Projects with status: Complete

Synopsis

The Selfish Giant is a contemporary fable about 14-year-old Arbor (Conner Chapman) and his best friend Swifty (Shaun Thomas). Excluded from school, and outsiders in their own community, the boys meet Kitten (Sean Gilder), a local scrapman, and begin collecting scrap metal for him using a horse and cart. Swifty has a natural gift with horses and Arbor has a business brain and a way with words – they make a good team. But when Arbor begins to emulate Kitten by becoming greedy and exploitative, tensions build, leading to a tragic event which transforms them all irrevocably.

Synopsis

A person’s culture is something that is often described as fixed or defined and rooted in a particular region, nation, or state. Stuart Hall, one of the most preeminent intellectuals on the Left in Britain, updates this definition as he eloquently theorizes that cultural identity is fluid—always morphing and stretching toward possibility but also constantly experiencing nostalgia for a past that can never be revisited. Filmmaker John Akomfrah uses the rich and complex mood created by Miles Davis’s trumpet to root a masterful tapestry of newly filmed material, archival imagery, excerpts from television programs, home movies, and family photographs to create this lyrical and emotionally powerful portrait of the life and philosophy of this influential theorist. Like a fine scotch, The Stuart Hall Project is smooth, complicated, and euphorically pleasing. It taps into a singular intelligence to extract the tools we need to make sense of our lives in the modern world (Sundance).

Synopsis

An unseen woman witnesses the ordinary oppression and fear of the early years of National Socialism. She describes the sound of screaming she regularly hears on passing a military barracks whilst walking from her house to the station. Images of the barracks recur throughout the film, suggesting the routine tyranny that precipitates the woman's increasing fear and eventual journey into exile. The film's structure of repetition and retelling foregrounds the way in which her life is stunted by increasing marginalisation and terror. "I’m only just eighteen but sometimes I already feel so old that I think of dying," she writes in a letter to her would-be lover. The View from Our House is based in part on the memories, unsent letters and notebooks of a young photographer who lived in Berlin-Tempelhof. Aspects of her life are mapped out within this small area of Berlin through a succession of haunted images and sounds that imbue place with a sense of memory and history.

Synopsis

Set in 1984, Theatre of Dreams is a funny and touching fictional tale about the legendary Manchester United football manager Sir Matt Busby, who helps a wayward boy fulfill his dream. An act of petty crime by 11 year-old Georgie becomes a collision of fate as Sir Matt tracks him down, only to discover that the boy is an extraordinarily gifted footballer and captain of a team of unruly talents. Having lived with football all his life and survived the tragic 1958 Munich plane disaster, in which eight of his young players were killed, Sir Matt is still committed to continue his work of 'training lads for life'. So begins a thrilling adventure as Sir Matt comes out of retirement to transform a young group of scallywags into a dream team.

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Titus is a modern-day story of a displaced African-American jazz musician trying to come to terms with his troubled past.

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After a new tooth brush arrives in the bathroom of his single dad, a young boy is told tales of cowboys and indians that mirror his father's new relationship.

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TRANS is an intimate moving image portrait focusing on Kali. Exploring themes of transformation and identity, the film constructs various scenes based on her thoughts, feelings and imaginings as she reflects on the pain of her metamorphosis.

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Yoshi, an elderly Japanese immigrant in Los Angeles, struggles to care for his wife Aiko. On the day Aiko's Alzheimer's disease turns her into a frighteningly different person Yoshi doubts the most important thing in his life: his love for his wife.

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It might be the age of Facebook and Twitter, but a group of Leeds teenagers have chosen to define themselves through one of the most ancient forms of culture out there: the spoken poem. But these aren’t any old poems but anguished, witty full-throated diatribes, voicing the concerns of a generation of multi-ethnic British teenagers. Brave New Voices, the most prestigious poetry slam competition in America, has chosen Leeds Young Authors to represent the UK at their upcoming competition in Washington DC. Sheffield-based filmmakers Alex Ramseyer-Bache and Daniel Lucchesi follow the group as they prepare for a transformational journey of a lifetime. With a mix of cinematically crafted lyrical sequences with raw, intimate actuality documentary, 'We Are Poets' challenges our understanding of youth by giving them the stage, allowing them the chance to speak for themselves. Anyone tempted to dismiss today’s teenagers as politically apathetic layabout’s better pay heed: here is electrifying evidence to the contrary.

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Emma-Rose is home. Sort of. Desert boots and all. For 10-year old Jenny it’s a magical week. Then Emma-Rose is gone again.

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When local heavy and ex-boxer Tom Sheridan agrees to hire his strip club out to lifelong friend and colleague Ian Levine he soon discovers the private party involves child prostitution and trafficking, catering for wealthy pedophiles. Feeling betrayed and disgusted, Tom obtains secret photo evidence of the party and threatens exposing Ian to his associates and family. This sparks a bloody feud between the two old friends and their foot soldiers, in a story of Morality, Loyalty and Betrayal.

Synopsis

An ancient Oak tree awakens a jaded tree surgeon to the intensity of life when a routine job suddenly turns out to be anything but.