Projects in genres: Woman Director

Synopsis

Award-winning director Gurinder Chadha (Bend it Like Beckham) is back with a new heart-warming comedy about a hysterical Indian mum whose match-making efforts turn deadly when she tries to marry off her frumpy daughter.

Synopsis

At the start of the bitter Winter War the Soviet Red Army invaded Finnish-Karelia forcing thousands of civilians deep into Finland.

Teenagers Annikki, Inkeri and Hilkka left their families to drive cattle through deep snow and hostile lands. A lifetime later they look back on their adventures.
 

Synopsis

Nazir Ali Khan is an immigrant Indian professor at a university in Birmingham who lives with his wife and two children Saira, 17 and Asif, 14. Nazir shares a great relationship with his children and indulges their love for all things English, but has taken great pains to keep the link to home strong.

When his beloved daughter is found in an illicit relationship, Nazir is suddenly on the brink of a tough decision to make. Should he save face? Or save his daughter?

Synopsis

Set in today's London, in a modern Indian-Bengali doctors family. Manju's sudden death, throws Sanjay into rediscovering his relationship and the lives of his daughters. Grappling with devastating loss, missing the mediating role of his wife, Sanjay faces new crisis with the modern lives of each daughter, specially with Dia the youngest declaring her love for a Muslim boy - Imtiaz. Sanjay recollects his childhood and the trauma of Hindu Muslim riots during partition of Bengal. Finally he gets to know that his elder daughter is not his own. He reconciles as he realises nothing is perfect.

The shadow of Shakespeare's King Lear bears on this contemporary, free adaptation and works as a sub-text with Sanjay and Dia within the contours of Lear and Cordelia.

Synopsis

Little Matador  is a feature length documentary about children bullfighters in Mexico. Kids as young as eight are trained to kill bulls ten times their weight. The film follows three children who are fighting not just the bull but their own demons;

Michelito is ten. The adored child of a matador Dad, Michelito has killed over two hundred bulls. ‘Picasso was born to paint, Mozart to make music – and Michelito to be a matador,’ says Dad. Can Michelito fulfil his father’s dream to become the youngest matador in history?

Joel is nine. Neglected by his mum and step-father, he finds paternal love in the ring. Matador Ismael becomes Joel’s surrogate father and guardian angel. But if Ismael moves to Spain for his own career, what will happen to Joel?

Andrea is twelve. She started bullfighting when her father moved to America. Andrea has disowned her dad – who has found a new woman - and vows to save her mum from poverty by becoming a superstar bullfighter. But will Andrea ever get over her terrible nerves every time she enters the ring?

Little Matador is an extraordinary testimony to the lengths these kids will go to realise their dream.

Synopsis

After a tragic accident John begins an obsessive crusade to bring his comatose sister back to the waking world. In his sleep he walks the afterlife where she is trapped and soon John finds himself playing a game for her soul, a game that can’t be won, against the only opponent who can never be beaten, Death. His flat mate Kate struggles to deal with his increasingly irrational behaviour, as he spirals deeper into this dark world, convinced that he can rescue Lorna.
 
In the afterlife star-crossed lovers, Lorna and Dave search for one another to find the happiness they once knew in life. But with all odds against them the lovers realise that nothing is what it seems and that they are running out of time.

At the heart of this dark, parallel world Death taunts and seduces them with their deepest desires. With everything to play for, John will stop at nothing, even when he finds himself back at the site of the accident once more. 

Synopsis

Two men strike a deal that reveals to be something altogether more sinister. Man Made is a dark and ominous short that addresses the issue of gender and power.

Synopsis

Margaret Mellis’s career has encompassed some of the major movements of 20th Century British art. St. Ives neighbours Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo saw her talent and potential but history has relegated her to the sidelines.
 
A dedicated abstract painter and superb colourist Margaret produced a unique body of work during her later life in Suffolk. Her true legacy has yet to be fully realised.
 
Using recordings from Artists’ Lives (British Library Sound Archive) the film is told entirely in Margaret’s own words, with her writings and diary entries read by Susannah York.
 
Margaret Mellis a life in colour puts Margaret’s work centre place, a visual feast of texture, shape and colour.
 
Margaret Mellis 1914-2009

Synopsis

A dark tale about a sailor whose struggle with his demons leads to an encounter with the devil himself.

Shot in an uncompromising b&w fiction-documentary style, the film records the last day of Mark's life up to its inevitable conclusion.

Synopsis

An inner journey of a young girl catching reindeer in the twilight expanses of the Far North.

Synopsis

Michael Stern was injured at birth and is subsequently severely disabled. Despite his difficulties, and over fifty years of institutional care, Michael shines as a dignified and positive character.

Michael's brother provides an articulate and poignant backbone for Michael's story and investigating his state of happiness and quality of life.

Synopsis

A story about monsters, moon-walks and what happens to your imaginary friend when you make your first real one.