Projects in genres: Disabilities

Synopsis

Archie is a small boy with learning difficulties. He doesn't speak, and can't cope with school. His parents are at war, and the social services want to take Archie into care. Most people have written him off, but a chance meeting with an unlikely friend changes everything.

Synopsis

Inspired by D.F. Wallace's first short story, visualising mental discomfort as living on another planet to Earth, the film splits the character of May in two halves: one struggling in London in the past, the other one trying to recover in a youth clinic in the present -until the two storylines collide.

Synopsis

A visually impaired young man awakes from unconsciousness to find the aftermath of a global catastrophe caused by environmental damage. Using his other senses he tries to come to terms with the devastation in his immediate environment. An eco-disaster short that shows the effects on an urban household.

Synopsis

A compelling portrait of loyalty, broken dreams and redemption told by its director, reluctantly-dutiful daughter Karen, who takes you under the skin of the deceptively humdrum household she returns to for this long goodbye. Karen’s mother Ann suffers a devastating stroke that brings her daughter back home. But Karen isn’t the only one who comes back to help care for Ann in the crisis: Her prodigal father - the endearing yet unfathomable Ian, who’s been separated from Ann for years - also reappears. Reunited so unexpectedly, and armed with her camera, Karen seizes this last chance to go under the skin of the family story before it’s too late, to come to terms with the aftermath of the secret her father had tried - and failed - to keep from them all: a relationship and a son, Campbell, born in Ethiopia and now in Scotland. With candour, warmth and much unexpected humour, Karen’s role as family confidante, busybody, therapist and spy brings to life both an extraordinary story and a profound portrait of family survival. Hot Docs 2015 - World premiere

Synopsis

Chronically ill Anna is visited by Doreen, a door-to-door proselytizer who makes herself at home and stays the day, slowly defrosting her non-welcome. Together, they walk in the park, bake a cake and watch an Ingmar Bergman film. Both women are blind, played by blind actors in this existential comedy.

Synopsis

Today 1 in 68 children are diagnosed with autism, most are boys . if you had 2 daughters diagnosed with autism , would you want to know why ? are we living in an autism epidemic ? or a epidemic of knowledge ?

Synopsis

With his twenty year high school reunion looming, Dan can’t shake his old school insecurities. In a misguided mission to prove he's changed, Dan rekindles a friendship with the popular guy from his class and is left scrambling to protect more than just his reputation when a wild night takes an unexpected turn.

Synopsis

A young mum-to-be faces the possibility of having a child with Down’s Syndrome. She takes on a gardening job and develops a friendship with a family, which includes 12 year old Jacques who has Down’s Syndrome, which challenges her ability to deal with difference.

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John is 32. Diagnosed with a devastating eye condition he is gradually losing his sight. Urged by those around him to make difficult decisions he seeks solace in his love of night fishing guided by his young friend Ben in a journey requiring real patience and fortitude.

Synopsis

In 1848, Phineas Gage suffers an unspeakable brain injury when a tamping rod plunges through his skull, causing dramatic shifts in his personality. His physician Dr Harlow watches over his recovery and must choose whether or not to fight for this outcasts place in the local community.

Synopsis

As editor of The Sunday Times for fourteen years, Sir Harold Evans proved to be the right man in the right place at the right time. In an investigative climate all too rare by today's standards, Evans had the freedom and resources to allow teams of journalists to work on long-term projects, including the exposure of Kim Philby as a Soviet spy. Evans' longest and most hard fought campaign was for the victims of Thalidomide. Originally developed by the Germans in World War II to counter effect sarin gas, post-war the drug was blithely prescribed by British doctors as an antidote to morning sickness, unwittingly leading to tens of thousands of children being born with serious defects. The Sunday Times' fight to win compensation for their struggling families would take more than a decade, as Evans tenaciously pursued the drug companies through the English courts and beyond. Sheffield Doc/Fest 2014 - World premiere

Synopsis

Bill is an elderly pianist in his first week at a care home devoid of music. Growing increasingly aware of Bill's passion for music, resident nurse Emma, seeks ways in which she can connect with him and help him to recover his sense of self.