Project Detail

Life Illuminated

Name: Life Illuminated
Director: Edward Lovelace
Released: 2024
Duration: 94 min

Synopsis

Often attacked by people unable to cope with his extreme disfigurement, Adam glimpses a path from isolation to social inclusion through his love of cinema. On a quest to become a new type of movie hero and wanting to reach out to others in adversity, Adam finds salvation when confronted with Ellie, a young girl who also dreams of being a star but who has to face the reality that she has the same genetic condition as him - NF1. As kindred spirits bound together by both their condition and their aspiration, Ellie and Adam search for a path forward towards a moment when they can truly press play on life.

Details

Year: 2024
Type of project: Features
Running time: 94 min
Format: digital
Director: Edward Lovelace
Producer: John Battsek, Sarah Thomson, Fleur Nieddu, Edward Lovelace
Co-Producer: Lottie Allen
Executive Producer: Kerstin Emhoff, Ali Brown, Tim Murray
Editor: Julian Hart, Matt Henley
Director of Photography: Ruben Woodin Dechamps
Film Title Note: FKA If Lonely, Press Play

Production Status

Post-production

Production Company

UK, US co-production

Ventureland (UK), Propagate Content LLC (US)

Ventureland

Sarah Thomson
Gilmoora House
57-61 Mortimer St
London
W1W 8HS

Visit Website

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

Suggest amendments

Defined for much of his life by other people's perceptions of his visible difference, actor Adam Pearson finds a new sense of possibility when he meets Ellie, a teenage girl living with the same genetic condition. As their unlikely friendship inspires Adam to confront the rules he's built to protect himself, he returns to the big screen and discovers that the hero he's been searching for may be himself. Official Selection Telluride Film Festival 2026 Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2026

Art / Artists Disabilities

Name Me Lawand

Director: Edward Lovelace

Year: 2022

An immersive cinematic experience about a young Deaf boy's emotional journey to express himself; a love letter to the power and magic of human communication. Lawand is a young Kurdish boy, deaf since birth. After a treacherous journey and a year in a Dunkirk refugee camp, the help of a deaf volunteer brings his family to Derby, where Lawand joins the Royal School for the Deaf. As he grows older, the film follows his dramatic progress in learning British Sign Language, revealing a bright, charismatic, and inquisitive boy who discovers friendship and a new way to express himself. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2022 - World premiere Official Selection Hot Docs 2023 - International premiere Grierson Awards 2023 - Nomination - Best Single Documentary – Domestic

Disabilities

Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor in Ankor Wat

Act 3

Director: Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor

Year:

The final part of a documentary trilogy that began with 'Further Beyond' and 'TheFuture Tense', 'ACT 3' completes Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor’s exploration of ideas around identity, place and memory. Here, they delve in to their past work and creative collaboration across 40 years to explore the possibility of their future identities; and how they choose to imagine the final third of their life. Mining the intimate relationship of artists Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore – who are the subject of their current feature film – and taking their typically droll, existentially-inflected, meta approach, the documentary ultimately becomes a moving meditation on the meaning of life, art and love. Official Selection Telluride Film Festival 2026 Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2026

Art / Artists LGBTQIA+ Woman Director