The Devons

Director: Martin Orton, Greg Villalobos

Year: 2009

An animation film in which young British Muslims explore and challenge negative portrayals and stereotypes of Islam in society and the Media through a series of snapshots conversations from across East London.

Director: Martin Orton, Greg Villalobos

Year: 2007

As seen through the eyes of a local youth from an East London Estate, this challenging documentary-animation uniquely deals with the problem of anti-social behaviour in Britain’s inner cities to successfully tackle social misrepresentation of the community, young and old. Commissioned by Tower Hamlets Crime Reduction Services and The Local Police Team this film used a unique process of workshops and interaction with the local community to resolve long standing issues of misrepresentation and disengagement of young people on the estate. The animation was written by two emerging youth leaders on the estate who realised that the ongoing problems needed to be resolved if they where ever going to stand a chance of living in peacefully alongside the police and older residents.

Director: Hasan Kattan

Year: 2026

For 14 years, Syrian filmmakers Hasan Kattan and Fadi Al-Halabi have journeyed together through war and storytelling. Their bond was forged on the frontlines of revolution where their cameras recorded terror and hope, laughter and heartbreak – moments that defined a generation. Years later, their story takes an unexpected turn. Confined inside a UK asylum hotel, Hasan and Fadi document a new chapter shaped not by bombs, but by waiting, bureaucracy, and exile. Amid rising anti-refugee hostility, they turn the camera inward exploring friendship and displacement and how filming itself becomes an act of survival when the future is so uncertain. Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam 2026 - World premiere