Projects

Synopsis

An adaptation of a short story by Ethan Coen, about a 'hearing impaired' private detective.

Synopsis

Commissioned as part of the 2003 S4C Short Shorts strand, Griffilms' short, A Frog's Life, takes a humourous look at the life of a frog from birth to adulthood.

Synopsis

Based on the Oscar Wilde play entitled Lady Windermere's Fan, A Good Woman is a scandalous but comic drama set in New York and the Amalfi coast during the 1930s. Mrs Erlynne is an audacious and well known woman of a certain age with a reputation for entertaining wealthy, married men. Leaving her problems and unpaid bills in New York, she sets sail for the Amalfi Coast to pursue Meg and Robert Windermere, one of the most high profile couples in 1930s New York society. Once in Europe, she becomes embroiled in a family scandal which becomes an intriguing story of betrayal, and, ultimately, surprising loyalty.

Synopsis

All Rupert wants is a good night's sleep. However, he lives below a feuding couple whose constant bickering keeps him awake all night. As the hours tick away and the ruckus upstairs gets progressively worse, Rupert is driven to desperate measures in an effort to find A Little Peace and Quiet.

Synopsis

A tragic love story between a traveller and a Gypsy woman, set against a backdrop of rural prejudice, brought together by mysterious crop formations appearing in the magical landscape around them. A tale of fate and human capacity for endurance in an uncaring world
 
The West Country is a part of England that evokes ancient memories. The sacred land of Stonehenge, crop-circles and Ley-lines. Along these ancient roads have come strangers, itinerants and Gypsies. People mistreated by society because of their beliefs and values. A way of life where people come before property and financial value, and where others are judged by what they are rather than what they look like or what they have.
 
Choosing to flee the decay of the big cities, hiding themselves away in woods and secluded pieces of farmland, these travellers live on the outskirts of an antagonistic society.
 
A Place to Stay is a heartbreaking story of star-crossed lovers, set in a magical landscape that is all too quickly slipping away. It is about the grandest and most humble aspects of human life, about fate, and how people manage to live in an uncaring world by creating ideals by which to live, and dreams to live for. It's about people, the planet and beyond.

Synopsis

My Mum's a Morris dancing vicar. Her Morris dancing friends are a diverse bunch, an opera singer, a long distance lorry driver and an engineer, united by this odd English tradition. By day they hold down responsible jobs, by night they dress in eccentric disguise and dance a strange jig.

Synopsis

A young writer seeking inspiration in his pokey bedsit takes a stray glance out of his window. On the street below an unkempt stranger is menacingly advancing towards an oblivious pretty girl.

Synopsis

A Way of Life is a moving story of life's unfulfilled potential - an aesthetically and emotionally beautiful film which permits us to connect with the lives of children struggling to survive and to cling on to their dreams of a happy future. 

With a magical, lyrical quality, juxtaposed with the harsh realities of life, poverty and growing up, the film tells the story of a teenage mother, struggling to bring up her small daughter, and her role in a devastating crime. 

Set in a small community in South Wales, this dark but moving tale looks at the area that exists between black and white, good and evil, child and adult. It is the harshest of rites of passage stories, yet within it lies a most poignant story of teenage love and friendship. 

Ultimately, it is a story of survival that becomes a story of murder - a story that will draw you in slowly, until you find yourself in a world of love, tenderness and hurt - a world which will challenge the way you look at life.
 

Synopsis

Casim is a second generation Pakistani from Glasgow. Working as a DJ in Glasgow's coolest venues, he dreams of buying his own club. His parents Tariq and Sadia are devout Muslims and plan for him to marry his beautiful cousin Jasmine - who is soon to arrive in the UK. His proud father spends all his spare time supervising the building of an extension to the family home where the couple are to live. Casim's parents then arrange for his older sister Rukhsana to marry Amar, a promising young scientist from a good family. Life for Casim and his family is ticking along nicely. Until he meets Roisin.
 
A music teacher at his sister Tahara's school, Roisin Hanlon is sparky and intelligent. She and Casim soon fall deeply in love. But Casim knows all too well that, even if he wasn't due to marry, his parents would never accept a 'goree' - a white girl. And as a Catholic, Roisin finds that her own community aren't very supportive either. Then Casim and Roisin are discovered, and the repercussions of the scandal reach far and wide. When Casim's family find that their peaceful and ordered life is threatened, they decide to take action - bringing matters to a dramatic conclusion.
 

Synopsis

After the genocide of 1994, the Rwandan government temporarily suspended history from the school curriculum. The characters in After Years of Walking - children, teachers, genocide killers, students and historians - all find themselves in an uncertain zone between the old history and a new one.
 
The filmmaker found a feature film about the history of Rwanda, made in 1959 by Belgian missionaries. She took this film back to Rwanda as an entry point into Rwanda's search for history.

Synopsis

Twelve years ago Nick Broomfield made a film Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer.  Aileen's lawyer, her born-again Christian mother and the Florida State police have all been involved in trying to sell her story - that of America's first female serial killer - to the highest bidder.  Aileen herself, who was convicted of murdering seven men, ironically emerged with the most credit.
 
Aileen and Nick Broomfield kept in contact, writing to each other occasionally.  Then, in October 2002, Broomfield was subpoenaed to appear at Aileen's final State appeal prior to her execution.  Extracts of Aileen Wournos: The Selling of a Serial Killer were shown in court and many of her childhood friends were also called as witnesses.
 
Then, unexpectedly, Aileen changed her plea and announced she had killed the seven men in cold blood, not in self-defence as she had asserted previously and she wanted to die immediately.  Jeb Bush, the State's governor, welcomed Aileen's decision and announced his intention to reunite Aileen with her maker as soon as possible.  In a subsequent interview Aileen admits in an unguarded moment, when she thinks the camera is turned off, that she did kill in self defence but that she can no longer stand being on death row and has to die.
 
The film portrays Aileen's childhood in Troy, Michigan, as one of terrible abuse and violence, which continued during her years on the road as a hitch-hiking prostitute and ultimately culminated in the murders.  In her last interview, which Aileen grants to Nick Broomfield exclusively, she said she believed her mind was being controlled by radio waves and that she would be taken away by angels on a space ship.
 
The film provides an insight into the mind of a deeply paranoid, yet seemingly sympathetic person, who lost her mind and killed seven people.
 
Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer is a powerful statement against the death penalty and raises disturbing questions about executing the mentally ill.
 
Aileen Wuornos was executed in the State of Florida on October 9th, 2002.

Synopsis

Aisha is a young, Muslim-American woman studying abroad in London. She is dating the roguish Rashid but lives with her devout, hijab wearing cousin Fatimah. When her two worlds collide, Aisha is forced to reconcile her faith with her desires.