Projects with status: Complete

Synopsis

In 1935, when it was more common for Irish families to leave their famine-stricken country for America, the impoverished McCourt family does the reverse. Angela and her alcoholic husband Malachi set sail from New York Harbour to Cork with their four children, Frank, Malachy Jr. and twins Eugene and Oliver to a land which a mystified young Frank had only heard of as 'where there was no work and people were dying of the starvation and the damp'.

A cold greeting awaits them in Limerick by Angela's Catholic family. Grandma lends them money for a small place but any hope of their luck changing soon disappears with Dad not being able to find employment, and Oliver and Eugene dying from malnourishment and the damp. Dad's spirits sink lower and he drowns his sorrows in alcohol.

Edinburgh Film Festival - nbx write up:

As soon as he finished reading Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes, the devastating portrayal of a child growing up in Ireland, British film-maker Alan Parker tried to option the film rights. Although they had already been acquired by US producers David Brown and Scott Rudin, Parker soon signed on as director, taking a production credit via his London-based Dirty Hands Productions. The director then updated the first draft of the script written by Australian writer Laura Jones.

"Adapting any famous literary work is problematic in that, in the compression to a manageable cinematic shape, inevitably, certain characters and situations will be excluded," Parker said.

At that time in 1998, Dirty Hands had a first-look deal with PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, now known as Universal Pictures International (UPI). UPI agreed to back the project along with Paramount Pictures. With two-times Academy Award nominee Emily Watson and Robert Carlyle in place as the leads, and three boys cast for the three ages of Frank, production began in September 1998. "Our film had the advantage of being financed by two studios and so we had the luxury of moving this huge travelling circus around Ireland," says Parker.

The team decided to shoot in Dublin and Cork as well as Limerick, the western Irish town where the majority of the book is set. "It was obvious that a patchwork quilt, a mosaic of different places, would have to be put together to accurately replicate the Limerick of 50-odd years ago," says Parker.

Angela's Ashes wrapped in December 1998 after a 75-day shoot. It was released in the US in December 1999.

Synopsis

Edinburgh International Film Festival - NBX review:

Another George is the latest feature film to be produced by students at the prestigious Northern Media School at Sheffield Hallam University. An arthouse film, it tells the story of a man, played by Gregor Jordan, on an archaeological dig in the Peak District. He develops insomnia and starts writing a story based on the quest of Saint George that gradually becomes intermingled with the story of his own life.

The post-graduate course in Screen Arts attracts film-making students from around the world and across the film-making disciplines. Such a potent mix is evident in Another George which is co-written and co-directed by Uruguay's Pablo Casacuberta, a writer, and Japan's Yukihiko Goto, a director. Co-director of photography Alex Gabbay comes from a documentary film-making background, while the producer is Scotland's Alison Garritty.

"Bringing together film-makers from across the disciplines creates a unique relationship with the visuals," says Jan Worth, executive producer of the project, and head of the Northern Media School.

Shot on a digital video camera for £4,000 and majority financed by the Northern Media School, Another George was completed at the end of 1999 and premiered at London's Lux Cinema in June. One impressed critic described the film as "a Jim Jarmusch remix of Rossellini".

Synopsis

Another Life is a true story. Set in Edwardian London, it is the colourful and moving account of Edith Thompson, a woman wrongly accused of the murder of her husband, a case which became a 'cause celebre' of its time.

Beginning of 1909, the film traces the heady days when Edith falls in love with and finally marries her childhood sweetheart, Percy Thompson. The First World War follows during which time Edith becomes gradually disillusioned as Percy reveals himself to be a coward, dodging his military service.

Her whole world is changed when she meets the handsome Freddy Bywaters and she soon embarks on an affair with the young sailor. When the couple indulge in foolish fantasy, inventing unrealistic schemes to do away with Edith's husband, Freddy translates the game into reality, stabbing Percy to death as he walks home from the theatre with Edith.

Despite hugh public outcry and Bywater's adamant assertion that she had no hand in the killing, Edith is found guilty of murder alongside her lover, and they are both sentenced to be hanged.

Edinburgh International Film Festival - NBX review:

Set in Edwardian London, Another Life is based on the true story of Edith Thompson, a woman wrongly accused of her husband's murder.

Natasha Little (a This Life graduate who has since starred in the BBC's Vanity Fair) plays Edith, a career woman whose husband Percy Thompson (Nick Moran) is stabbed to death on a dark night in October 1922. As Edith recollects her past, we are introduced to Freddie Bywaters (Ioan Gruffudd), a sailor with whom she embarks on a passionate affair. When the lovers indulge in a fantasy to do away with her husband, little does Edith realise that Freddie is about to translate their game into action.

Writer-director Philip Goodhew first started researching Edith Thompson's story a decade ago, at the same time as he uncovered the material for his first feature Intimate Relations.

Goodhew and producing partner Angela Hart of Boxer Films set about getting the project off the ground in 1996 and the £2.5m budget was finally raised in 1998.

Ioan Gruffudd was the first actor on board. "I saw a trailer of him as Hornblower and was stunned at how similar he was to the real Freddie Bywaters," says Goodhew. Nick Moran, from Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, was a more unusual piece of casting as the dullard Percy. "Most people will be wondering what he's doing playing that role because its a period piece and he's not playing the baddie," says Goodhew.

Another Life was shot over six weeks at the end of 1999 at Three Mills Studios in Bow, East London and around London.

Synopsis

Vera Fairfax (Susannah Morley) believes she has achieved everything she could wish for, through social climbing and marriage to a powerful bureaucrat.

That is until her husband Robert (Ian Swann), meets his match in his former protégé Cadogan (Ian Good).

Cadogan's manipulation of the apparatus of this totalitarian state, results in Robert's death and Vera being turned into a non-person.

Abandoned to the whims of Cadogan's unseen manipulation of the state system, Vera has only one possible course of action - to seek a fitting revenge on Cadogan.

Synopsis

Set at the end of World War II in no-man's land, two lone characters journey the hostile environment intent on escaping the surreal horrors surrounding them.

Synopsis

'One man, One space - The seaside; his home, heaven and hiding place. After his fathers funeral, bewildered, lost, confused as a man, he seeks solace as a child. Mourning his loss with memories, through the safety of naîve young eyes.'

Synopsis

The film sets out to explore fear and prejudice and whether we make choices through conditioning and/or upbringing.

Synopsis

An 'eye-level' view going with Scottish activist Cathy McCormack to South Africa to see how her fellow activists are faring, making intriguing parallels with her own life in the Easterhouse housing project, in Scotland, and theirs.

Synopsis

We follow the ups and downs of a toddler's day, alternating between the baby's point of view and that of the harassed, unseen mother.

Synopsis

A little girl's bad dreams are a refuge from a much more disturbing reality.

Synopsis

In a run-down bus station in the North East, Clint takes pity on a hungry man. He gives him some sandwiches that his dad, Johnno, asked him to guard while he attends a job interview. When Johnno returns and sees that Clint has given away their lunch, he snaps.

Synopsis

Adam's camp; Steve's camp. Dinner sets things straight, naturally.