Projects

Synopsis

Walking the liminal space between perception and memory the film charts the emotional recovery of a family as they come to terms with their father's suicide that left them in financial ruin seven years ago. As they piece together fragments of a broken past, questions of memory, identity and love must be faced before the family can embrace the future. Combining family home video archive with intimate footage captured in the West Midlands over two years, director Lucy Cohen examines how tragedy struggles towards hope. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2017 - Documentary Competition - World premiere BAFTA Nomination 2018 - Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer

Synopsis

A poetic study of the life and work of artist Margaret Benyon, pioneer in the artistic use of holography. Giving voice to the unsung legacy of a pioneering woman artist, 'A Blemished Code' is an impassioned meditation on the representation of female artists, the balancing of creative and domestic life, and the inherent tensions of being a woman working with new technology. The inner life of the subject is represented throughout by a brilliant musical score featuring sung script and compositions by Stevie Jones, Mai Mai, and Leigh Ferguson. (LFF brochure) Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2017 - Experimenta Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

Having moved to Paris for university, Leevi returns to his native Finland for the summer to help his estranged father renovate the family lake house so it can be sold. Tareq, a recent asylum seeker from Syria, has been hired to help with the work, and when Leevi's father has to return to town on business, the two young men establish a connection and spend a few days discovering one another during the Finnish midsummer. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2017 - Love Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

A young blade runner's discovery of a long-buried secret leads him to track down former blade runner Rick Deckard, who's been missing for thirty years. Continuing the story in 2049, some 30 years after the events of the 2019-set original Blade Runner film.

Synopsis

The story of A. A. Milne, the celebrated children’s creator of Winnie the Pooh, and his relationship with his young son, Christopher Robin, who, alongside his toys was the unwitting inspiration for one of the most successful children stories ever created. Set in England between the World Wars, the story focuses on the young Christopher Robin. A painfully lonely little boy, an only child with little to no relationship with his successful socialite parents, who becomes an overnight international star due to the immense success of his father’s books. Christopher possesses great vulnerability and deep pain masked by a wonderful and wild imagination. A touching account of a young boy growing up in the shadow of his own fame.

Synopsis

11 July 2013, 3AM. After months of training, under the cover of darkness six women begin their illegal ascent of the tallest building in Europe... What spurred them on and what kept them going? Were they prepared to fail, or worse, to fall? Behind the climbers was a team of tacticians, climbing experts, supporters (and lawyers) who planned and rehearsed with them - but ultimately had to let them climb alone. A story of courage, endurance and the power of teamwork. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2017 - Debate Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

A haunting metaphorical take on the physical and mental isolation of the migrant experience. Inspired by the director’s father’s experience of being trapped in Greece’s Ellinikon Airport without a passport in 1977, the film follows a week in the life of a man who has been living in limbo at an airport for a decade. All promises of movement are ultimately met with stasis in this profound evocation of our epoch of desperate migration. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival - Experimenta Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

16-year-old Hugh thinks he’s in a nice, normal, coming-of-age story when a past life’s unsatisfied urges make him want to sleep with his girlfriend’s mum and kill her dad. He finds it all very confusing. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2017 - Laugh Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

Charting the rise to stardom of a stand-up comedienne (Maxine Peake) in an all male world during the 1970s and 80s in industrial Northern England. From her violent childhood to her turbulent adult relationships, she uses the raw material of her life experiences to bring comedy to the stage. A stand-up comedienne in an all-male world, the film delivers tragedy and comedy in equal measure. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2017 - Laugh Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

Phillip Goodman, professor of psychology and arch sceptic has his rationality tested to the hilt when he receives a letter apparently from beyond the grave. His mentor Charles Cameron, the ‘original’ TV parapsychologist went missing fifteen years before, presumed dead and yet now he writes to Goodman saying that the pair must meet. Cameron, it seems, is still very much alive. And he needs Goodman to find a rational explanation for three unsolved cases that have shaken Cameron to his core. As Goodman investigates, he meets three haunted people, each with a tale more frightening, uncanny and inexplicable than the last. Gradually, Goodman unearths a hidden truth more terrifying still, that will pull his life apart. An adaptation of the critically acclaimed stage play 'Ghost Stories'. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2017 - Cult Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

The Slits who formed in London in 1976 were the world's first all girl punk band. Contemporaries of bands such as The Clash and The Sex Pistols, they were the pioneering godmothers of the musical movement know as "Punky Reggae". This documentary tells the story of the band and the lives of the women involved, from the band's inception in 1976 to the bands end in 2010 at the death of lead vocalist Ari Up. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2017 - World premiere Official Selection Rotterdam International Film Festival 2018

Synopsis

Matty Burton is a middleweight boxing world champion, now coming towards the end of his career, who knows that he must make his money and get out of the game. His aim is to secure a home with his wife Emma, and a future for their baby daughter Mia. His opponent is the brash and controversial Andre Bryte. A big puncher who courts controversy with his outlandish statements. Andre’s intent is to rip the title from Matty, a task that Andre feels is going to be easy. After a titanic battle, Matty returns home to Emma, but moments later collapses on the living room floor from a delayed reaction to a devastating punch. When Matty awakes from the coma, the real fight begins. Suffering from memory loss and with his personality altered, Matty must begin to piece his life back together as his world disintegrates. A powerful and beautiful story about loss and, ultimately, triumph. About identity, and how in life you sometimes have to dig deep into your soul to discover who you really are. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2017 - Love Strand - World premiere