Projects in categories: Documentary

Synopsis

In track and field he’s remembered as The Greatest. Athletics' first commercially global star. Away from the spotlight, his is a life often misunderstood. Carl Lewis did it his own way - unwilling to conform to what the US expected from its athletes. Lewis won nine Olympic gold medals across four Games and was voted 'Sportsman of the Century' by the International Olympic Committee. Yet he refused to be pigeonholed and, in doing so, he inspired change on and off the field. I’m Carl Lewis! delves into the consequences of his uncompromising drive. Official Selection SXSW Film & TV Festival 2025 - World premiere

Synopsis

AS TIME SWALLOWS TIME weaves fragmented narratives into a poetic dialogue between two entwined inquiries. The first engages with the curatorial focus of BIO28 (Ljubljana Design Biennale), which interrogates the historical symbolism linking women to flowers - figures of fragility, sensuality, and objectification - and the ways these associations have been reclaimed and subverted. The second unfolds as a speculative exploration of time and temporal perception as forces shaping human consciousness and evolution. Together, these threads compose a meditation on transformation, perception, and the cyclical nature of existence. Constructed through the juxtaposition of narrative fragments, the film layers scenes in a manner that invites viewers to navigate and reassemble its temporal and conceptual terrain. The film presents a dialogue between the Ljubljana Biennale’s curatorial theme, “Do You Speak Flower?” which explores the historical contexts in which women have been symbolically linked to flowers—figures of fragility, sensuality, and objectification—and how those associations have been reclaimed and subverted, and this theme directly, and the authors speculative exploration of time, temporal perception and post humanity.

Synopsis

In the 1970s, lesbians across the United States moved out to wild, untamed landscapes to build a world without men. Some of them never left. 50 years on, BEYOND EDEN follows some of the ageing original Land Dykes.

Synopsis

Not just a film about war or emigration, but a story about a generation growing up between two worlds, learning to find its place in a new reality while holding on to its roots. It is also a story of a mother’s love - steadfast, nurturing and unwavering - as she stands by her child through uncertainty, offering reassurance, strength and a sense of belonging wherever they go. The sequel to the documentary film WOMEN delves into the lives of Ukrainian children who fled their homeland with their mothers because of the war. Three years have passed since they began adapting to life in the UK. How has the war changed them? What have they lost and what have they gained in their new home? Through the stories of Mariia, Sonya, Manya and Timofii, the film explores how children experience emigration, build new lives, integrate into society and dream about their futures. The film offers insight into the strength of family bonds, cultural identity and the resilience of young minds. The deep connection between mother and child is the heart of this film, showing how love becomes the anchor that helps them navigate life between two worlds.

Synopsis

Constantinopoliad is an expanded documentary and installation that centers around the collective reading of a hand-made book. A response to the archive of the poet Constantine Cavafy, the story is inspired by the blank and torn out pages in “Constantinopoliad, an epic”, the journal the teenage Cavafy began when he and his family fled Alexandria; by lost and missing queer archives through time; and by the ghosts, both erotic and historical, that visit the older Cavafy in his poems.

Synopsis

An immersive 360° film poem from the heart of a Cornish temperate rainforest. The voice of the Mother Tree introduces us to the sounds, sights and more-than-human characters of the ancient woodland, encouraging us to think of time as trees do, in hundreds or even thousands of years.

Synopsis

Damon Hill’s father was his hero. Graham Hill was a two-time world champion and racing icon full of natural charisma, humour and vibrancy; he was a towering figure. For Damon, growing up on the circuit at a time when F1 was immensely dangerous for the drivers, death cast a constant threat. And when Graham was killed in a plane crash leaving the family with nothing, 15-year-old Damon was forced to find his path without his father’s support and guidance, a path that would ultimately lead him back into Formula 1. This is the story of a son’s life-long search to understand his father, set against the backdrop of two fascinating, contrasting eras of the sport: the 1960-70s, a time of glamour and demi-gods, and the 1980-90s, a time of rivalry among men. This film tells how Damon wrestled with his father’s legacy and how, through sheer determination, he forged himself into a champion and became the father he never had.

Synopsis

STEPNEY WESTERN is an experimental documentary made in collaboration with young inner city horse riders from Stepney Bank Stables in Byker, Newcastle. It is loosely centred on their Alternative Provision programme — a unique alternative for teenagers who struggle in mainstream education settings. Recasting Byker as the Wild West, this project sits at the porous boundary between fact and fiction, combining re-contextualised iPhone clips shot by the riders and archival material with Lawson's own footage.

Synopsis

Exploring how war becomes spectacle in the age of endless scrolling. Following a group of young Ukrainians as they watch their country’s destruction unfold online, the film blends vérité intimacy with experimental absurdity to reveal how social media is reshaping our relationship to trauma, detachment, and the limits of empathy.

Synopsis

As thousands of people travel to see the total solar eclipse in Texas, one woman drives from Dallas to New Mexico, in search of a legal abortion. Concurrently, people in a town off the Interstate she is driving along decide whether to crack down on 'abortion traffickers' like her. Official Selection Odense Film Festival 2025

Synopsis

ALSO RESISTERS considers solidarity across generations and geography. Adapted from a 1968 essay by the gay American socialist David E. McReynolds, the short archival film takes the images and sounds of the American war in Vietnam to reflect on the feedback loop between militarism abroad and at home - and the people who resisted it.

Synopsis

A poignant and poetic exploration of the rise and decline of Luton’s once vibrant Caribbean culture. Through intimate personal stories, rich historical context, and a cultural lens, the film traces how a thriving legacy rooted in migration, music, resistance, and community has been gradually eroded over the years. From the golden days of sound system culture and bustling youth clubs to the bouncing spirit of Luton Carnival formerly Europe’s largest one day Caribbean carnival, the film reflects on how these vital cultural institutions have been systematically dismantled through decades of underfunding, neglect, and shifting priorities. These weren’t just events or social spaces, they were expressions of identity and anchors of community. With vignettes/reenactments shot on 16mm film and interwoven with candid communal conversations, this documentary offers a poetic and thought provoking insight and invites audiences from all backgrounds to engage in deeper reflection on the value of heritage and the fragility of community spaces. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2025 The film ends on the question of: How do communities reclaim their space, their voice, and their future?