In a future world under strict population control, a strong, independent, fertile Kate is drafted to have a baby. Unlike her best friend Jessica, Kate doesn’t want to be a mother and suffers. Her personal choice is taken away at each step and when she wants to gift her opportunity away to Jessica, she cannot because her fertility is a commodity and the presumed fairness of a lottery is society’s way of maintaining equality and exerting control. While the two best friends are ripped apart, unable to follow their dreams, they succeed in awakening the audience and reveal the faults in the system.
THE DRAFT is meant to evoke a debate around the lacking freedom of choice women still face today. A woman should have complete control over her body but we can be scorned for not doing what others - and society - consider to be our duty, our purpose as women. This film is about what can happen when our right to be childfree by choice is taken from us. Equality demands that we as women and men respect each other’s individuality and choices, whether that’s becoming a mother or not.
THE HOUSE is a 25 minute experience on a VR headset which uses a house as a metaphor for Northern Ireland and puts the player in role as a potential resident. The piece was created following a successful run in both West and East Belfast of a live experience through a domestic house.
THE HOUSE was created with the Commission for Victims and Survivors, using their research into post conflict inter-generational trauma, 25 years on from the GFA.
A story of the miraculous journey made by swimming sisters Yusra and Sarah Mardini who fled as refugees from war-torn Syria all the way to the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2022 - Opening Gala - World premiere
Atomfa shares surprising stories from the final days of a rural nuclear power station. From local mythologies and the promise of the atomic age to the space age. From the past, the present & long into the future.
Step into the shoes of Bertha Benz, the wife of Karl Benz and inventor of the first automobile. Set in 1886 Germany, explore the workshop and discover Bertha's backstory, search for the blueprints to the world's first car, assemble the engine for her husband's invention, and embark on a road trip that will change the course of history.
Official Selection Venice Film Festival 2022 - World premiere
Official Selection SXSW Film Festival 2023 - North American premiere
Even as bombs fall on Damascus, Mutaz refuses to flee to the uncertain life of a refugee. His wife, Hala, and daughter, Zeina, must make the choice whether to stay or leave.
Official Selection Venice International Film Festival 2022 - World premiere
A film about the handful of streets around the Cowgate, Edinburgh, which have long housed a proud Irish diaspora. A film about folk music and its power to connect people.
Musician Aidan O’Rourke, from the celebrated folk trio Lau, lives in the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town. During lockdown, Aidan got to know three of his octogenarian neighbours, all called Margaret, and listened to their stories. Aidan brings together a group of sensational Irish and Scottish folk musicians and explores through music and storytelling what home and belonging mean.
Featuring a stunning original soundtrack by O’Rourke and live performances by Liam Ó Maonlai, Brìghde Chaimbeul, Comac Begley, Róisín Chambers and Aoife Ní Bhriain.
Aidan O’Rourke is a fiddler and composer. Raised in Argyll, his roots are Scottish and Irish but his music roams the edges of those traditions.
Becky Manson is a filmmaker from Orkney. Interested in routine, repetition, and ritual, she tells small stories that speak to universal themes.
Mark Cousins has directed twenty feature films. His themes are cinema, cities, recovery, walking and looking. Among many he has won the Prix Italia, the Stanley Kubrick award, the EFA's Innovation award, a Peabody.
In this ghost story from acclaimed filmmaker Joanna Hogg, a middle-aged daughter and her elderly mother must confront long-buried secrets when they return to their former family home, a once-grand manor that has become a nearly vacant hotel brimming with mystery.
Official Selection Venice International Film Festival 2022 - World premiere
A group of islanders gather evidence of corporate manslaughter for the disaster they fear is inevitable. History repeats itself in this hybrid documentary; to imagine the future disaster potentially set to befall the Essex island - again.
The residents of a quintessential but neglected British seaside town grapple with research suggesting that their home could disappear within 30 years due to the climate crisis.
Official Selection SXSW Film Festival 2023 - World premiere
Shortlisted for a SIMA award.
Cat and Hannah, two British women in their twenties, take on the gruelling 3000km drive along Central Asia's Pamir Highway - the second highest international road on Earth. It runs from southern Uzbek deserts, through Tajikistan's Pamir mountain range, climbing over 4600m, into Kyrgyzstan and all the way to its vibrant capital, Bishkek.
Their route brings them to the doorsteps of women from all walks of life, revealing a women's movement that's had as many ups and downs as the drive itself. A 78 year-old gynaecologist recalls the turbulent transition from Soviet rule to independence, and testimonies of domestic abuse, 'bride kidnapping' and religious extremism expose the region's complex attitude to women's rights.
But despite the evident patriarchal oppression in these countries, it's certainly not the whole picture. Stories of female empowerment against all odds emerge, from a group training Tajikistan's first ever female trekking guides to a feminist collective running workshops on sexual pleasure.
Cat and Hannah gain unprecedented access to over 50 women. Their testimonies shed light on a women’s movement largely ignored by Western media.
This is a story of female emancipation and solidarity across different cultures that have a lot more in common than they might have thought.
This film revisits the Chinese wallpaper from the 18th century at Harewood House. Such an exotic artefact was used by the landed gentry as a token of other to imagine the wider world. As the wallpaper was made in China, this film also explores self-representation through the artist’s personal photos.
![The House [VR]](/storage/project/images/films/2023/02/HOUSE_thumb.jpg)
