Projects

Synopsis

Animated audiovisual work made using video zoetrope, hand drawing, photocollage and digital techniques.

Synopsis

Cosmo, a South African pianist falls in love with Sakeena, a British Muslim ballerina, who is being forced into an arranged marriage by her abusive radicalised Uncle Jehandar. Through their struggle, Cosmo tries to show that the power of love is far more important than the love for power. Cosmo seems like the perfect choice for Sakeena, but he is running away from a dark past which catches up with him as he tries to prove his love for Sakeena. Only ever wanting true happiness, the pair begin to fight for their freedom to love each other, but this leads to her family discovering the truth about their relationship. Feeling betrayed, her Uncle Jehandar arranges an honour killing and promises her family that she will never step a foot out line once he's finished with her.

Synopsis

Nestled on its own in the burnt brown hills of Southern Spain is a stunning modern villa with a refreshingly blue swimming pool. “El Cortijo” is the luxurious home of an ageing rock star in his early 60s and his much younger, very beautiful wife. Bill, the wild haired rock star and Isabelle are very much in love, but beneath the perfect surface of their lives, dark secrets lurk. Into this paradise comes Lucas, a dangerous ex-lover hell bent on revenge. His aim: to destroy their marriage and blackmail her into returning his inheritance - a fortune that his wealthy father had left to Isabelle instead of him. In a mischievous game of cat and mouse, the hunter soon becomes the hunted and Lucas sees his plans utterly destroyed – nothing is what it seems. What unfolds is a dangerous, tangled web of deceit and destruction as he becomes a plaything in their deadly game.

Synopsis

Fate, the pensions crisis and a steadfast refusal to accept the injustice of old age have contrived to force law abiding, retired couple, Arthur and Martha Goode into a life of crime. Refusing to take the loss of their pensions lying down and to fade away into their declining years, Arthur and Marta decide to fight back. They decide to take back what was theirs in the first place. They decide to start robbing banks.

Synopsis

A struggling New York-based radio journalist whose arrogance and decadent lifestyle has hindered his career finds his job is on the line. He decides to fake front line war reports from the comfort of his hideout above a Spanish restaurant in Queens. Tribeca Film Festival 2016 - World premiere

Synopsis

Based on the true story of the eponymous New York heiress who obsessively pursued her dream of becoming a great singer. The film celebrates the human spirit, the power of music and the passion of amateurs everywhere. The voice Florence Foster Jenkins heard in her head was divine, but to the rest of the world it was hilariously awful. At private recitals, her devoted 'husband' and manager, St Clair Bayfield, managed to protect Florence from the truth. But when Florence decided to give her first public concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall, St Clair realised he had perhaps bitten off more than he could chew. Belfast Film Festival 2016 - World premiere

Synopsis

The story of the late jazz musician and classical pianist Nina Simone including her rise to fame and relationship with her manager Clifton Henderson. A rare and poignant love story, this is an uplifting biopic of Nina Simone during a turbulent period in the iconic artist's life. Set in France during the 1990s with frequent flashbacks to defining moments in her life and her remarkable and unique music, this film tells the story of a tormented genius who eventually finds love and peace. The legacy of a legend who continues to engage, enthral and inspire audiences around the globe.

Synopsis

In 2012, the Ivy House pub in Peckham was sold to property developers as part of the ongoing gentrification of south London. The locals opposed it. Unfolding from this scenario, the film weaves verbatim testament into folk operatic form with the Ivy House itself, embodied and imagined as a central character and inhabited by the memories of the generations who have passed through its doors. Sarah Turner films the community’s creative reanimation of the mourned pub through dance, poetry and song... which both records and creates a vision of social possibility... The activism that saved the pub is a metaphor for social and creative agency. This is not just a film about resistance; it is a film that itself refuses categorisation... a triumphant genre-blending documentary which turns community action into an exhilarating participatory opera. (London Film Festival) Public House premiered in the documentary competition at the 2015 BFI London Film Festival and was nominated for the Grierson Award. The film has since been re-edited and remastered in a new version for wider audiences.

Synopsis

A French police unit tries to stop a group of criminals

Synopsis

Cairo cardiologist Bassem Youssef ('the Egyptian Jon Stewart') quit surgery to front the hugely popular TV satire Al Bernameg (The Show) amid the country’s turbulent Arab Spring-led political upheavals. Youssef ultimately fell foul of government crackdowns. His programme was cancelled and he was forced to flee the country with his family. This fascinating, fearless and often very funny documentary charts Youssef’s incredible late-career shift, detailing his and his team's determination and courage in standing up to successive totalitarian regimes, reminding us just how potent and dangerous comedy really can be. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2016 - Laugh Strand

Synopsis

A comedy about arrested development. Anna is stuck. Her greatest happiness was her relationship with her twin brother, but since his death, 18 months ago, she's on a downward spiral that includes returning to her rural home-town, abandoning any hope of a sex life, and making the shed at the bottom of her Mum and Nan’s garden into her home. When her Mum serves her with an ultimatum and her schoolfriend comes to visit, Anna’s life of emotional isolation becomes impossible to maintain. Soon she is entangled with a troubled boy obsessed with Westerns, and the local estate agent whose awkward interpersonal skills continually undermine his attempts to seduce her. A story about confronting the things we are most scared of – a story that explores the universal themes of being lost and finding yourself, making peace with who you are, and regaining self-confidence and dignity. It’s basically the same themes as 'Rocky' but with thumbs. And a cowboy. And no boxing. Tribeca Film Festival 2016 - World premiere

Synopsis

Law student, and all round good guy Harper suspects his stepfather Vincent of causing the car crash that landed his mother in a coma. After drowning his sorrows at a seedy bar one night, he wakes up to the realization that he may have hired a hitman and his girlfriend to take out the suspected perpetrator of his mother's life-threatening accident. Tribeca Film Festival 2016 - World premiere