Projects in categories: Fiction

Synopsis

Trollywood initially started out as a collection of still photographs. The director, up and coming UK talent Madeleine Farley, was fascinated by the isuue of homelessness in Los Angeles, a city renowned - or at least in popular conception- for its opulence. As a symbol of material divide, Madeleine decided to focus on the humble shopping carts littered around LA as a central theme- ie. as both consumer tool to some whilst being a portable home to others.   Through her time spent photographing the homeless and the numerous conversations that ensued, Madeleine soon realised that there was a vast untapped wealth of personal testimony and that only a documentary could do the subject justice. This view was further cemented when a news story broke about an LA legal case involving the making and profiteering from a video called 'Bumfights' in which homeless people, often under the influence of alcohol, were filmed inflicting harm on themselves. The makers of the film, whilst making in the region of $6m dollars, were let off with 250hrs of community service.   Trollywood will focus on interviews with the homeless, Government officials, Charitable foundation workers, Mental health organisations etc. in a moving, well rounded look at a serious issue. More than anything, the programme will aim to be educational and uplifting, presenting homelessness with a human face and also providing an awareness of various remedial organisations. Essentially, Madeleine's intent is to show that amongst great material deprivation there exists a unique culture with its own sense of spiritual wealth.

Synopsis

A vagrant awakes on a platform in an underground station and finds a strange box nearby him. He opens the box and a powerful and malevolent force is transferred to him.   We then follow the journey of three separate passengers, travelling the routes they most likely make every working day. But this time their journeys will be anything but normal as they encounter the vagrant and his new 'powers'.   Tube is a vision of how an everyday routine journey can quickly become a nightmare with terrifying results when one is stalked in a confined space which is the London Underground.

Synopsis

Jamie and Jody are identical twin brothers. They not only share their appearance, they also share Candy - Jody's high-school sweetheart. Another thing the twins share is a passion for killing; their preference being high-school students - 'people closer to our own age.'   Jamie dreams up innovative ways to market himself and his brother to the media. However he is quick to learn that they need a reason for their extracurricular activities. Enter Vincent Fox (Hollywood action star). Who better to blame? Who better to kill?   After a number of killings, Kristina (Candy's confidante) gets suspicious; as a result the twins kill Kristina rather unceremoniously. Candy decides to pay her boyfriends a visit, only to witness the twins decapitating her best friend. Jamie and Jody kidnap Vincent Fox and take him to a high-school party. The police show up, as does the media, and so Jamie demands that a news crew documents the last moments of Vincent Fox's short life. The rules are pretty simple - 'we're going to kill Vincent Fox live on TV!'

Synopsis

A light-hearted every day tale of sadomasochistic bondage. In a traditional old-school boxing gym, thick with sweat and testosterone, a strange menage a trois unfolds between a dominatrix, an unwitting boxer and a punch bag.

Synopsis

The Slits travelled and toured widely as a group. Accompanying them during 1980 and 1981, Christine Robertson filmed intermittently on Super-8, collected whilst managing The Slits. Typical Girls was completed after the group split up in 1982. Filmed on stage in Berlin and Italy and off stage in the Mojave Desert and Death Valley, the film gives an experimental flavour of the unconventional lifestyle the group lived and the unique music that came out of it.

Synopsis

When a simple disagreement unleashes the pent-up frustrations of Steve and Kate's relationship, things quickly escalate into the mother of all rows. Unhappy Loving Couple is a sharp dialogue comedy about love, lifestyles and not knowing what you've got until you've nearly lost it.

Synopsis

This debut feature film, written, choreographed and directed by its leading man, the black dancer Rodrequez King-Dorset, shows a creative dance artist in the grip of a personal crisis. The film depicts the black ghetto lives of two black boys in England in the 1980s, one a newly arrived African, the other an Afro-Caribbean, and highlights the ethnic tensions between their respective groups. The young black Briton, Lewis, (Troy John plays him as a boy) has to face scorn and misunderstanding from his father when he tries to become a professional dancer. Lewis has a close friendship with the African, Ramsey, (Andante Ajinzea) and a rewarding relationship with an Afro-Caribbean girl friend Maudi, (Naomi James). His African friend is imprisoned for a killing he was forced into in sheer self-defence, and this only adds to Lewis' confusion. He sets out creating a solo dance, which embodies some of his emotions.  The film has a predominantly black cast and was financed on a shoestring budget, largely as a result of the dedicated enthusiasm of all concerned in its making.

Synopsis

Imelda Staunton plays a kindly abortionist in 1950s London, whose beliefs and practices clash with the times and lead to tragedy for her family.

Synopsis

Veronique, the cool French actress from Paris, is the girlfriend of our 'hero' boy. Every morning they meet on the bus on their way to school and as the days pass by their relationship grows stronger and stronger. Or at least that is what the boy tells his best friend. The film is about the innocence of love, when a person has a crush on someone they have never even met. When we are young these moments can be so important to us because they can act as a substitute before we experience our first 'real' relationship. It's about how it is to daydream and to fall in love. Even if it's only for a week or two.

Synopsis

Marilyn, an extravagant dancer whose life is populated by mechanical toys that move spontaneously in her flat, meets men who hardly manage to deal with her unusual, dynamic personality and constantly disappoint her expectations.   A change in Marilyn's life occurs when a woman breaks into her private world.

Synopsis

This film is a spoof documentary about Vivienne Gibson Forbes, doyenne of black film extras. Charting events in both her professional and private lives, it is clear that Vivienne would later emerge as a major talent. The film reaches its climax at the prestigious Awards ceremony where Vivienne is left to contemplate that life will never be the same again.

Synopsis

Girl and mother remember father who has gone.   The girl invents a fantasy that against the odds he comes back to them.   So she sits and waits for him.