told her to do something about it, and that’s just what she did. It’s Quicker By Hearse The Tale of the Petitioning Housewife, the Protesting Schoolboy and the Campaign Trail Student tells the story of Elliot who, together with her 11-year-old son Kim, Harry Brown the piper and Edinburgh University Railway Society president Bruce McCartney, marched to Downing Street to deliver a petition of 11,768 signatures on 18 December 1968. When final closure was penciled for January 7 1969, Madge and her campaign group continued their protest by posting a coffin on the last train to leave Hawick station and travel to London. The coffin was emblazoned with the words ‘Waverley Line – born 1848 killed 1969’ and was addressed to the then Minister of Transport Richard Marsh. This work investigates how the national changes recommended in the infamous Beeching report, titled The Reshaping of British Railways, impacted Elliot and her local community. Like Sir Walter Scott’s historical novel Waverley (the railway lines namesake), Elliot’s grassroots campaign raised questions of the need for social progress that does not reject the traditions of the past.

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A Japanese girl loses love and finds love in one day, on multicultural urban London street, Brick Lane.

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Ali stands out. He’s a soldier in uniform in a busy train station. He’s also one of the few British Muslims in the Armed Forces. Returning home from Afghanistan unexpectedly, he slowly adjusts to the suburban English surroundings and faces renewed tensions from his family and community.

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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).

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The lives of three men collide in a London toilet with unforeseen consequences - yet this could happen in 42 countries globally. It’s a ticking time bomb nobody wants to discuss. Will you...?

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The Devil’s Plantation is a haunting psychogeographic journey into the past; a search for the magic in ordinary places. In the 1980s archaeologist Harry Bell came to believe that Glasgow - a city built and re-built on over centuries - was laid out to a hidden design. For years he investigated the lost corners and invisible history of the landscape, plotting his 'Secret Geometry'. Unknown to Harry, psychiatric patient Mary Ross also wandered the city, visiting many of the same significant places. Her medical case file reveals a poignant quest to understand her troubled past and present. The Devil's Plantation unites the lives of these two strangers. By retracing their steps to complete the work Harry left unfinished at the time of his death, The Devil's Plantation tells a timeless story of how we all live.

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Richmond on Thames has two River Gods, identical reclining nudes in middle age, who pour the river waters out from urns. They are made of an artificial stone, Coade stone, developed at the end of the eigtheenth century to satisfy a demand for garden ornaments. This video celebrates their improbable dignity and resilience.

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A young boy quietly copes with his mother’s nervous breakdown, trying to stop her hurting them both as she drives towards the cliffs.

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When an Irishman, whose marriage is in crisis, travels to Singapore after the sudden death of his older brother, he soon becomes drawn into the life his dead brother left behind.

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Rosemary, a 65-year-old widow, is crippled by grief. In search of a remedy for her depression and insomnia, she ventures to a council estate to buy marijuana.

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When Salma, a young girl in South India, reached puberty, her parents locked her away. Millions of girls all over the world share the same fate. Twenty-five years later, Salma has fought her way back to the outside world to become the most famous female poet in South India.

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The Crash Reel tells the story of a sport and the risks that athletes face in reaching the pinnacle of their profession. This is Kevin Pearce’s story, a celebrated snowboarder who sustained a brain injury in a trick gone wrong and who now aims, against all the odds, to get back on the snow.