American Zoo

Director: Tim Travers Hawkins

Year: 2019

After instigating the largest of leak of secrets in US history - when she disclosed 750,000 documents to Wikileaks - ex-soldier and trans woman Chelsea Manning was supposed to spend most of the rest of her life behind bars in an all-male military prison. But on January 17 2017, President Barack Obama commuted her sentence, in an unprecedented and controversial move that divided the United States and the world. XY CHELSEA follows Chelsea Manning as she leaves prison after seven years inside, and begins a new life, whilst at the same time having to deal with the far-reaching consequences of her past - the historic leaks that lead to her prison sentences, the unintended celebrity status that is thrust on her as one of the world’s most notorious whistleblowers, and transitioning to become the woman she has always known herself to be. An intimate character portrait of a fascinating, unique and complex woman, a true rebel and outsider, who after making history must now start a new life, in a world which is far from welcoming, and in the shadow of rising Nationalism and intolerance, which has fomented hate and division throughout America. Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2019 - Movies Plus - World premiere Official Selection Hot Docs 2019 - Special Presentations

Director: Tim Travers Hawkins

Year: 2010

Asylum seekers in indefinite detention around the UK leave messages in vain on an abandoned answerphone in the basement of a government ministry.   They are invisible to the outside world; yet exist under a regime of constant surveillance. Their past traumas return in their dreams and erupt in hallucinations that fill them with panic and fear.   With the threat of deportation ever present, they describe their own psychological deterioration as they pass the days in an unlimited confinement that strips their lives of all certainty. Their words trigger dark, visceral images inside the static and void of the phone line.

Director: Tim Travers Hawkins

Year: 2013

Animated documentary featuring the voices of children locked up in immigration detention centres around the world. Governments routinely deny media access to these facilities so the voices of children detained in Australia, Greece, South Africa and USA were recorded secretly over the phone and reveal their hidden suffering.