Stretch

Director: Jay Bedwani

Year: 2020

Ecstatic lipsynching in downtown bars is a far cry from Donna’s Baptist upbringing in San Jose; now in her seventies, her estranged siblings haven’t even seen her in a dress.<br /> Donna is offered a chance to co-write a play about an overlooked episode in queer history, the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, in which transgender women Donna knew stood up against police harrassment. She writes a character to be played by a young transgender activist. Praised for her writing and emboldened by her new friends, she heads out of the city to meet her sister Gloria…<br /> This intimate and uplifting film is beautifully observed by director Jay Bedwani and features mesmerising moments recalled by Donna in her emerging writer’s voice. Donna is a film that shows the strength that can be drawn from your community and proves: it’s never too late to find your métier and truly blossom.

Director: Jay Bedwani

Year: 2016

Jasun Watkins brings his pink, brash and very camp Elvis impersonation act to Porthcawl in the biggest Elvis tribute festival in Europe. This documentary joins him in the days leading up to the competition, as he recalls how his troubled family life and childhood suffering fed his desire for fame.

Director: Hannah Berryman

Year: 2024

A landmark feature documentary about astronaut Eileen Collins, the first woman to pilot and command the Space Shuttle.<br /> Eileen’s incredible journey starts with her smalltown beginnings, sees her smash through many glass ceilings, and culminates in four dramatic space shuttle missions, the last being possibly the most dangerous and most important of them all.<br /> At its heart the film is the moving human drama of one family, where a mother’s extraordinary career takes us straight to the big philosophical question of what is the level of acceptable risk in human endeavour? <br /> This film celebrates Commander Collins’ trailblazing NASA career which opened the way for women to become spacecraft pilots and commanders, and proved a perfect riposte to a previous generation of male astronauts who thought there was no place for women to lead the way in space. <br /> Official Selection DOC NYC 2024 - World premiere<br /> Official Selection CPH:DOX 2025 - European premiere