Project Detail

The Hexagonal Hive and a Mouse in a Maze

Synopsis

What if every thought was a movement, and every movement a thought? What is intelligence and when is it artificial? Can robots dance? Can they help our children learn how to be? How are we learning, and do we ever stop? What are the values and skills that we pass on as societies through games, crafts, stories and cinema?
Connecting scenes of pedagogy, work and play in four global sites, THE HEXAGONAL HIVE AND A MOUSE IN A MAZE invites viewers to consider the mechanics of learning. We search in the cabinets of a supercomputer, in the curve of a chalked letter, in the weaving of a basket. We jump down the rabbit hole and seek counsel from researchers and public intellectuals.
Curiosity and the affordances of the essay form send us grazing, observing, and thinking through film with an open heart. We wonder afresh what the human spirit might yet dream up as new and improved programming for our species.
Official selection Sheffield DocFest 2024 International Competition - World premiere

Visit Film Website

Details

Year: 2024
Type of project: Features
Running time: 93 min
Format: Digital
Director: Tilda Swinton, Bartek Dziadosz
Producer: Lily Ford, Vijay Vaidyanathan
Executive Producer: Colin MacCabe, Adam Bartos, Karen Wells, Ahsan Akbar
Editor: Bartek Dziadosz
Screenwriter: Tilda Swinton, Bartek Dziadosz, Lily Ford
Director of Photography: Bartek Dziadosz
Composer: Simon Fisher Turner

Genre

Experimental

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

Derek Jarman Lab

Birkbeck
Malet Street
London
WC1H 7HX

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

In the mid-2000s, Rick Canty lost both his mother and their home in Barry, Wales. Evicted, he climbed onto his roof and stayed there for years in protest. Through candid interviews and archive, RICK ON THE ROOF reveals how a quiet neighbourhood becomes a community, throwing street parties and keeping him alive through storms, until Rick is suddenly injured under mysterious circumstances. Today, amidst the UK’s ongoing cost of living crisis, the community he shaped reflect on the legacy of their local hero. This slightly bizarre, emotional documentary explores one man’s fight for his home. Official Selection Folkestone Documentary Festival 2025 - World premiere

Biography Welsh

Criatura

Director: Nitya Ramlogan

Year: 2025

13-year-old Lola discovers a mysterious sea creature in her new seaside hometown. Their day spent together at the fun fair reveals questions of belonging. Layered with documentary audio recordings of conversations with 13-year old Lola and her London school peers about migrating to London from Mexico. Official Selection Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia 2025 Official Selection Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2025 Official Selection Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film 2026

Docufiction Woman Director

SightNotSeeing

Director: Sheung Man Yim

Year: 2026

SIGHTNOTSEEING captures a cultural tour in post-colonial Kowloon, around the remnants of the Walled City, but not the kind of tour you'd expect. Filmed in a single overhead long take, it drifts through performance, misunderstanding, and (post-)truth, held together by confusion and just enough confidence to carry on. Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam 2026 - World premiere

Asian Comedy Docufiction Fantasy