Projects with status: Complete

Synopsis

The Manhattan Brothers wrote and sang 'Township Jazz' music during 1940s and 50s in South Africa. With over 150 hits, they sold millions of records, but their record company, Gallo Records, paid them using petty cash vouchers and hardly anything in royalties. Exiled from South Africa for almost thirty years, Joe Mogotsi now returns to find out if, in the 'new' South Africa, past injustices will be redressed.

Synopsis

By the side of a road somewhere in the North of England, Sammy stands and waits for the arrival of childhood friends Billy and Ruby. It is twenty years since they all first met, when Sammy was taken by social workers to join an isolated children's home on the dramatic Northumbrian coast. As Sammy gets into Billy and Ruby's car it is immediately clear that, despite the fact that Ruby is recently pregnant, there is violent tension between them and that there is a psychological significance to the mysterious journey that Billy is taking them on.


As the journey progresses, we travel back to the past of their childhood when Sammy, shy and vulnerable and unable to read, joins the home. Billy, confident and charismatic, befriends and guides him through the trials of life in the home and protects him from the violent attentions of the resident bully, Bernie. As Sammy grows in confidence, Billy encourages a romantic attachment with his old girlfriend, the flame-haired Ruby. Using his emotional power over his friends, Billy establishes a ménage a trois that sets them apart from other children in the home. This power is threatened when, in a dramatic incident, Billy tries to defend Sammy from Bernie and gets savagely beaten. The resulting act of revenge is one which will inextricably bind the three friends through the intervening years until the pressure of the past and present combine to force an inevitable resolution.

Synopsis

A story of humour, energy and friendship, Spindrift chronicles a day in the life of two Soho drifters who work as rent boys. Combining documentary style material with expressionistic sequences, the film builds up a series of snapshots which encapsulate the boys' desire for freedom and love.

Synopsis

A story of humour, energy and friendship, Spindrift chronicles a day in the life of two Soho drifters who work as rent boys. Combining documentary style material with expressionistic sequences, the film builds up a series of snapshots which encapsulate the boys' desire for freedom and love.

Synopsis

Three heroines of nineteenth century Westcountry romantic novels escape from their author's imaginations and, after visiting modern Cornwall, themselves become inspired. But what will they create?

Synopsis

A former dog juggling star of the music hall, made obsolete by the coming of cinema, has to face up to change and move on. In his way stands Arnold Hew, the talentless and manipulative star of the silver screen who has stolen his act and destroyed his confidence. Told in flash-back, the film charts the degradation of the dog juggler by the callous Hew and builds up to the night of their final confrontation on the stage of a crumbling music hall...

Synopsis

Alun arrives in Glasgow to play a gig at The Edge, a comedy club run by would-be promoter Max T. Max T should be looking after Alun, but he already has his hands full trying to keep Sandy Cervo, his second cousin and business partner, from taking over the club. In a bid to sort out some 'poontang' for himself and Alun, Max invites Eva, a psychiatric nurse and her photographer friend Christina along to the gig.

Synopsis

England, 1908. The bosoms of the upper middle class heave with repression and tightly strung corsets. Aunt Agnes is desparate to marry off her spoilt, virginal charge, Emily





She invites Cedric to visit. He is an intellectual who tends to lapse into Latin just for Kicks.





Enter George, a rough villager, sone of Eric, rabbit-breeder extraordinaire, who is proud that he and his family are scum. George saves Emily from drowing and when she sees his rippling unmentionables, love is definitely in the air - until she realises just how lower class he is.





This irreverent comedy moves from England to Italy and then to India, with all and sundry causing havoc on both continents!

Synopsis

A film about the susceptibility of young males to ferocity, Stiletto focuses on 11 year old Conrad who is grappling with a dawning awareness of the adult world. Abandoned by his mother, Conrad's aunt intrudes on his life, turning his bedroom into an office for her growing mail order business. She sells stiletto heels in men's sizes. Unable to deal with his feelings, Conrad sets a trap and she discovers an undeserved fate.

Synopsis

Stone Tears is about a little girl coming to terms with her father's death. He was fascinated by kites. She has inherited his passion to be closer to him. When a stranger invades her secluded world, she realises the only way to let go is by releasing the kite.

Synopsis

If you have ever had a tenner on the winner of the Grand National then you may have experienced the gambling buzz. But if you've put your last £40,000 on Ajax to win the UEFA Cup, you've Stood For This Massive. This is a film about Harry Findlay, one of Britain's most notorious sports gamblers.

Synopsis

This documentary follows a group of dance music DJ's called Desert Storm who have a long history of raising money for Workers Aid for Bosnia by asking for donations at illegal 'free parties' that they organise in Britain. In the past they have driven trucks full of aid to Bosnia but in January of 1996 they wanted to take their mobile sound system with them to celebrate the signing of the Dayton peace accord.