Bata-ville is a bittersweet documentary record of a coach trip to the origins of the Bata shoe empire in Zlín in the Czech Republic. Against the backdrop of regeneration in their local communities, former employees of the now-closed UK shoe factories in East Tilbury (Essex) and Maryport (Cumbria) are led on a journey that begins as a free holiday but soon becomes an opportunity for a collective imagining of what entrepreneur Tomas Bata's maxim 'We are not afraid of the future' means for them in 21st- century Britain.
Inspired by the contrast between the idealism of Bata and the more recent industrial decline of East Tilbury and Maryport, host/directors Pope and Guthrie lead this unorthodox coach party on a journey through Bata's legacy.
Inside a traditional London eel and pie house, solitary diners meditate upon their steaming dinners, each glimpsing a personal landscape within the food on the plate.
Black White and Green uses a mixture of 'live' action and computer-generated imagery to transform humble food into the terrain of a world in miniature.
'C' is a twist through a dream world. From the city, through a fairground and a forest, to the sea, 'C' is an exploration of what it is like to look at the world through a viewfinder for the first time, old memories captured through a new way of seeing. The film was shot on colour and B and W Super 8, and has been scored by The Clientele.
An experimental short film that explores the theme of childhood and lost innocence. The imagery - based around the fairground carousel - evokes a fairytale and dreamlike yet sinister atmosphere that belies the decorative classical score.
A rapid time-lapse journey from the Houses of Parliament to the open sea, offset by David Cunningham's musical score composed from fragments of Margaret Thatcher's Belgrano speech.
Closer is a film about an old man's fascination with a wilderness landscape painting at the Horniman's Museum. Shot entirely without dialogue, the story evokes a sense of spiritual longing to be somewhere else; somewhere far away from it all. The clever framing, lighting and an atmospheric sound design adds to the supernatural conclusion the film takes us to.
Harnessing the communicative powers of both graphic and sound design, Collision draws on Islamic patterns and American quilts as well as the colours and shapes of flags from both cultures to offer abstract commentary on current events.
Dallas plays with the eponymous nature of this TV series, broadcast in many countries, it became a short hand for both American glamour and corruption, and indeed both repelled and seduced audiences in its relentless drama of power play and cliché. Here, in Dallas, the entire viewing-year of 1980 - a total of 18 episodes – is compressed into a 50-min, all-at-once experience. As text is layered over text, the compression and corruption here is spatial and temporal. The ghostly figures loom in a milky underworld, moving around a familiar scape of Texas with its skyscrapers and vast landscapes. In a way, what we are presented with promises to be in some way an ‘essence’, an undiluted version of the ‘original’ and to an extent this is true. Yet there is also a haunting quality to this work, where iconic faces loom, notorious events referenced and lines delivered; yet there is a disjunction at the heart of Dallas. It is a culture that is at once familiar and disorientating, Dallas appears to be a dreamscape of different order, more nightmare than escapist.
Sam Moore's Doubled Up tells of the shock and awe of finding out she was expecting twins. The film is an opulent and multi-faceted song of love, panic, fear and lots of nappies.
'Visually arresting and beautifully effective' (Time Out).
Chris is having visions, nightmares and repetitive dreams. He seeks help from a therapist who employs a number of unusual techniques to get the root of the problem - including hypnotic regression - a method that seems to take Chris back to a disturbing past life.
