A compelling portrait of loyalty, broken dreams and redemption told by its director, reluctantly-dutiful daughter Karen, who takes you under the skin of the deceptively humdrum household she returns to for this long goodbye.
Karen’s mother Ann suffers a devastating stroke that brings her daughter back home. But Karen isn’t the only one who comes back to help care for Ann in the crisis: Her prodigal father - the endearing yet unfathomable Ian, who’s been separated from Ann for years - also reappears.
Reunited so unexpectedly, and armed with her camera, Karen seizes this last chance to go under the skin of the family story before it’s too late, to come to terms with the aftermath of the secret her father had tried - and failed - to keep from them all: a relationship and a son, Campbell, born in Ethiopia and now in Scotland.
With candour, warmth and much unexpected humour, Karen’s role as family confidante, busybody, therapist and spy brings to life both an extraordinary story and a profound portrait of family survival.
Hot Docs 2015 - World premiere
In 2012, jihadists took control of northern Mali. They imposed one of the strictest interpretations of sharia law in history. On 22 August they banned music – radio stations destroyed, instruments burned and Mali’s musicians faced torture, even death. This film follows Mali’s musicians as they fight to keep music alive in their country. Through personal stories we draw the audience into the human side of this ongoing conflict and ask the burning question: what does the future hold for Mali? The film culminates with the first public concert in Timbuktu post jihadist takeover and music ban.
The Palio horserace in Siena isn't a matter of life or death... It's much more important than that. Twice a year the Italian city of Siena goes crazy for the oldest horse race in the world: the Palio. Not your average race: strategy, bribery and corruption play as much a part as the skill of the riders.
'Palio' explores the thrilling story of a rivalry between a young ‘outsider' keen to break in to a dangerous but lucrative game and the corrupt 'insider' who has manipulated the city of Siena for a decade. Their passionate and dramatic battle is an epic and cinematic tale of Italian life in microcosm.
Tribeca Film Festival 2015 - World premiere
Wrongfully arrested, Marina is placed in the unfamiliar world of a prison cell. Spending four days on remand, Marina’s distress transforms as she is confronted by the bleak reality of the women she meets inside.
This film piece samples the title sequences, trailers, theme songs and publicity shots for some twenty adaptations of Jin Yong's mid-century wuxia classic, 'The Condor Trilogy', produced over nearly four decades, along with contemporary Google street views of suburban Britain, interweaving mundane and mythical landscapes with fantasies of fight and flight.
In a hair-salon in Haifa, the director installs a mini film-set over the washing-basin. As she washes their hair, she converses with the salon’s clients - Arabs and Jews, on topics ranging from politics to love. What emerges from these conversations is an honest and nuanced portrayal of contemporary Israel.
Following comedian/author/activist Russell Brand as he dives headlong into drugs, sex and fame in an attempt to find happiness, only to realize we have all been nurtured on bad ideas and empty celebrity idols. Brand leaves Los Angeles to embark on a stand-up comedy tour about his own true icons - Gandhi, Che Guevara, Malcolm X and Jesus Christ - and transforms from addict and Hollywood star into an unexpected political disruptor and new found hero to the undeserved.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2015 - Gala Screening
Hollywood relies on Bruce Willis to save the world in Armageddon, but who are the real-life heroes seeking to save our civilization from the next major asteroid impact? Disaster Playground investigates future outer space catastrophes and the procedures to manage and assess the risks. The film follows the scientists planning the monitoring and deflection of hazardous Near Earth Objects and the real-life procedures in place in the event of an asteroid collision with the earth. Follow the chain of command that runs from the SETI Institute and NASA to the White House and United Nations and meet the people who are responsible from protecting us from a potentially devastating asteroid impact.
Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, co-commissioned through Broadway’s Near Now programme.
SXSW 2015 - World premiere
The story of an ordinary family in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. As they go about their normal lives, they are caught in the crossfire between the Narco drug cartels and the military.
"Following the kidnapping of her husband by a cartel, a woman named only as ‘Daughter 2’ grieves and tries to keep her family together. Her community band around her, with over 100 local taxi drivers going on a search to find the missing husband – to little avail, as they find him murdered the next day. Violence has a way of being contagious and Daughter 2’s son, on a misguided search for justice, joins a defence militia, while Daughter 2 herself suffers from anxiety and depression as she tries to keep her fractured family together. Narrated as a poetic hybrid of documentary and fiction, the screenplay is a transcript of conversations of the family recorded over a period of two years. Actors play the members of the family to protect their identity, but we are able to hear the actual recordings throughout the film, reminding the audience that these people are real."
