Projects matching: ISO

Synopsis

From groundbreaking documentarian Errol Morris comes a probing portrait of controversial Breitbart honcho and Trump advisor, Stephen K. Bannon.
If Stephen K. Bannon were a fictional character, you'd have a hard time believing his narrative arc. He did stints as an investment banker and movie producer before steering the far-right media site Breitbart News as it swiftly moved from the fringe to the centre of American politics. As the chief executive of Donald Trump's campaign, he helped the candidate navigate several controversies that would have ended the career of any previous politician. He had a brief run in the White House as Trump's chief strategist. After being ousted, he continues to exert a powerful influence on right-wing ideologues in the US and abroad.
Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2018 - TIFF Docs

Synopsis

Violet, an aspiring singer, dreams of pop stardom as an escape from her small English town and a shattered family life. With the help of an unlikely mentor, Violet enters a singing competition that will test her integrity, talent, and ambition.
Set in the world of pop music, a visceral and uplifting story about growing up, dreaming big, and finding your voice.
Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2018 - Special Presentations - World premiere

Synopsis

Gripped by a failing marriage and the responsibilities of having a young son, Lydia finds solace in her growing bond with the town’s recently returned female doctor Jean. But this is the 1950s in a post-WWII rural Scotland, and the womens’ relationship prompts raised eyebrows in their provincial circles.
A heart-wrenching portrait of a love against all odds.
Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2018 - Special Presentations - World premiere

Synopsis

By the 1920s Virginia Woolf has reached the apex of modern world literature with her landmark novel, 'Mrs. Dalloway', but nothing seems to soothe the darkness that plagues her. She is powerless over the mood swings that alternately lift her to manic creative heights and then crush her under suffocating melancholia, driving her deeper into seclusion... Poems and letters of admiration from Vita Sackville-West lead to a courtship that is hardly concealed from their respective husbands. Soon, Virginia is enthralled by Vita. She is everything Virginia is not – extroverted, direct, in possession of a strongly magnetic personality and, as Virginia notes, a pair of the most "amazing legs".
Focusing on the period in 1927-8 during which Woolf wrote 'Orlando', the novel their relationship inspired, 'Vita & Virginia' is the long-gestating feature adaptation of actor and writer Dame Eileen Atkins’ play of the same name.
Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2018 - Special Presentations - World premiere

Synopsis

Mark Cousins' upcoming film project will be 16 hours when completed (in Spring 2019). The first four hours episodes are narrated by Tilda Swinton.
The complete film will be made up of forty “chapters” to be narrated by Tilda Swinton and other key women in cinema. Following in the footsteps of Mark Cousins’ 'The Story of Film: An Odyssey', giving a guided tour of the art and craft of the movies. Using almost a thousand film extracts from thirteen decades and five continents, Cousins asks how films are made, shot and edited; how stories are shaped and how movies depict life, love, politics, humour and death, all through the compelling lens of some of the world’s greatest directors – all of them women.
“Many films about cinema feature mostly male directors – 'Women Directing Film' challenges that. It tries to change the canon. It’s not about the lives of these great directors, it’s about their work. It is a film school, where all the teachers are female. The intention of this film is to, as Diaghilev and Cocteau said, “astonish us.” To campaign for equality in cinema is compellingly right and part of that campaign must be to celebrate the great women directors from around the world and from every decade, to insert them into the canon where they rightly belong and from which they have been excluded by many film historians, mostly male.” (Mark Cousins)
“Cinema: the great empathy machine. The ultimate invitation to walk in other people’s shoes, to look through their eyes, follow their thoughts, make their connections. This is the radical project of cinema itself. It transforms - it liberates us as we watch. It makes us fit for evolution.” (Tilda Swinton)
Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2018 - TIFF Docs

Synopsis

Barry attempts to elicit the help of his former lover after a terrible incident involving his Nan.
Official Selection Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2019 - International Competition

Synopsis

Lost in a deep mist, a lone fisherman boards an abandoned sailboat. Finding no signs of life, he emerges back on deck only to discover his own boat has disappeared.
What follows is a nightmarish journey in which he becomes imprisoned inside as the boat presses on into unknown waters.

Synopsis

Rose-Lynn Harlan is bursting with raw talent, charisma and cheek. Fresh out of jail and with two young kids, all she wants is to get out of Glasgow and make it as a country singer. Her mum Marion has had a bellyful of Rose-Lynn’s Nashville nonsense. Forced to take responsibility, Rose-Lynn gets a cleaning job, only to find an unlikely champion in the middle-class lady of the house.
A comedy-drama about mothers and daughters, dreams and reality and three chords and the truth.
Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2018 - Special Presentations - World premiere
Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2019 - Viewpoints

Synopsis

On the outskirts of Birmingham and the margins of society, the Billingham family perform extreme rituals and break cultural taboos as they muddle through a life decided by factors beyond their control.
Turner Prize-nominated and Deutsche Börse Prize-winning artist, Richard Billingham, returns to the striking photographs of his family during Thatcher-era Britain. The film is based on Billingham’s memories, focussing on his parents Ray and Liz, their relationship, and its impact on Richard and his younger brother Jason.
At times shocking and laced with an unsettling humour, three episodes unfold as a powerful evocation of experience of growing up in a Black Country council flat.
Official Selection Locarno Film Festival 2018 - International Competition - World premiere
Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2018
Official Selection New York Film Festival 2018
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2018
Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2019

Synopsis

Ben is janitor who is running away from his past and finds himself entangled in a metaphorical fight with his young self for the fate of his future. Can he break the chains of his trauma to live freely or forever be overshadowed by his demons?

Synopsis

Shergar was once the most valuable stallion in the world. His kidnapping in 1983 by the IRA still grips public’s imagination. What really happened with the prizewinning Irish racehorse? BAFTA-winning director Alison Millar goes in search of new evidence to try to solve the mystery.

Synopsis

'The Full Monty' in Speedos!
Accountant Eric believes he can win back his wife Heather by diving into the world of male synchronised swimming. Joining his local team "Men Who Swim", Eric finds a surprising brotherhood in this motley crew as they train for the world championships in Milan.
Can their coach Susan whip them into shape? Will they master 'the flower’, 'the pyramid’ and 'the spinning circle’ in time? More importantly, can Eric win Heather back with the help of his newfound confidence?
Official Selection Edinburgh International Film Festival 2018 - Closing Film - World premiere