‘Dark tourism' has been defined as travel to places historically associated with death or tragedy. In Belfast, Northern Ireland, this industry is booming. Over 3600 people died during The Troubles (1968-1998), the colloquial name given to the 30 year period of violence and political dispute between Unionists who wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom and Nationalists who wanted to join the Republic of Ireland. A new phenomena of tourists now travel to the working class streets of the city where the majority of the conflict took place with long-term residents beginning to feel like they’re part of the attraction.
Official Selection Sheffield Doc/Fest 2020
Ravaged by war, the world recovers from a divided past. The last remaining survivors struggle to not only survive, but to also find their place. Morality is tested to its limits and a harsh environment has moulded demented madmen. Exploring themes of mental illness and equality, two strangers - a mute, and a man escaping his past - venture into the quiet world side by side. One looking to save his kidnapped lover from a masked gang of sociopaths, and the other seeking his stolen cassette player while being haunted by bizarre and ominous dreams. Both of them have one destination - a peaceful community only for women - a place called 'Eve.'
1972, Blossom, Texas.
After running away from home Simon decides to leave town, by chance he finds a way out and quickly goes to pick up his friends for the journey of a lifetime.
This is a ghost story. A series of uncanny events lead The Seeker to a forest in Poland where she meets a distraught elderly woman who hands her a note written in Polish that she cannot understand. Returning months later with an interpreter she hears the story of The Deathless Woman, a Roma matriarch who was buried alive in the forest by German soldiers in 1942.
The Deathless Woman draws us from the scene of her death to other sites of Roma persecution. She hovers above the Gypsy Camp at Birkenau on the night the Roma revolt against their Nazi captors. She glides under the lake in Várpalota where 118 women and children were massacred in 1945. She passes through the burnt-out house in Tatárszentgyörgy where neo-Nazis murdered a Roma family in 2009. She even crosses into the virtual realm and enters the digital landscapes of the Internet, encountering hate speech and video games where players are invited to gun down unarmed Roma as they run through the streets.
The film interweaves The Deathless Woman’s ghostly narration, The Seeker’s journey of discovery, fantastical re-imaginings of buried secrets; and documentary testimony from witnesses to atrocities against the Roma in Poland and Hungary.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2019 - Experimenta Strand - World premiere
A film of three interconnected narratives – a story of the artist's grandfather, one of ‘the land’, and another detailing an encounter with Nigeria – which the film attempts to tell in as many ways as possible.
Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2020 - Bright Future - Ammodo Tiger Short Competition - International premiere
A group of artists on a small Greek island build an experimental music festival aiming to bridge the gap between the Greeks and the islands refugee community. Stories from Leros.
A naïve actress new to the industry allows her senses to be seduced by this world, trusting a well established director which leads to dramatic consequences.
Atti is a Roman teenager with brains but very little brawn. When one of his clever schemes falls foul of Emperor Nero, Atti is forced to join the army and is sent to miserable, cold, wet Britain where the natives are revolting - quite literally.
Things go from bad to worse when Atti is captured by Orla, a feisty teenage Celt desperate to prove herself as a warrior. When Orla’s grandmother, Brenda, is then kidnapped by an enemy tribe, Atti seizes on the opportunity to save his own skin by using his Roman know-how to help Orla save her.
Meanwhile a furious Nero is determined to crush the rebellion, led by Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni. After narrowly avoiding a very sticky end in a bog, Atti rejoins his Roman troops and discovers they are preparing for an historic showdown with the Celts at the Battle of Watling Street. Atti’s brains could save the day but they could also spell disaster for Orla as the two new friends find themselves lined up on opposite sides of the battlefield.
The film uses puppets and automata as human surrogates, and combines original material with found-footage and archive photographs. The idea of hypnosis occurs throughout, notably in the records of its use in the treatment of hysteria at the Salpetriere Asylum in 19th century Paris.
