Projects in genres: Woman Director

Synopsis

When Neil Platt is diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease at the age of 33, he makes the unusual decision to document his final months, not just in a blog (which he painstakingly dictates via frustratingly inaccurate speech recognition software) but by inviting a film crew into the home he shares with his tireless wife Louise and toddler son Oscar. The result is a heartbreaking, funny and tender portrayal of incredible fortitude and love (EIFF).

Synopsis

Awkward 11-year-old Nesma is at odds with the world around her since she began caring for her father’s pigeons after his death. Being forced to get rid of the birds by her mother today will see Nesma face an even bigger challenge as she enters womanhood.

Synopsis

Nicky, a young woman travelling alone to meet her band mates, through the back roads of the British countryside, escapes the clutches of a dangerous stranger. Her road trip soon turns from bad to worse as she finds herself running for her life as she attempts to escape a serial killer and the hordes of predatory locals in the area known as The Highway of Tears.

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Joseph is terminally ill. He spends his days sitting in front of the television, watching as each show comes and goes until one morning something catches his eye. Inspired, Joseph departs from his daily routine to create something he hopes to pass on to his family.

Synopsis

In a tick box society where identity has become a commodity, this new dance film by Seeta Patel and Kamala Devam sees them take a humorous look at how they as artists are influenced by the expectations and definitions placed upon them.

Synopsis

The magical journey to the world of puppets with wonderful participating of great master Meschke and Irene Jacob. Michael Meschke is one of the the greatest living marionette masters in the world. His marionette masterpieces are the pretext to delve into his own life and the stories behind his numerous international creations. The life of an incredible, complex human being. Born in Poland to German parents, Meshke has lived in France and Sweden. By a prophet German poet, Jochen Klepper, he was told as a little boy that he would become a puppet master. Now he is 80 years old, and while sitting in the cellars of a Stockholm Museum, beside collections that have travelled on many world adventures, he is dreaming. The Marionetteatern has been the cultural ambassador of Sweden for over 60 years. It introduced the art of puppetry to modern Europe and brought back into the universal dimension characters like Antigone, Don Quixote, Odysseus, Faust, so significant to human nature and in fact symbolising the struggle of virtue against vice. Michael Meschke is the man behind this Theatre, a world master of Puppetry.

Synopsis

At the age of 21, Sarah Begum, a British born Bengali girl realised the ambition of a lifetime when she went to live with the Huaorani tribe deep in the Amazon Rainforest and immersed herself in their way of life. This is the film she made of her extraordinary journey.

Synopsis

Commissioned by LUX and Collective Gallery. 'Fib' is the Pictish name for the contemporary Scottish region known as The Kingdom of 'Fife'. It also means a trivial or white lie. Filmed at locations in Fife, the film focuses on two census takers and considers the resulting information and actions as ‘factish’.

Synopsis

When Madge Elliot complained about the announced closure of her local train station in Hawick, her mother told her to do something about it, and that’s just what she did. It’s Quicker By Hearse The Tale of the Petitioning Housewife, the Protesting Schoolboy and the Campaign Trail Student tells the story of Elliot who, together with her 11-year-old son Kim, Harry Brown the piper and Edinburgh University Railway Society president Bruce McCartney, marched to Downing Street to deliver a petition of 11,768 signatures on 18 December 1968. When final closure was penciled for January 7 1969, Madge and her campaign group continued their protest by posting a coffin on the last train to leave Hawick station and travel to London. The coffin was emblazoned with the words ‘Waverley Line – born 1848 killed 1969’ and was addressed to the then Minister of Transport Richard Marsh. This work investigates how the national changes recommended in the infamous Beeching report, titled The Reshaping of British Railways, impacted Elliot and her local community. Like Sir Walter Scott’s historical novel Waverley (the railway lines namesake), Elliot’s grassroots campaign raised questions of the need for social progress that does not reject the traditions of the past.

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A Japanese girl loses love and finds love in one day, on multicultural urban London street, Brick Lane.

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Ali stands out. He’s a soldier in uniform in a busy train station. He’s also one of the few British Muslims in the Armed Forces. Returning home from Afghanistan unexpectedly, he slowly adjusts to the suburban English surroundings and faces renewed tensions from his family and community.

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Whilst leading an expedition to Africa, anthropologist Leonard Orlov (Hugh Bonneville) discovers a feral child living a brutal and primitive existence. Horrified, he brings the creature back to Victorian London, intent on civilizing the child, only to encounter evil freak show host, Umberto Farini (Andy Serkis).