Projects in genres: Drama

Synopsis

A contemporary music-driven drama, tinged with magic and special effects, that takes you on a journey from innocence to adolescence. When Bebette's artistic and unconventional behaviour is interpreted as disruptive and anti-social, she is projected from the beauty and security of her dream world into a bleak and sometimes frightening reality. In an effort to escape the torment in her mind, she runs!

This is the first film written and directed by Janis Sharp and is full of optimism and charm, with an original soundtrack filled with mood and melody.

Synopsis

Rabbie Burns, a young man with a history of mental problems, is given a clean bill of health by his psychiatrist, Dr. MacKenzie. But no sooner has he left the doctor's clinic than the city begins speaking to him in voices, by messages in Underground trains, over supermarket tannoys, and his own T.V, in the guise of a talking pig. Rabbie is told he has thirty hours to stop the world's leaders' experiments with the ultimate weapon of mass destruction - XZB-3 - before forces beyond human control destroy the world and put an end to history.

Rabbie's only friends in the city are Narendra, a TV researcher covering the mad dog story, and Jimmy Joyce, a homeless vagrant and saxophonist. Enlisting their help, Rabbie soon finds that the voices he thinks are his own mental creations are real, and unleashing actual events. As he is abducted, first by government agents, and then by what appear to be alien forces, he seems threatened on all sides, and made responsible by the 'Supreme Being' himself for a cataclysmic outcome he has no power at all to control.

Synopsis

Maestro tells the story of a famous international concert violinist who no longer plays. Embittered and haunted by a guilty secret, he retires to a remote mountain village in Spain. He lives alone and is regarded by the villagers with a mixture of suspicion and disdain. The arrival on holiday of his housekeeper's beautiful daughter, Inma, upsets his quiet existence and re-awakens long buried emotions and old wounds.

In an electrifying final act, the theme of atonement and redemption is played out against the background of Easter Feria.

Beautifully photographed by Tom Ingle, the film was shot on location in Britain and Competa, Spain. The blazing Spanish sun, the towering beauty of the mountains, the apparent tranquillity of the little white villages of Spain, provide the backdrop and atmosphere for the cauldron of the characters' emotions.

Synopsis

Joe Doherty, a recently suspended policeman, under investigation following the death of a suspect in custody has another thorn in his side, and Dudley, his younger brother who, preferring the seedy world of drugs and dirty money, rip off crime boss Jimmy McCarthy.

Three days later, during a party at Joe's house, two heavies arrive to kill Dudley, but a case of mistaken identity leaves an innocent dead. Dudley's plans to run are heightened, but he must wait for the proceeds from his dealer friend Ashraf. He blackmails Joe into getting rid of the body. We flash back in Dudley's mind to Jimmy McCarthy's bar; Dudley is almost drowned at the hands of Jimmy's bodyguards and a coke gun. Jimmy gives him a chance to redeem himself and return the goods.

Joe is close to breaking point, changes his mind about dumping the body and confronts his amoral sibling with the intent of involving the police. But coupled with the investigation of the case and the latest murder, Dudley finds it easy to manipulate him and buy more time.

Ashraf is concerned for his own safety, but agrees to help by sending a courier with some money. Unfortunately the courier never makes it as Jimmy McCarthy and his heavies arrive first. Jimmy, angry and frustrated, with a bloodied, yet stubborn, Dudley, orders the torture of a bound Joe. A plastic bag is pulled tight over a helpless Joe's head. Dudley, with no other choice, grabs a hidden gun and opens fire....

Synopsis

Married/Unmarried written originally as a stage play, examines the sexual emotions and infidelity of two twenty-something couples.

Each character interacts with another in a blistering series of 'two-hander' vignettes that examines the effects of love and loss, and dissects their darkest sexuality and desires in frank and explicit scenes.

The structure and pace escalate to a startling climax when inhibitions and morals are discarded, leaving the characters naked from restraint.

Using the vibrancy of London streets and locations as a backdrop, the characters are followed in various interludes - both in musical montage and newly scripted scenes. The work lends itself perfectly to being shot in the film medium, heightening the realism and the suffocating emotions of love.

Filmed, styled and structured in the tradition of the French New Wave studies of morals and manners, and inspired by the naturalistic and improvisational focus of John Cassavettes, Married/Unmarried is a stark exploration of dark sexual swordplay, brutal performance, and unflinching truth.

Synopsis

Munich, 1919. Artist Max Rothman returns from World War I, his right arm missing. Unable to paint, he opens what quickly becomes an acclaimed art gallery. With his beautiful ballerina wife, exquisite children and a talented and passionate mistress, Max's new life is a complete success.

After a celebratory party for the opening of his new show, attended by Munich's finest, Max meets a fellow war veteran and aspiring artist, Adolf Hitler; a confused, lonely young man with no family and few friends. Max takes Hitler under his wing and encourages him to paint. But the young Hitler fails to deal with his personal demons through his art and transfers his creative talents to politics, where at last he finds an outlet for his raw beliefs.

Abandoning Max , Hitler begins his career, setting in motion what will be the most terrible period of 20th Century history.

Synopsis

Based on a short story by Brady Udall. Jerry has lost everything he cares for. One night he turns up at a big house, accompanied by a pygmy goat, which it transpires, belongs to his past.

Synopsis

Miranda appears in the life of daydreaming librarian Frank and propels him into a chaotic world of confidence tricksters, sadistic villains, and amazing sex. Miranda, he discovers, has several identities - con woman, dancer and dominatrix.

But which one is the real Miranda? She's sexy, she's smart and she's dangerous to know. She'll become any man's fantasy to get what she wants. But is it money or love that she's after?

Synopsis

A man goes through three years of a relationship in three days. A romantic comedy.

Synopsis

A tranquil village pub. Three young people settle down in the beer garden for a peaceful pint. A troupe of Morris dancers arrives. An American tourist films the quaint traditional scene on his camcorder. The three drinkers don't like Morris dancers. And they make their feelings known.

Synopsis

Morvern Callar is a 21 year old supermarket worker from a small port town in the west of Scotland. Morvern believes that life is something you get on with as best you can with what you've got. One morning Morvern finds that what she's got is a dead boyfriend on the kitchen floor.

Synopsis

Homeless, aging, unstable, Don is a man without a role or a future.
As Christmas approaches on the streets of Brighton, a fragile life falls apart unnoticed. Perhaps the factory of time and motion is the answer to Don's prayers.

Motion is a journey into an unseen Britain. An emotionally charged and uncompromising digital vision, it was made over a period of 18 months on a budget of just £3,000. First-time director Tom Clay brings a new closeness to life on the fringes, using hidden camera techniques to merge fiction and real life, before delivering a final act of unexpected transcendence.