Projects with status: Complete

Synopsis

An immersive cinematic experience about a young Deaf boy's emotional journey to express himself; a love letter to the power and magic of human communication.
Lawand is a young Kurdish boy, deaf since birth. After a treacherous journey and a year in a Dunkirk refugee camp, the help of a deaf volunteer brings his family to Derby, where Lawand joins the Royal School for the Deaf. As he grows older, the film follows his dramatic progress in learning British Sign Language, revealing a bright, charismatic, and inquisitive boy who discovers friendship and a new way to express himself.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2022 - World premiere
Official Selection Hot Docs 2023 - International premiere
Grierson Awards 2023 - Nomination - Best Single Documentary – Domestic

Synopsis

An adaptation of Ben Macintyre’s best-selling book exploring the impact of a notorious betrayal of the British establishment. It focuses specifically on what happened during the final meeting between Philby and his close friend and fellow MI6 agent Nicholas Elliott (Damian Lewis), in the days leading up to Philby’s defection. Was Elliott merely trying to extract a confession or was there something more shadowy at play? Outstanding performances from Lewis, Pearce and Anna Maxwell Martin bring to life the layered and deeply intelligent script by showrunner Alexander Carey (who previously worked with Lewis on HOMELAND). Part gripping spy thriller in the Le Carré mould, part incisive dissection of the British class and power structures still in place today, A SPY AMONG FRIENDS is, above all, a moving portrait of friendship and betrayal.
(London Film Festival)

Synopsis

BECOMING PLANT follows six dancers who participate in a therapeutic group experiment with psychedelics, while temporarily ‘living’ together on the demilitarised industrial site. While they are subjected to the plant’s consciousness and to each other’s presence, they perform a choreography, aligning their naked bodies with each other and with the architectural ruins. The film serves as a catalyst to discuss wider social and relational issues such as science, spirituality, psychiatry, healing, healthcare and the problems of collective depression and trauma resulting from living in the age of Late Capitalism. Featuring a specially composed soundtrack by London based electronic musician and visual artist Gaika.

Synopsis

The world has turned yellow, and people carry stuffed birds under their arms in this anxious and alienated environment.

Synopsis

How well do we ever really know our partner? That’s the question at the heart of this crafty comedy-drama, which follows married couple Jamie (Corden) and Amandine (Melia Kreiling) as they navigate the happily ever after. Combining the trappings of romantic comedy with the twists and turns of a whodunnit, the show deftly explores just how complicated long-term commitment can be. Best known for his comic performances, Corden is terrific in a more contained dramatic role, while Hawkins and Colin Morgan sparkle as Jamie’s sister and brother-in-law – a couple facing their own challenges. Butterworth’s (Jerusalem, Spectre) dexterous script is nimbly directed by Stephanie Laing, who has previously shown such a keen eye for gender dynamics in her work on PHYSICAL and MADE FOR LOVE.
(London Film Festival)

Synopsis

Complex drama and knotty themes have long been hallmarks of Blick’s work. Through the lens of the Western, he now turns his attention to the founding of contemporary USA. Blunt plays wealthy English woman Cornelia Locke, who arrives in the United States in 1890 with a bag of cash, hell-bent on killing the man responsible for the death of her child. She’s thrown together in unlikely circumstances with Pawnee scout Eli Whipp (a career making turn by Chaske Spencer), recently discharged from the army and trying to make his way home. Demonstrating a deep literacy with the genre, The English is stylised and angular filmmaking that both critiques and pays homage to the traditional Western while imbuing it with a contemporary sensibility. It’s also a work that speaks acutely to post-Brexit Britain – the imperial confidence of ‘the English’ playing cricket on the prairie is in striking contrast with a 21st-century nation coming to terms with its waning global power.
(London Film Festival)

Synopsis

Exploring the dying whistling traditions of the Hmong people of northern Laos, whose sonic exchanges straddle the boundary between music and speech. The film follows the personal stories of three individuals from Long Lan village, as they reflect on their experience as practitioners of a vanishing musical language.
Official Selection Aesthetica Film Festival 2022
Official Selection SXSW Film Festival 2023

Synopsis

A story gleaned from material collected over a lifetime. Lisa Selby, an artist and lecturer, has always documented her life in paint, words, photographs and film. As Lisa struggles to comprehend why her mother Helen didn’t raise her, Helen dies. Helen was charismatic, articulate, beautiful and addicted to heroin. Lisa now begins to get to know the woman she never called Mother, through the things she left behind and the memories of people who knew her. Lisa’s partner, Elliot, relapses on heroin and is incarcerated. Through her own sobriety and her love for Elliot, Lisa comes to understand addiction, and Helen, differently. She also uncovers a new possibility towards motherhood deep within herself.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2023 - World premiere - Audience Award - Winner
Official Selection Thessaloniki Documentary Festival 2023 - International premiere - Film Forward Competition Golden Alexander - Winner

Synopsis

Two young soldiers across enemy lines fall in love and find escape from their oppressive environments in this musical drama.
Official Selection Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2023

Synopsis

A short animated documentary that explores the experience of telling the world that you are autistic when you also identify as LGBTQ+.
Official Selection Kaboom Animation Festival 2023

Synopsis

When a bag of drugs goes missing, four youths must race across the city to find it before the party of the year.

Synopsis

A transcendental meditation on withered trees struggling to be reborn. A fleeting glimpse into the seemingly trivial occurrences of daily life. A sheer ecstasy of physical intimacy viewed through celluloid films, in which the life of the emulsion is decaying.