Jason Barker’s debut feature documentary A DEAL WITH THE UNIVERSE is a very personal chronicle of becoming a parent. Drawing on the filmed diaries made over the last ten years that document both Jason’s transgender journey as well has his parental journey. This film is groundbreaking in terms of it’s intimate insights into gender identity and new parenthood.
A tale of one North Korean's struggle to leave behind the homeland, this stylised documentary with exclusive access unveils the depths of loss, longing and legacy amongst a community of North Korean defectors who have escaped their homeland to live in the leafy London suburb of New Malden.
Official Selection CPH:DOX 2018 - In Competition Next: Wave Award - World premiere
Official Selection Sheffield Doc/Fest 2018 - UK premiere
Tekoa is a trendy hipster colony for Israeli settlers on the West Bank, where none of the controversial residents want to speak to the media. From the moment filmmaker Iris Zaki arrives, tension fills the air. She sets up a small pop-up film studio in the middle of the small town, and stays put for over one month in order to meet the young settlers face to face. A simple intervention, which creates a complex chain of reactions from those who eventually agree to talk to her. From a woman who in the middle of an interview admits to being a fascist, to another who has survived a knife attack by a young Palestinian – and has forgiven him. 'Unsettling' is made by Iris Zaki alone as a social experiment that highlights the contrasts and contradictions of the settlers' self-perception, but which does so in something as rare as an active conversation with them. A conceptual ploy that places Zaki's film in the field between artistic practice and political activism, and which reaches beyond blind criticism. (CPH:DOX brochure)
Official Selection CPH:DOX 2018 - World premiere
Examining the relationship between ourselves and the other species we share the planet with has opened up new ways to understand our place in the world. This film offers an attempt to give some of these new ways of thinking a cinematic form.
An essay based on a field trip to Wyoming's wild nature, in the company of the bio-philosopher David Abram and the two visionary filmmakers Emma Davie and Peter Mettler. And with an abundance of bison, moose and birds. Both form and thought are unchained in a film that ends up moving (far) beyond man's self-centred view of nature, and into a state of almost psychedelic receptiveness. As Mettler asks in a diaristic note: Are language and modern technology a barrier or an open door between ourselves and the world that surrounds us? And what about the medium of film itself?
Official Selection CPH:DOX 2018 - World premiere
The story of TED Prize-winner Sugata Mitra’s attempt to pioneer a new form of education, seen through the eyes of children in an Indian village and in a northern British town, whose lives are being transformed by his ideas. The film poses the question "What kind of education do children need in the networked world?"
Official Selection CPH:DOX 2018 - World premiere
A sombre and intimate portrait of notorious villain Freddie Foreman, now aged 85 and seeking a catharsis from his sins.
The former London gangster Freddie Foreman is the only one of his generation who survived the English underworld long enough to be able to tell the tale. And this is exactly what he does in 'Fred': Tells his story. Today, he is 85 years old and lives alone in a nursing home, allegedly with several murders to his name and with his memories intact. A long and critical interview with the East End boy who grew up in the turbulent era of the war and became one of London's most notorious gangsters in the 1960s and 1970s, when he hung out with pop stars and football players, is the thread running through Paul van Carter's self-reflective portrait of the criminal mastermind. A film that balances between true crime, deep journalism and colourful cock-and-bull tales from another era with Swinging London as its backdrop. The conversation with the charismatic Foreman unfolds against a richly detailed (pop-)cultural and historical background, where myth and truth meet – not least when he visits the set of the Tom Hardy film 'Legend'. Dark psychology and captivating storytelling in a masterful film. (CPH:DOX brochure)
Official Selection CPH:DOX 2018 - World premiere
A short documentary about the only helpline in the UK for gay farmers. Through a series of recorded telephone conversations and reconstructive visuals, the film uses the helpline as a lens through which to view the experiences of LGBTQ people in the British farming community. In a world that prizes traditional masculinity and in which ideas of ancestry are fundamental, being gay can be isolating. Candid, intimate and shocking, the film offers a snapshot of a group of people bound together by circumstance, but so often disconnected from each other.
Official Selection CPH:DOX 2018 - International premiere
Mary is a young woman in search of a new way of living. Constricted by the hierarchies of the day, Mary defies her traditional family to join a new social movement led by the charismatic Jesus of Nazareth. She soon finds a place for herself within the movement and at the heart of a journey that will lead to Jerusalem.
An authentic and humanistic portrait of Mary Magdelene, one of the most enigmatic and misunderstood spiritual figures in history.
The official documentary about maverick Manchester comedian Frank Sidebottom, and the life and art of his hidden creator Chris Sievey. Frank Sidebottom, remembered fondly as the man with the papier-mâché head, was the court jester of the Manchester music and comedy scene for over 25 years, but only a privileged few knew the man inside. BEING FRANK tells a twisted tale of split personalities – a suburban superhero with a fanatical desire to preserve the myth he created, and eventually having to battle against being consumed by his alter ego.
Drawing on unique archive footage of Chris and Frank, sourced from Sievey's own extensive archive of Super 8 film, VHS tapes and DVDs, a heartbreaking and hilarious look at what it takes to be a true artist.
Official Selection SXSW Film Festival 2018 - World premiere
In this adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy, both the staging and the interpretation of this classic play are radically reinvigorated for a contemporary audience. In a godless world of moral relativism, we follow Macbeth’s inner journey from his position as an assured warrior hero, to his nadir as a bereft, lonely, insecure and guilt-ridden king. Driven by his ambition, which he attempts to justify by a desperate appeal to supernatural signs and influences, Macbeth finally recognises his personal culpability, casts aside his self-excusing acts of self-deception, and dies bravely and defiantly, bleakly aware of the fragility of his own humanity.
Shakespeare's genius encompasses a deft and fluid ability to weave complex poetic threads that bind together the outer material story, and the inner psychological narrative.
We have created sequences of cinematic poetry to work in sympathetic engagement with the actual poetry at such moments – not just summoning the Shakespearean imagery in newly visualised form but allowing the stream of Shakespearean imagery to suggest other directions of travel for the film’s account of Macbeth’s inner world. Our film language is as dexterous, fluid and imaginative as the spoken language is at such moments.
Gillian, a wanna-be-author, is pressured to move beyond her meandering writing career and get a more stable job. She decides to mount a 'Shakespeare by the Sea' festival, an ambitious plan that could have tricky ramifications for her marriage.
Official Selection SXSW Film Festival 2018 - Visions - World premiere
