Projects in genres: Experimental

Synopsis

Bill Clinton’s strange legacy as President of the United States and ringmaster of the 1990s is a confounding mess of public amnesia, nostalgia, and scorn. WILLIAM JEFFERSON WILDERNESS is a personal exploration that legacy, and of the tangled process of consigning a former political hero to history. DOK Leipzig • International Competition • World Premiere St. Louis International Film Festival • Official Selection Florida Film Festival • Sunspots: New Visions of the Avant Garde

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By presenting a poetic expression of the interrelationship between the artist and the inspiration of flowers as a dynamic artistic sensibility, FLOWER DUET is exploring sustainability and global warming issues through this experimental hand-painted (pastel/water colour) animated poem film from the director’s artist point of view.

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This film follows a personal and intimate journey exploring the repression experienced by the filmmaker during her childhood when she faced sexual control in Damascus. Through the creative use of family archive mixed with current footage of her body she reconstructs the pain of the past absorbed by her body.

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A rumination on the cause and effect of climate change, using the medium of the collage film, and accompanied by a strong degree of musical counterpoint.

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A semi-fictional documentary about the so-called 'new frontier' of deep sea mining. A robotics engineer and a marine biologist speculate on a near future in which prospectors have turned to the deep ocean commons. There lies prized mineral deposits, five thousand metres below the surface, which could provide all the base metals needed for our future smartphones, smart cars and renewable energies like solar panels and wind farms. Yet siren songs forewarn shipwreck...

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Forensic Architecture meticulously reconstruct an accident involving a boat full of migrants close to the European coast. The work is based on video material recorded by artist and survivor Amel Alzakout as the boat was sinking. Official Selection Berlin International Film Festival 2020 - Forum Expanded - World premiere

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The Outer Hebrides was long ago once thought of as a place of seers, who were known to have the gift of Second Sight: an ability to foretell future events. These prognostications were revealed to the seer in the form of visions or otherworldly sounds. Sometimes they took the form of portents derived by augury read from animals, bones, or weather patterns foretelling what has yet come to pass. Using these stories as a starting point, THE TWO SIGHTS, is a portrait of a rapidly changing maritime environment with its acoustic ecology and culture in flux in a time of uncertain futures. Long take Super 16mm cinematography, interwoven with site-specific field recordings and interviews collected from the disappearing oral histories of several Hebridean communities are collaged to explore the relationship between place narrative, environment, and the reciprocal influences they exact upon one another. Official Selection Berlin International Film Festival 2020 - Forum - World premiere

Synopsis

Moving from the frozen landscapes of the Jura mountains to the urban centres of Port-au-Prince, Ouvertures brings the Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture back to life. In France a Haitian researcher tries to read the past within the stratigraphic layers of Jurassic limestone, whilst in Haiti a group of young actors translate and rehearse scenes from 'Monsieur Toussaint', a play written by Édouard Glissant, that recounts the last days in the life of Louverture dying in exile in a prison cell in the Jura, 1803. Ghosts from the pantheon of Haitian history visit Louverture on his deathbed and put him to trial. As the play proceeds the actors become possessed by their characters, and eventually the ghost of Louverture joins the group and takes them on a voyage for a new kind of exile. Official Selection Berlinale 2020 - Forum - World premiere

Synopsis

The title is borrowed from a recent book which discusses the effect of the use of the internet on peoples emotions i.e. body image, general existential issues etc . I consider the work in terms of assemblage as currently understood in contemporary philosophy and literature. (Richard O'Callaghan)

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An exploration of mental health in the drag community, centred around NYC drag queen Blackie O.

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The VR experience, inspired by UK National Theatre director Rufus Norris’ production of SMALL ISLAND, uses immersive technologies and a life-size volumetrically captured performance to take audiences on a unique musical journey. The ceremony of live performance and the craft of theatrical staging magnificently converge with immersive technologies and the musical direction of composer Raffy Bushman to bring a communal audience into a new kind of theatrical space. ALL KINDS OF LIMBO is a fantastical engagement of a musical performance starring Nubiya Brandon, who sings a musical narration of her life in limbo that spans the genres of reggae, grime, classical, and calypso. Through a specially commissioned piece of music, vocalist Brandon, composer Bushman and the NuShape Orchestra take audiences through musical genres including reggae, grime, classical and calypso, reflecting the historic influence of West Indian and black culture on the UK music scene. Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2020 - New Frontier Exhibitions Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2020 - LFF Expanded

Synopsis

Go inside the cyclical centre of a Kikuyu tribal myth from Kenya, where man may become woman and woman may become man. Through virtual reality, dance, and music, a sacred space is created to explore many versions of yourself. Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2020 - New Frontier Exhibitions