Projects in genres: Music

Synopsis

In extreme cold, the human body can turn against itself through paradoxical undressing: failing nerves mistake freezing for heat, compelling the dying to shed their last protection. In 水托邦 HYDROTOPIA, hydrophones frozen into ice capture the material disintegration of their frozen body as a projected film gradually emerges into clarity. The film follows British-Chinese artist Jamie Man suspended by hooks pierced through flesh in a winter landscape, practising rituals rooted in Shiva-dedicated traditions that explore a state of perpetual non-being. As the ice surrenders its form and the image sharpens into focus, transformation itself becomes the subject: matter abandoning one state for another, the body held suspended between dissolution and emergence. Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam 2026 - World premiere

Synopsis

A couple affected by the contaminated blood scandal face a difficult decision when an offer of life-saving treatment threatens their dreams for the future. Official Selection Flickers Rhode Island Film Festival 2024 - World Premiere Official Selection HollyShorts Film Festival 2024

Synopsis

Aki Nawaz founded Southern Death Cult and Fun-Da-Mental, spending decades navigating his identity as a Pakistani punk artist. His music has always fused the personal with the political — but in 2006, he channels this into his most controversial album yet, with All Is War – The Benefits of G-Had - a raw, furious response to post-9/11 Islamophobia in Britain.

Synopsis

PLAYING WITH FIRE introduces audiences to an intimate virtual performance by Yuja Wang, inviting guests to witness the physical and mental act of performance through repertoire personally selected by Yuja, ranging from Bach and Chopin to Debussy, Prokofiev and Stravinsky. From this repertoire, writer and director Pierre-Alain Giraud has crafted a narrative and created transformative visual and musical worlds in collaboration with artist Gabríela Friðriksdóttir. At the center of the space, both real and virtual, is a Steinway & Sons Spirio concert grand piano, which acts as the bridge between the concert hall and the artist’s inner visions. The Spirio system—an advanced self-playing technology that can precisely record and reproduce the keystrokes of live performances—recreates Yuja’s virtuosity on the physical instrument in real time, synchronised with the holographic fingers of her virtual self. Official Selection Cannes Film Festival 2026 - Immersive Competition - World premiere

Synopsis

At a time when many people struggle to talk openly about grief, SOLITUDE WITH SCHUBERT asks what role music can play in helping us live alongside loss. The film follows concert pianist George Xiaoyuan Fu as he navigates the death of his father through Franz Schubert's late works. Extending this exploration beyond himself, Fu connects with a hospice bereavement group and performs a recital for them – sharing how music can offer connection, catharsis and solace when words fall short. He then records an album with mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean, reflecting on how the echoes of those we’ve loved and lost stay with us. It’s an intimate portrait of how art can offer solace and meaning, creating a space for grief to be safely felt, shared and transformed.

Synopsis

A fulldome dance film set amidst the rich and varied landscapes of Zimbabwe, where performers express the tension, resilience and interconnectedness between people and the natural world under the pressures of climate change. With their movements, the dancers explore the consequences of environmental disruption and the profound ways in which people and nature are intertwined. Through abstract choreography, symbolic imagery and an atmospheric score, the work reflects the planet’s vulnerability, the challenges posed by environmental shifts and the transformative potential of collective effort. As the dancers navigate these ever-changing locations, their movements evoke the escalating consequences of a warming world, capturing both its fragility and the urgent call for action.

Synopsis

A poignant and poetic exploration of the rise and decline of Luton’s once vibrant Caribbean culture. Through intimate personal stories, rich historical context, and a cultural lens, the film traces how a thriving legacy rooted in migration, music, resistance, and community has been gradually eroded over the years. From the golden days of sound system culture and bustling youth clubs to the bouncing spirit of Luton Carnival formerly Europe’s largest one day Caribbean carnival, the film reflects on how these vital cultural institutions have been systematically dismantled through decades of underfunding, neglect, and shifting priorities. These weren’t just events or social spaces, they were expressions of identity and anchors of community. With vignettes/reenactments shot on 16mm film and interwoven with candid communal conversations, this documentary offers a poetic and thought provoking insight and invites audiences from all backgrounds to engage in deeper reflection on the value of heritage and the fragility of community spaces. The film ends on the question of: How do communities reclaim their space, their voice, and their future? Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2025

Synopsis

In this South Asian team sport, players repeating ‘kabaddi’ frantically cross boundaries on the court, tagging their opponents before returning. Ka ba Ddi is a high-energy team sport originating in South Asia played between two teams of seven players on a divided court. Players respond to boundaries, bodies think in relation to each other: lines of the court, focal points for players movements. Stretching back into their own territory; a vocabulary of movement that make connections with what is happening in the wider world, in domestic UK politics but also internationally. Territory has never felt so terrifying or so contested. The rules based order of Kabaddi stipulates that one team sends a single "raider" into the opposing team's territory, the aim is to tag/touch as many players as possible from the opposing side before retreating back into your own territory. Rules govern our bodies, we live in a series of ever increasing courts both materially and ideologically. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2025 - Short Film Competition

Synopsis

Delving into the life of a Palestinian in the UK, separated from a culture and a way of life, this film captures the power of the human spirit in the face of adversity, delivering a powerful statement about the intersection of personal struggle and political conflict and offering hope, challenging narratives, and inspiring solidarity. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2025

Synopsis

A family band. Three burnt out brothers, an undervalued sister, a cornucopia of addictions, oversized egos, murderous resentments, delusions of grandeur, washed out morals and rapidly fading success culminates in a whirlwind dark comedy. A portrait of chasing success in the music industry, exposing the toll of addiction and the mental battles that come with the price of ambition.

Synopsis

Locked and loaded with film tape, a man explores an abandoned rave house, once known as The Warehouse, that was once the beating heart of the South West’s clubland.

Synopsis

The true story of two Scottish lads from Dundee conned the music industry by pretending to be an established Californian rap duo, appearing on MTV and bagging a record deal until their scam unravelled. Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2025 - World premiere Official Selection Glasgow Film Festival 2026