Projects

Synopsis

Shot on the otherworldly beaches of Morocco in silvery black-and-white 16mm Scope 'A Distant Episode' transforms behind-the-scenes footage into a dreamy film fragments depicting sci-fi incursions into a mythic landscape. Official Selection Toronto 2015 - Wavelengths

Synopsis

Sandy leads a comfortable life in Belfast. He is a university professor and a regular guest on a popular television arts programme, and his one novel, though published many years ago, is still in print and regarded a classic. But Sandy has a habit of nicking things. Shoplifting has become the one little thrill in his overly domesticated life - but when Sandy gets caught by Robert, a desperately lonely security guard, his life is turned inside out. Toronto International Film Festival 2015 - World premiere

Synopsis

Nineteen-time champion jump jockey AP McCoy (aka Tony McCoy) has notched up more than 4,300 wins, 700 falls, 40 broken bones and a BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award in 2010 across a near 25-year racing career. This documentary follows AP in the final year of his extraordinary career as he fights to become champion for an unbelievable 20th time and faces a future out of the saddle. Made with exclusive access to the Northern Irish jockey, his family and racing teams for the 2014-15 season. Toronto International Film Festival 2015 - World premiere

Synopsis

The Bolshoi Ballet. Symbol of Russia, a world-famous national treasure - mystical and intriguing. Recently, however, the ballet company has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The 2013 acid attack on the company’s director Sergei Filin, intrigue and management changes have created lurid headlines. Director Nick Read gains remarkable access to the inner workings of the company for the first time as they move into a new chapter in the wake of the notorious attack. The film gives a voice to artistes and company members who are not usually in the limelight in irreverent and candid terms. Combining epic themes with intimate portraits, and historical dramas with the untold personal stories of agony and ecstasy that lie behind every acclaimed performance. Toronto International Film Festival 2015 - World premiere

Synopsis

A reimagining of jazz legend Chet Baker's life in the 1960s. When Chet (with talent to burn and movie-star looks that have him dubbed the “James Dean of Jazz“) stars in a film about himself, romance blossoms with the African American female lead, the enigmatic Jane. Production is shelved when a vicious beating leaves Chet in a condition where he may never play music again. Jane challenges Chet to avoid self-destruction, overcome his drug addiction, and mount a musical comeback against all the odds. Official Selection Toronto 2015 - Special Presentations

Synopsis

A middle aged, middle class British couple are living like feral creatures in a camouflaged hole in the middle of a vast forest somewhere in France. Less than a year ago, they lost everything in a freak wildfire. Traumatised to the bone, the couple vanished and ended up where they are. She does not want to return to civilisation because only here she feels she can make amends. Her husband, on the other hand, finds the constant reminder of their misfortune increasingly unbearable. The couple’s relationship reaches breaking point and repressed emotions come bursting out to the surface. Toronto International Film Festival 2015 - World premiere

Synopsis

A timely thriller set in the world of remotely piloted aircraft warfare. A terrorist-targeting drone mission becomes a flashpoint when a civilian girl enters the kill zone. Toronto International Film Festival 2015 - World premiere

Synopsis

Based on the novel by J. G. Ballard: London, 1975. A slick apartment tower rises above the Thames, the beginnings of what will soon become the world's biggest financial hub. Dominating the landscape, it is simply called the HIGH-RISE... its address a mark of exclusivity. Its newest resident is Robert Laing, an ambitious young doctor utterly seduced by the lifestyle and cutting-edge technology the high-rise has to offer. He is introduced to the seedy underbelly of the high-rise by Wilder, a charismatic provocateur. The cracks in this apparently flawless society grow rapidly, and Laing is shocked at the depravity he sees. Life in the high-rise quickly descends into madness and violence, and Laing finds himself amongst the marauding hordes of bloodthirsty tenants who take over the building, floor by floor. Toronto International Film Festival 2015 - World premiere

Synopsis

Shot in Paris, São Paulo and Toronto, acclaimed Canadian contemporary artist Mark Lewis’ essay film captures the ever-changing textures of these cities through moving images of glass, light, shadows and reflections. Offering an homage to the city symphony films of the 1920s, whilst juxtaposing modernist architecture with the compositional structures of old master paintings. Toronto International Film Festival 2015 - World premiere

Synopsis

London, 1997; the British music industry is on a winning streak. Britpop bands Blur, Oasis, The Verve rule the airwaves and Cool Britannia is in full swing. 27-year-old A&R man Steven Stelfox is slashing and burning his way through the music business, a world where 'no one knows anything' and where careers are made and broken by chance and the fickle tastes of the general public. Fuelled by greed, ambition and inhuman quantities of drugs, Stelfox lives the dream, as he searches for his next hit record. But as the hits dry up and the industry begins to change, Stelfox takes the concept of "killer tunes" to a murderous new level in a desperate attempt to salvage his career. Official selection Toronto International Film Festival 2015

Synopsis

This installation piece is the first major collaboration between British artist Corin Sworn and Canadian artist Tony Romano. 'La Giubba' follows the intersections of five drifters over the course of two summer days in southern Italy. A young Albanian man and his daughter search for a swimming coach who fled their homeland in the 1990s, but instead find an Arbëresh community settled by their countrymen 600 years earlier. Two theatre actors take on a dubious commission to increase audiences in the rural south and traverse the landscape fashioning little theatres of belief, until a Canadian interloper turns up. Employing professional and amateur actors, 'La Giubba' situates its nomadic characters within both the stunning Italian landscape and the history inscribed upon it, visible and unseen. Official Selection Toronto 2015 - Wavelengths

Synopsis

The true story of the rise and fall of London’s most notorious gangsters, Reggie and Ronnie Kray, both portrayed by Tom Hardy. Together, the Kray Twins take over the city. But as their reign expands, power-struggles, fierce madness, and a woman diminishes their bond; the weak link that could cause their empire to collapse. A classic crime thriller from Academy Award® winner Brian Helgeland, taking us into the secret history of the 1960s and the extraordinary events that secured the infamy of the Kray twins. Toronto International Film Festival 2015 - International premiere