Projects in genres: Dance

Synopsis

A boy growing up in Dublin during the ’80s escapes his strained family life and tough new school by starting a band to win the heart of a beautiful and mysterious girl. Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2016 - Premieres - World premiere

Synopsis

Based on a true story about Port Isaac's Fisherman's Friends, a group of Cornish fishermen from Port Isaac who were signed by Universal Records and achieved a Top 10 hit with their debut album of traditional sea shanties.

Synopsis

“for the time being” is a collage of moving images made thirty years apart and re-worked into seventeen sections of tentative autobiography. The soundtrack mixes music and environmental sound with conversation, not all of it intelligible. In the scraps that are, the film-maker and his partner talk together about how we document and re-interpret our lives.

Synopsis

Routes Jukebox: The Documentary’, tells the story of the ever-evolving Liverpool music scene since the 1940s and its influences and connection with other music cities such as New York, Detroit, Nashville and Kingston. From the influx of Gaelic sounds and rhythms that came to the city with the mass Irish migration to the importing of Rock N Roll records from the United States via the historic Cunard line to the rise of Merseybeat, Punk and House Music, ’Routes Jukebox’ touches on the various social and cultural factors that led to the creation of such an prolific and enduring music scene. Additionally, the documentary touches on the stories of the oft-forgotten links between Liverpool music and Motown and Reggae.

Synopsis

An energising and controversial feature documentary that lifts the lid on the fast growing UK battle rap scene. The film reveals the history and evolution of this unique subculture of hip hop: charting from its origins in playgrounds and parks, through to nightclubs and competitions. From its beginnings as a battle of quick-thinking freestyle wit, through to its current incarnation as a form of well-rehearsed poetry and theatre. Directors Craig Tuohy and Tom Worth followed and filmed major players involved with the UK battle rapping scene over a period of two years- revealing behind the scenes footage, clips from some of the best battles, and interviews with the top battle rappers from all over the UK including poet Mark Grist, whose battle rap with Blizzard has had over 4.5 million hits on YouTube. The film is an entertaining expose on how the UK has taken an American art form and made it uniquely British, and so creating one of the most exciting youth subcultures around today.

Synopsis

D.^^.$.®. (Dance.Music.Sex.Romance.mk1) explores how the digital environment, in the form of reconstructing and publicising our intimate experiences, directly influences our image of self and the implications this ego-theism has on romantic and erotic relationships.

Synopsis

Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev receive endless appreciation for their sublime 1966 Royal Ballet 'Romeo and Juliet' performance. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2015 - Experimenta Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

Charting the band The Maccabees’s creative process as they record their fourth album, ‘Marks To Prove It’, working in self-imposed isolation in an anonymous studio in London’s Elephant and Castle... The film becomes a compelling, poetic portrait of the area and its local population... gardens are created in surprising spaces; a local musician is having a suit tailored, BB heals through prayer at the concrete-built Crossways church, and the 100 year old Arments Pie and Mash shop is, as ever an enduring local institution. All of these tales are woven through the band’s experimentation – their false turns, self-doubts and triumphs – as they create what will become an incendiary, life-affirming album - LFF Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2015 - Sonic Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

"I think art is powerful and I think it has affected all of us in some way, shape or form. Whether it’s you’re favourite character or scene from a TV show or a film or a play. Or maybe it’s just a line in a song. Sometimes it’s a line that you’ve heard one hundred times and it’s only on the one hundred and first time it clicked and meant something to you. Sometimes it’s a line that grabbed your attention straight away. And that’s what 'Lines' is about." Cecile Emeke Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2015 - Sonic Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

It's July 1985, and while Rock and Roll's great and good are strutting their stuff at Wembley, ex-Small Faces frontman Steve Marriott is propping up the bar of a dingy pub in Putney waiting to play to a small crowd of boozers. While he waits for the rest of his band, bitter and drunk, an encounter with a young revival Mod restores Steve's faith. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2015 - Sonic Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

This film is a haunting collision of past and present, presided over by the high priests of the great tradition of American music, Jack White and T Bone Burnett, who also executive produced with Robert Redford. Long before digital file sharing, MP3, compact discs, tape and vinyl, a machine was forged from ingenuity. The Western Electric lathe, a marvel of analogue engineering operated by a weight and pulleys, pioneered the recording of American music. In an old Hollywood studio, one has been lovingly reassembled. In it, White gathers an extraordinary convocation of musical superstars, all keen to cut a record in the unforgiving three minutes the Western Electric provides. Featuring live performances from Elton John, Nas, Willie Nelson, Alabama Shakes, Steve Martin, Ana Gabriel, Merle Haggard, Taj Mahal and many more. (LFF brochure) BFI London Film Festival 2015 - World premiere

Synopsis

The Bolshoi Ballet. Symbol of Russia, a world-famous national treasure - mystical and intriguing. Recently, however, the ballet company has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The 2013 acid attack on the company’s director Sergei Filin, intrigue and management changes have created lurid headlines. Director Nick Read gains remarkable access to the inner workings of the company for the first time as they move into a new chapter in the wake of the notorious attack. The film gives a voice to artistes and company members who are not usually in the limelight in irreverent and candid terms. Combining epic themes with intimate portraits, and historical dramas with the untold personal stories of agony and ecstasy that lie behind every acclaimed performance. Toronto International Film Festival 2015 - World premiere