Projects matching: Jones

Synopsis

To eleven year old Taliesin Jones, God is as palpable as the apple he buys on his way to school, as real as the rain which trickles down his neck, as near as the warts on his fingertips. In Cqmglum where he lives on a farm in rural Wales, God is all around, even at school where Hoop The Mental hits him on the nose, and earthy Julie Dyer blows confusing smoke rings at him.


Others don't see the world the way he does. When his mother leaves home with her hairdresser to put more colour in her life, Taliesin is left behind with his distracted father, sullenly adolescent brother and his own creeping uncertainty to try and make sense of this sudden conspiracy of events. It is only with elderly Billy Evans, piano teacher and part time healer that Taliesin finds a source of miracles, miracles which transform his life . . .


The Testimony of Taliesin Jones is a beautifully measured story exploring the troubled borderland between childhood and adolescence. Poetic, precisely observed and filled with humour, it examines the resources of imagination and faith to which children can turn when faced with the confusion and imperfection of the adult world they are about to enter.

Synopsis

When Tal Jones' mother leaves home to live with her hairdresser, the 12-year-old boy is left to deal with his uncommunicative father (Jonathan Pryce) and bitter older brother (Matthew Rhys), as well as all the other problems of growing up in a Welsh farming community, such as bullying, piano lessons and warts.



The Testimony Of Taliesin Jones takes an unexpected turn, when Tal finds out his elderly piano teacher Billy Evans (Ian Bannen, in one of his last roles before his death last year) is a faith healer. Billy heals Tal's warts, inspiring him to form his own gang, the Believers, who land in trouble when they try to cure a school mate with diabetes. The result is a story about God, belief and miracles.



Based on Welsh writer Rhidian Brook's first novel, which won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1997 and was shortlisted for Welsh Novel of the Year, the material had particular appeal for director Martin Duffy, who had worked with healer Finbarr Nolan on his autobiography Seventh Son Of A



Seventh Son.



Unknown actor John-Paul Macleod was chosen from hundreds of hopefuls for the title role.



Duffy's first feature, The Boy From Mercury, won several awards, including three of the main prizes at the Giffoni children's film festival in Italy. His next film is The Bumblebee Flies Anyway, starring Elijah Wood and Janeane Garofalo. The Testimony Of Taliesin Jones had its first screening in the Cannes market in May.

Synopsis

Seventeen year old Justine (Laura Fraser) is fed up with the lack of success she has with guys. It seems as though the boys have it easier. She's ready to take that big step, but with whom? To ensure she chooses the right candidate - her 'Mr Barcode' - Justine enlists the help of her worldly-wise best friend Fran (Marcelle Duprey). Alex (Kieran O'Brien), the school stud is the obvious choice. So together, Justine, Fran and their geeky friend Chas (Luke De Lacey) hatch a plot to get Alex to a computer show where he is bound to fall for Justine's charms. Only things don't go according to plan! At the last moment, Alex abandons the plotting trio in order to go out with the man-eating Hoover (Natasha Bell).





A deflated Justine wanders through the great halls while Chas is in his perfect world. None of the excitement of the show can soothe the rejection she feels until she is enticed into the make-over machine, the Narcissus. Their machine can give you the face you've dreamt of; in fact the 'you' of your fantasies can be yours with the help of the Narcissus!





Having created the perfect Justine on screen, she then sets about creating her ideal man.

Synopsis

This 90's film is based on the very successful stage play 'Yr Aduniad - The Reunion' by Delyth Jones.





When thirtysomethings Lynne, Sioned, Wendy, Nerys and Jane meet for a reunion. They haven't seen each other since school days. Their chosen venue is 'Le Petit Cassoulette' a wine bar in their home town, Llanelli, a place as chic as it is shabby and as pretentious as it is tacky. The Reunion is essentially a comedy with dark undertones.





We are eavesdropping on very personal confessions about their past, their expectations and the reality of their lives. All laced with the honest, sometimes perceptive and often lewd and bawdy observations on life, the universe and men, that you only get from five old friends on a night out.

Synopsis

All for Eight Pounds Fifty is a light comedy set in Northern Ireland. The Heroes or villains of the piece decide that robbing a small country petrol station will give them enough money to have a good time.


The robbery is a success but the haul is not quite what they expected.

Synopsis

Seven very different people are gathered in a brightly lit but sparsely furnished white room. The only thing they have in common is Virgil Guppy. Virgil isn't there having just been flattened by a ten ton truck. Virgil's odyssey unfolds as the seven wait in the white room.





Virgil Guppy is going to buy a car. Not just any car but a luxury car. This is more than a simple deal. Virgil is not just buying a car, he is buying the last piece of the jigsaw that, with the flat, the job, the wardrobe, even the girlfriend, fit together to make up what Virgil hopes is his identity.





Virgil buys the Jaguar, low mileage but slightly damaged bodywork, from David Leer and his son Buddy, two clearly dodgy dealers. Sure enough within four miles the car dies quite spectacularly. Virgil fails to claim his money through the courts and, worse still, his car came with the optional extra of a dead body hidden in the boot.





Virgil is arrested for murder and an impressive array of circumstantial evidence is presented by witnesses as varied as Sydney Greengrass, a retired accountant, who has the unnerving habit of hitching his curiously shaped trousers up way past the nipple line and Poppy Fields, a middle-aged Prostitute fast reaching her sell-by date. Virgil is convinced he has been framed by David Leer, but David Leer seems to have disappeared.





Once out on bail, Virgil's jigsaw starts to fall apart . . .

Synopsis

A world weary London detective interviews a range of thoroughly unreliable witnesses who have seen an armed robbery take place in a street. Contradiction abounds but one person saw it clearly . . .

Synopsis

For nine years, taxi driver Malcolm has been happily married to two women, Natalie and Norma. Dividing his time between taxi shifts and two wives keeps Malcolm a very busy man!





One day Noddy Holder, pop singer, comes to town - the other guy whom both wives adore. By chance Natalie, a great costume designer, gets to design Noddy's stage outfit and Norma, a superb karaoke singer, gets to perform with Noddy on the big day.





It seems Malcolm's little marital secret is about to be revealed. Each wife wants Malcolm to escort her to the show.





Malcolm tries to avoid his fate, but every plan fails. In desperation he asks crazy Sam Tex for help. Sam's plan is to blow up the theatre before the event so there is no venue.





In his haste to stop the bomb, Malcolm crashes his taxi.





Escaping from hospital he rushes to the concert. Natalie and Norma both grab him - just as the bomb goes off. Everyone escapes - including Malcolm.





Malcolm is chased by the police - and also by his two very angry wives. They close in at the Blackpool Tower. There is only one way out - up he goes.





Where will it end?

Synopsis

Based on the writer/director's own childhood experience of hospital, Seeing Things explores the emotional journey of an adolescent boy, Jack Park, who is in hospital to undergo plastic surgery to expand his hare-lip. It is an experience which renders him temporarily mute and without access to mirrors.

Synopsis

He was formally known as 'The Mangler', a once middleweight champion in the boxing circuit until that fateful night at The Golden Peaks Hotel where he took the blow of his life more fearsome than any he had taken in the ring, Murray Simkins wife taken from him and never to be returned again.

Synopsis

Simon Magus is the poignant and magical story of an outcast called Simon, who is treated with a mixture of fear, suspicion and guarded affection by the Jewish and Christian inhabitants of a village in 19th century Poland. It is also the story of the village itself, a community in crisis now that the railway has arrived, passing the village by, taking away all its trade, and threatening its future.


Simon has visions and strange dreams, a fantastical view of the world. For some villagers, Simon is a harmless idiot, but in a place where people still believe in angels and charms, to others he is a magician in league with the devil himself.


The crisis comes in the battle to build a railway station and save the village. Maximillian Hase, moneyed, ruthless and determined to succeed, uses Simon's feelings of isolation to his own ends, employing him as a spy to root out his competition in the village's Jewish community.


The Christian Squire, a sensitive and lonely man with a passion for poetry, must be persuaded to allow the station to be built on his land. Dovid, a poor young Jew, realises that an appreciation of poetry is the way to succeed in the railway station bid. Only the city educated Sarah from the Jewish community shares this passion for poetry, but she and the Squire have never yet spoken. Dovid enlists Sarah's help to secure his bid.


Simon is seduced by Hase's bribes and is unwittingly playing a critical role in the battle for the railway. . .

Synopsis

Skulls, Angels, Mom & Dad shows a day in the life of Charlie, an East End tattoo artist. We experience the stories of her clients and her interaction with them.