Projects in genres: Black

Synopsis

Experimental documentary looking at the day that Muhammad Ali came to Tyneside in 1977 and the effect that this event had on the young Yemeni-British men who attended the Mosque. This film examines the emerging Arab/British identity and briefly introduced this historic community.
 

Synopsis

Jeffrey Marshall is a professional musician, born without arms or legs. But do people come to his shows to listen to the music or to stare at the spectacle of how he's playing? In The Last Freak Show we join him in Nashville as he promotes his debut album before heading out to explore his personal and cultural identity as a disabled performer by becoming the star attraction in the last remaining freak show in America.

Synopsis

The story of two flatmates who share the same space but live completely different lives.

Synopsis

Eve Colman is searching for cheap accommodation. She views a property shared with Adam Smith and decides that this will be her home if she is offered the room.

Eve moves in and holds a housewarming party. Adam painfully makes himself scarce at the party as it is clear to him that he is not an invited guest.

Eve decides to compensate by cooking him a meal, albeit from his own resources and without his permission. They both eat quietly without talking until Eve decides to break the ice. Adam vents his frustration, but is rebuffed when Eve issues him a challenge to cook a better meal. She gets up and leaves the room, slamming the door behind her.

Adam prepares a meal for Eve whilst she is in midst of preparing to find a new home. She is taken by the aromas that come from the kitchen, and is curious to investigate.  Eve to his change of heart, allowing him to be a man and treat her as a guest.

When the meal is over, camaraderie builds and Eve sees an opportunity to nurture a deeper relationship with Adam, and the two of them conform to each other once physical contact is made. The germ of a fruitful alliance is now born.

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Truthful, tender and brutally comic, Top Girl tells a story of girls growing up in a man's world.

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The dramatic true story of Rwandan school students, attacked by rebels in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide - whose refusal to betray each other cost some of them everything, but gave hope to a nation.

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It wasn't exactly a promising childhood. An impoverished father at fifteen, Daniel joined the family business, becoming a drug dealer despite watching his two brothers jailed for the same crime. But when his mother narrowly escapes a prison sentence, and moves the family from North Carolina to the South Bronx, Daniel is given a fresh start. At Taft High School, one of the most violent, notorious high schools in the nation, Daniel discovers that education can give him a future away from poverty and crime. Mature beyond his years, and increasingly articulate, he becomes a dedicated student, not only is he the first of his family to graduate high school, but he wins a scholarship to one of the most elite universities in the US.

Just as he thinks the world is his oyster, Daniel falters. A fish out of water he feels alienated not only by his white classmates, but even more so by his middle-class black ones. Filmed over nine years by director Daniela Zanzotto, and narrated by Daniel himself, this is a remarkable portrait of a self-believer determined to steer his own path in life.

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The story of the childhood of Olaudah Equiano in Benin between 1745-55 before he was kidnapped and enslaved.

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Filmed on location in the US, Europe and Southern Africa, The Hunger Season tells the story of a young teacher called Justice and the children in his care living in the heart of rural Swaziland as they struggle to survive a year of drought and diminishing food handouts.

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On a run down council estate, Robert visits his mentally disturbed friend and recounts the details of a vicious street attack, only to discover that his own perception of reality has been turned upside down.

Synopsis

Having fled Iraq, 9-year-old Ali arrives in Britain. Unable to speak English he is shunned by those around him. He builds a plane from objects discarded by the locals and makes a special friend along the way. A visually driven lyrical tale that explores loss, the sweetness of hope and the realisation of dreams.

Synopsis

A restless spirit longs to return home. After the removal of Saddam, Ali, an Iraqi exile is invited to return to Baghdad. As the moment of his return draws closer, it re-ignites a series of memories that Ali had long forgotten and reawakens anxieties, which he thought that he had left behind when he fled as a child from East to West. As these feelings become more intense, Ali is forced to re-evaluate the meaning of his journey. What awaits him now in post-Saddam Iraq? Ali’s fears and doubts are only alleviated when he connects with the memory of his own childhood in the Middle East, where as a little boy he set his spirit free on the wind.