Based around an underground London location known as 'The Tardis', this mini documentary follows the lives of three young Asians who break the mould.
The audience is invited into the recesses of this amazing subterranean complex which plays host to gangster and celebrity parties alike, and all under the ever-watchful eye of Jesus the resident parrot!
The Trousseau is a moving story of a young British woman Ama, who returns to her birthplace in Ghana after receiving news of her mother's sudden death. She is met by her three stern clanswomen who doubt very much if she capable of taking the place of her frail grandmother during the funeral preparations.
Defying tradition she proves them wrong and begins to find expression of her grief in the ritual preceding the funeral, ensuring that her mother appears in death as she did in life.
Tree Fellers is the story of the 900 Belizean lumberjacks who in 1942 left the tropical rainforests of British Honduras to help Britain fight fascism by felling trees in Scotland. Sam (93), Eric (87) and Amos (86) were among those who stayed on after the war to make new lives in a country where, for better or worse, the colour of their skin marked them out. Newly discovered archive, long-cherished memories and a last reunion are intertwined in this lyrical and moving documentary testament.
A tense, personal and unscripted account of a young British fireman's last visit with his Middle Eastern family, 48 hours before he is deployed to Iraq. Using still images and slow-motion, the documentary focuses attention on emotionally charged events dramatically altering the experience of so-called 'real time'.
Untitled is a metaphor for a sleeping woman in a state of dream or of psychological disintegration. She gradually reassembles, suggesting either a movement from deep dream-like sleep or more likely a pull back from the decision to die. The human capacity to survive terrible terror, whether on an individual level or as a collective persecuted group, sometimes seems to defy understanding.
Bruno Bettelheim, a child psychoanalyst, survived Dachau and Buchenwald but in peacetime, at a mature age, decided to end his own life. It is this choice: the choice, and the possibility, of escaping psychological terror, that enables humans to reconstruct themselves from even extreme disintegration. To paraphrase Nietzche - the thought of suicide gets one through many a long night.
Slim O'Rafferty, the tired old cowboy, needs to pass his compulsory annual eye-test in order to continue riding his horse. The chief optician's deputy has other ideas.
Across the Waters is a poetic, reflective journey between two cultures. Fifty years ago, a young girl arrived on the island of Lewis from a village in Pakistan. Now, her granddaughter is going to leave the island. Three generations of Pakistani women and a Gaelic islander give a personal perspective on the island's history, and the sense of belonging and exile that has defined their existence.
Billy Hull was a prison officer in The Maze/Long Kesh. Against prison policy Billy collected items from various individuals, incidents and occurrences. On his retirement Billy organised a display of the objects. The public has never seen this collection.
This documentary presents the architectural concept of 'Cargo Fleet', which juxtaposes materials from the shipbuilding yards of the North East of England into the urban landscape of Islington. The house is revealed through the reflections of a group of people - actors, dancers, musicians, and artists. Their experience of the place unfolds like a tapestry to which the muses themselves then add their voice. The director plays with contrasting forms and styles, weaving music and language together. She reveals the interior and exterior in shifts of mood and ambience, presenting the viewer with an aural and visual feast.
With poetry by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Shakespeare, San Juan de la Cruz and Alexander Pope. Music by Andrew Peggie and Raiomond Mirza.
A collective film made with the London Bisexual Women's Group. It explores the idea of women and bisexuality through use of live action, animation and sound. A nine-minute experimental piece of work, which uses objects as a starting point in exploring bisexual identity.
A personal account of Black community spaces in the UK, focusing on Caribbean diaspora.
By visiting the site of the former Keskidee Centre that is now luxury apartments, the film considers the conditions which allowed this historical space to thrive.
