Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

CABBAGE reframes language, illuminating relationships of care at its centre. Bureaucratic violence is contrasted with lived experience: the filmmaker centralises her brother’s writing (who is non-verbal and non-mobile) using eye tracking technology, and her mothers reflections, to explore layers of power, and to reclaim it within an ableist paradigm. Official Selection Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival 2023

Synopsis

An operation 10 years ago left Allister with damaged vocal cords and an obstacle to communication. His unusual solution reminds us that community thrives in surprising places. Official Selection True/False Film Fest 2023 Official Selection Sheffield DocFest 2023 Official Selection IDFA 2023

Synopsis

Darren, manager of Bristol’s Vintage Market, is about to lose his lease. As he struggles to find a new home for his traders, we meet the community who have come to rely on it during its eight year history, and discover a unique side to this local store that goes beyond the quirky items on display. Official selection DocEdge Film Festival - International premiere

Synopsis

Over one night, on a remote island off the coast of Iceland, young adults Birta and Selma take it upon themselves to counteract the damaging human impact on nature; exchanging night-time parties for nocturnal puffin patrol, in a coming-of-age story of young adults and pufflings alike. Official Selection SXSW Film Festival 2023 - Documentary Shorts Competition - World premiere Official Selection Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2024 - International Competition

Synopsis

Aged 24, Kit was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour. In a small town on the South Coast of England, his dad Lawrence, responds by throwing himself into a series of obscure diversion tactics. From growing herbal medicine in his spare room, to relinquishing his lifelong atheism and secretly attending a local synagogue, he begins to transform his identity for good. His estranged mum, a community nurse who spends her time caring for dying patients, can’t cope with the idea of living through the death of her son and must find a way to reconnect with her son before time runs out. What follows is Kit’s journey into the depths of the soul. As both filmmaker and character, he examines the nuances of living with a terminal disease and dissects the fear that comes with it. The film weaves a tapestry of each character's experience that unravels from a single moment that tore their lives apart and creates a powerful portrait of a dysfunctional family battling with issues of spirituality, kinship and death, whilst proving that humour and love always prevail. Official Selection True/False Film Festival 2023 - World premiere Official Selection Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival 2023 - European premiere Official Selection Sheffield DocFest 2023

Synopsis

Exploring burial traditions as old as the Benin Kingdom, RED SOIL follows the family of Mama, a beloved Nigerian elder, as they prepare for her funeral. Following custom, the film, shot on 16mm, offers an insight into the Edo State’s perspective on death. Over the course of three days, observing pilgrimage, music, prayer and dance, the film suggests a different form of mourning: a collective celebration of Life. Official Selection Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2023 - World premiere Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2024

Synopsis

Beneath the great Orme, Llandudno, North Wales, grey seals gather on the beach, whilst wild goats leap about on the cliffs above.

Synopsis

A curated collection of 12 people's real tributes and thoughts about saying farewell for the last time; from unsent letters, eulogies, and sentences, it is an epitaph to those awaiting that bittersweet closure, and a chance to express sweet words left unsaid.

Synopsis

In 1986 an amateur theatre group staged a production of Macbeth so disastrous that it made international headlines ... allegedly. Forty years later a filmmaker sets out to find out what really happened. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2023

Synopsis

In her debut feature documentary, a cinematic love letter spanning time and generations, Chloe Abrahams probes at raw questions her mother and grandmother have long brushed aside, untangling painful knots in her family’s unspoken past. THE TASTE OF MANGO centres three extraordinary women: the director’s mother, Rozana; her grandmother, Jean; and Abrahams herself. Their intertwined stories testify to the ever-changing nature of inheritance and the ways in which we both hurt and protect the ones we love. A vital look at the far-reaching effects of male violence and a personal meditation on family, memory, identity, solidarity, joy, and love. Official Selection True/False Film Festival 2024- World premiere Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2023 - Winner - Audience Award for Best Documentary BIFA (British Independent Film Awards) 2023 - Winner - Best Debut Director

Synopsis

A sci-fi city symphony inspired by London’s Great Smog of 1952. Created from archive footage, the film unfolds through fictional letters from a post-apocalyptic future. The film invites us to understand the smog in the context of the present-day climate emergency and our global destiny. Official Selection Berlin International Film Festival 2023 - Short Film Competition - World premiere Official Selection Uppsala Short Film Festival 2023

Synopsis

Luke Fowler’s portrait of Scottish poet and filmmaker Margaret Tait takes its inspiration from her unrealised project about her home region of Orkney, drawing and riffing on her notes and footage to produce a blissful union of two artistic sensibilities. Official Selection Berlin International Film Festival 2023 - Forum - International premiere Official Selection Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2023