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).
Ten years ago, a few enthusiasts decided to revive the historic salt production of Bourgneuf Bay in the west of France. They dug out and cleared the ancient salt pans to harvest Bay Salt once again. Over the course of a year, we come to appreciate Bernard, Daniel and Mano, three different personalities, united by a genuine attachment to their work and a deep respect for nature.
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.
The lives of three men collide in a London toilet with unforeseen consequences - yet this could happen in 42 countries globally. It’s a ticking time bomb nobody wants to discuss. Will you...?
In the industrial hinterland of England, Benjamin encounters a girl. Arcadian and beautiful, she offers escape from his lonely, repetitive life. But is she human? And does she even exist?
Arterial is a short fantasy film inspired by the John Keats poem La Belle Dame Sans Merci.
'The Summit' is a feature length documentary about the deadliest day in modern mountain climbing history. In August of 2008, 22 climbers from several international expeditions converged on High Camp of K2, the last stop before the summit of the most dangerous mountain on Earth. 48 hours later, eleven had been killed or simply vanished into thin air. Like a horror movie come-to-life, it was as if the mountain began stealing lives, one climber at a time. At the feet of the heavens – ‘the death zone’ - the body literally dies with each passing second and the mind can play tricks. Morality above 8,000 metres is skewed 180 degrees from the rest of life. When a climber falls or wanders off the trail, the unwritten code of the sport is to leave them for dead. Survival depends on self- preservation at all costs.
Toxic Camera, inspired by the film Chernobyl: A Chronicle of Difficult Weeks by Soviet filmmaker Vladimir Shevchenko, reflects on the material nature of the film and the human impact of disasters like Chernobyl.
SLEEP is a short film which observes the everyday, humdrum routine of a young girl coupled with a scientific, dry and factual narration regarding aspects of sleep.
Sleep affects every moment of our daily and nightly life; and yet, half the time we aren’t aware of this.
An observation, investigation and social record of the lives and thoughts of ten residents of the Golden Lane Estate, London. Built in the late 1950s by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, the Golden Lane estate exemplifies an utopian ideal of social housing. This film documents the life of the complex over half a century since its construction and asks questions about domestic and private space and of making a home in such an iconic and distinctive architectural environment.
The Kogi civilization still survives hidden on Colombia's highest mountain. They believe they are guardians of the world. Their leaders are trained from infancy in darkness to connect with 'aluna', cosmic consciousness. They perceive 'black lines' that connect special sites essential to life. In 1990, convinced that we were destroying the earth, they sent a warning through a British film-maker and then withdrew. They have realised that we have ignored the warning and the world is in danger. So they recalled the film-maker and instructed him to film their demonstration of these connections, using 400km of gold thread.
People who have no wheel or writing travel to England for the thread, and discuss dark energy with a leading astronomer. But as their journey goes on they realize that the film-maker has no idea what they are trying to demonstrate and their own arguments are treated as fantasy. So they change tack, taking us up into their mountain to show exactly what they mean, and then coming down to join forces with leading scientists who recognize that they are communicating important cutting-edge knowledge.
Lifelong drifter Christopher Ellis has made his home on a small island off the west coast of Scotland. For six years he has lived in virtual isolation, being the only inhabitant of the island and rarely returning to the mainland.
Every winter Christopher journeys on foot to his home town of Leeds to earn a month’s wage as a pot washer in an Italian restaurant - enough for him to live off for the next year.
My Island is a portrait of one man’s lifelong pursuit of independence. A proud, self-defined tramp, Christopher Ellis challenges modern expectations about settling down, instead finding a simple pleasure in living hand-to-mouth in reflective seclusion.
