'A girl's life is cruel - A woman's life is very cruel', notes Sampat Pal, the complex protagonist at the centre of Kim Longinotto’s latest foray into the lives of extraordinary women.
Sampat Pal should know, like many others she was married as a young girl into a family which beat her often. But unusually, she fought back, leaving her in-laws and eventually becoming famous as a champion for beleaguered women throughout Uttar Pradesh, many of whom find their way to her doorstep.
Rekha, a 14 year-old untouchable, is three months pregnant and homeless unable to marry her unborn child's father because of her low caste. Fifteen year-old Renu's husband from an arranged marriage has abandoned her and she's threatening to throw herself under a train. Both desperate young women, reach out for their only hope - Sampat Pal.
Pink Saris is an unflinching and often amusing look at these unlikely political activists and their charismatic leader. In extraordinary scenes, we watch her launch herself into the centre of family dramas, convinced her mediation is the best path for these vulnerable girls. Her partner Babuji, who has watched Sampat Pal change over the years, is less certain.
This is the story of a slum school choir who put on a concert of songs from The Sound of Music with a full orchestra and in front of an audience of over a thousand people. Performing in such a prestigious concert is a world away from their lives in the slums but will singing songs about climbing mountains really help these kids find their dreams?
This film is a unique documentary event: with unrivalled access, it follows both sides in a political battle during a year long campaign which attracted worldwide headlines.
Labour MP Margaret Hodge, a Jewish immigrant, is defending the parliamentary seat of Barking in the British general election from a challenge by the leader of the right wing British National Party, Nick Griffin, who has a big following amongst disenchanted white working class voters.
With building tension, as violence erupts on the streets, the film shows the strategies of both parties and the eventual denouement on election night.
Described as 'remarkable' by the Observer newspaper, the film will be of particular interest in countries where there is a populist rightwing or racist party.
Electric was made in Brixton over the Summer of 2010. Over two weeks of drama workshops, the untrained cast used their lives as source material to create the story. The film was shot the following week.
Lola, 14, romanticises the memories of two teenagers who she once hung out with, Zania and Kad. At war with a mother who'll never understand her, Lola feels propelled to tell an intimate tale about what love is. As she takes a journey, to visit the couple's baby, we learn how the baby's deceased parents had something beautifully unique.
Working for your festival ticket is hard, especially under the watchful eye of the Security Supervisor.
The Gate is a short stopmotion animation which follows the journey of George as he works as a gate steward for his music festival ticket.
Daddyo thinks he has the best children in the world: his son Olly has his own business selling Persian carpets and beating up any customers who want refunds. His daughter Alice has problems with her boyfriend and ends up cutting him up. Little does Daddyo know he has the worst kids in London.
“And indeed the question which was raised of old and is raised now and always, and is always the subject of doubt, viz. what being is, is just the question, what is substance?”– Aristotle, Metaphysics VII,1028b 2-4.
Flesh, blood, milk and meat are the subject of a film which tries to get inside “substance” via medieval imagery. An attempt to explore “what things are” through juxtaposing bestiary illuminations, Romanesque carvings, medieval bells and living things, throwing into relief the strangeness and violence of being
Greer’s weird. Everyone in the Village thinks so... This ravishingly visual short takes the audience on a beautiful journey to its dark heart. Ruth Paxton has written and directed a captivating tragedy where virtue is not rewarded and dreams don’t come true.
1 Day is a high octane caper through a day in the life of an inner city hustler. The film follows Flash whose day gets steadily worse when he finds out he suddenly has to repay a debt to his big head, Angel, and he has to find the money fast. As more and more people get on his case and the clock starts ticking, Flash is pursued by everyone from a rival gang, the police, three irate babymothers and his granny.
Entirely street cast film, the film was shot on location in Birmingham. It features original hip hop and grime tracks - as well as gospel, reggae and spirituals -making it the first ever British hip hop film. While Flash gets robbed, harassed and shot at, the film explores life for many young men in the Afro-Caribbean community which originated the urban music at its heart.
Based on the life and poetry of World War II veteran and retired BBC radio journalist Boleslaw Taborski, the film explores how life experiences affect creativity. There is also a rare glimpse inside the studios of the no longer existing Polish Section of the BBC Radio World Service in London.
A Time And A Time is a film constructed entirely from archive footage shot in Bristol over the last century. Three specific locations are chosen and filmed images from these geographical points are cut up and reassembled so that we recreate the place with people and buildings and vehicles that span time.
A 21st century office worker crosses a road that has just been blitzed, a woman from 1910 watches a man on a mobile phone kick a football. The distance that time creates is removed and these people are reunited in location.
