Projects in genres: Human Rights

Synopsis

STREETS OF CHANGE VR is a powerful virtual reality experience that brings to light the often-overlooked realities of street homelessness, challenging the stigma and stereotypes through storytelling. Rooted in real lived experiences, the film humanises rough sleepers through three intimate character stories, revealing their resilience and the harsh truths of life on the streets. Through hyper-realism, spoken word poetry, and immersive storytelling, STREETS OF CHANGE VR explores a narrative of poverty, addiction, and mental health with honesty and emotional depth. By placing viewers in the shoes of those experiencing homelessness, STREETS OF CHANGE VR aims to foster empathy, break down prejudice, and invites urgent conversations about inequality. STREETS OF CHANGE VR is a call to action amid a growing global homelessness crisis.

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A new republic UAR – United African Republic – emerges from the former nation of Nigeria that was plunged into darkness by the long years of corruption and incompetent leadership. However, UAR hasn’t gotten on its feet yet; it suffers from security challenges. But its new leader President CEPHAS OBI is steadfast to combat insecurity by using the AI technology U-Watch that detects potential crimes long before they can be executed.

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A telephone conversation between an expatriate brother and sister tackles the bitterness involved in being uprooted from the olive trees that stood as witness to their family's inherited memories in a country that has never known peace. Official Selection Beirut Shorts International Film Festival 2025

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When 16 year old Erin is told to hide who they are on Pride day to supposedly protect their family, they have to figure out how to keep everyone happy, while being true to themselves. A coming of age drama about holding your own.

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Satinder Aujla, the UK Conservative government’s new foreign secretary, holds a press junket. Her internalised racism defends fascist policies as British values. We realise she has forgotten her heritage in exchange for power. Official Selection Tasveer Film Festival 2024

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In the heart of Nepal, nestled amid majestic landscapes and ancient traditions, lies a profound tapestry of spiritual and religious practices. Nepal's history has been predominantly shaped by patriarchal traditions: the Sramana tradition of renunciates and the Brahmana tradition of priests. Yet, there exists a lesser-known matriarchal tradition. Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, meticulously planned by its founder Gunakamdev, features a unique constellation of eight Ajima temples on its peripheries. These temples, dedicated to the grandmother goddesses Ajima, serve as protectors of the city and hint at matriarchal ideals. Tantra, a spiritual path focusing on energy and liberation, adds another layer to Nepal's spiritual landscape. Unlike patriarchal traditions, Tantra celebrates women's sexuality, emphasizing mutual enjoyment and viewing the body as a sacred temple. Within this matriarchal framework, six genders are recognized, promoting a more inclusive understanding of human diversity. Kathmandu's labyrinth of temples, structures, and symbols offers glimpses into a bygone era when wise women possibly ruled and protected society, and when Tantra and other spiritual practices flourished. However, invading patriarchal forces have rewritten Nepal's history, obscuring its rich and diverse spiritual heritage, leaving many unaware of their profound legacy.

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A work of speculative cinematic writing, the film is about war and displacement, architecture and place-making. It tells the fragmented biography of the so-called Rock Church, an iconic building in Helsinki and its architects who were excluded from the canon of Finnish modernism. The architects' personal history of displacement due to the Finnish Winter War of 1939 and Soviet occupation is braided with the war on present-day Gaza. Past and present histories, temporalities and geographies fold into, and over one another collapsing time, place and identities narratively to consider, in the gentlest of tones, the impact of atrocities on contemporary lifeworlds.

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Divided by barriers and borders, the three sisters confront their childhood after spending decades apart in culturally and politically diverging countries. For all of them, one moment in life determined everything that followed. An emotionally revealing essay film.

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On 18 June 1984, at the height of the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike, Orgreave Coking Plant in South Yorkshire became the site of the bloodiest day of the longest and most violent industrial dispute in British history. The media subsequently appeared to lay blame for the violence at the feet of the strikers. Daniel Gordon’s comprehensive documentary doesn’t just overturn this fabrication, it portrays what took place as planned action on the part of the Thatcher government, with the Prime Minister determined to seek redress for the National Miners’ Union’s victory over the Conservative government in the early 1970s and to forever break the union’s role at the heart of British working class society. Released on the 40th anniversary of the battle, and featuring first-hand accounts and archive footage, this is a searing portrait of that tragic event. (Sheffield DocFest Programme) Official Selection Sheffield DocFest 2024 - World premiere

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The story of Catholic nun and leading death penalty abolitionist, Sister Helen Prejean, whose story was first captured in the 1995 film DEAD MAN WALKING. Now, almost 30 years later, filmmaker Dominic Sivyer takes a look at six decades of the life and work of Sister Helen as she continues to be an inspirational force for justice. Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2024 - World premiere

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BRANDED is a woman’s defiance, in the face of atrocity, to uphold Art and Freedom. Set at some time, in the past, present, or the future. A Ukrainian woman, captured by a regime that forbids artistic expression, challenges her oppressors. She is anonymous, without a presence in the world, the non-existence of a political prisoner. Pacing around the cell, her words directed at the Wall behind her. The Wall that protects her from what is beyond. From other cells, noises of torture are heard. The sounds of conflict increase as the war comes closer. Knowing she will die, her dreams are of the life she used to have, with freedom, laughing and painting in her studio. Her concern is not for herself when she asks, is this the end of Art? She has a vision and imagines Leonardo da Vinci visits her, and asks him, will Art survive? Her desperation increasing, she paints with her own faeces and urine on the Wall. Collapsing, she imagines a future artist visiting her cell. He tells her, Art cannot die, artists are the future. Kateryna Polishchuk, a soldier in the Ukrainian army, is the voice of the woman in the cell.

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Impersonating the style of an NHS training films from 1960s-70s and shot on 16mm, the film is an exercise in queering the healthcare information film. Using a collated archive of healthcare experiences recorded with Birmingham's trans+ community the film explores the critical state of trans healthcare in the UK through ‘medical drag’ re-enactments. Official Selection Frameline San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival 2025