Projects matching: Clio Barnard

Synopsis

A classical violinist and a drug dealer connect in a queer love story set on the streets of Bradford.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2023 - World premiere

Synopsis

Both lonely for different reasons, Ali and Ava meet through their shared affection for Sofia, the child of Ali’s Slovakian tenants, whom Ava teaches. Ali finds comfort in Ava’s warmth and kindness and Ava finds Ali’s complexity and humour irresistible. Over a lunar month, sparks fly and a deep connection begins to grow. However, the legacy of Ava’s past relationship and Ali’s emotional turmoil at the breakdown of his marriage begins to overshadow their newfound passion.
Enveloped in music and imbued with humour, ALI AND AVA is a compelling contemporary love story written and directed by BAFTA-nominated Clio Barnard (THE ARBOR, THE SELFISH GIANT, DARK RIVER).
Official Selection Cannes Film Festival 2021 - Directors' Fortnight - World premiere
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2021 - Special Presentation

Synopsis

A bitter dispute between a brother and sister over the tenancy of their family farm, a once beautiful small holding on the Yorkshire moors, unearths traumatic memories that have lain dormant for years.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2017 - Gala Screening - Special Presentation

Synopsis

The Selfish Giant is a contemporary fable about 14-year-old Arbor (Conner Chapman) and his best friend Swifty (Shaun Thomas). Excluded from school, and outsiders in their own community, the boys meet Kitten (Sean Gilder), a local scrapman, and begin collecting scrap metal for him using a horse and cart. Swifty has a natural gift with horses and Arbor has a business brain and a way with words – they make a good team. But when Arbor begins to emulate Kitten by becoming greedy and exploitative, tensions build, leading to a tragic event which transforms them all irrevocably.

Synopsis

The Arbor is the powerful true story of Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar and her troubled relationship with her daughter Lorraine.

Andrea wrote honestly and unflinchingly about her upbringing on the notorious Buttershaw Estate. When she died, tragically at the age of 29 in 1990, Lorraine was just ten years old.

The Arbor catches up with Lorraine in the present day, also at 29; ostracised from Buttershaw and now in prison, serving a sentence for manslaughter for the death of her son.

Whilst in prison and undergoing rehab, Lorraine is re-introduced to her mother's plays and private letters and as she reflects on the parallels in their lives, she begins to come to terms with her role in the death of her son.

Clio Barnard, began recording audio interviews with Lorraine Dunbar, other members of the Dunbar family and residents from the Buttershaw Estate over a period of two years. The material was edited to form an audio 'screenplay' which forms the basis for the film as actors lip-synch to the voices of the interviewees. This footage is intercut with archive footage and extracts from a re-staging of Andrea's first play.

Synopsis

Polly is a teenager, discovering and experimenting with sex. Her father is becoming increasingly withdrawn and Polly mourns the intimacy that existed between them. They are both haunted by the absence of Polly's mother who is revealed to have abandoned the family. Polly deliberately creates a confrontation by dressing up in her mother's clothes.

Synopsis

This 3-hour documentary tells the story of Studio One, Jamaica's most important record label in the history of Reggae.

Filmed in Kingston, the documentary has interviews with many of the artists who Studio One made famous - Horace Andy, Alton Ellis, Ken Boothe, Sugar Minott etc.

The main interview is with Clement 'Sir Coxsone' Dodd, owner and founder, and the documentary tells the story of his life and the impact he has had on Reggae music in Jamaica and the rest of the world.

Studio One is the foundation label of Jamaican Reggae. Often described as the Motown of Jamaica, Studio One is where the career of literally hundreds of Reggae artists began - Bob Marley and the Wailers, Alton Ellis, The Heptones, Ken Boothe, The Skatalites, Burning Spear - everyone! Lee Perry was a handyman there and Prince Buster a bouncer.

The film also visits Trenchtown's old Dancehalls, the Alpha School for wayward Boys (run by Nuns), Tuff Gong Studios and Pressing Plant, Orange street (Jamaica's Tin Pan Alley) and many sites relating to the story.

There is rarely seen vintage footage of musical performances, interviews, Haile Selaisse's arrival in Jamaica and even early music videos (from the 1960s). Much of this footage has rarely been seen outside Jamaica.

Music is featured heavily in the documentary and the film mixes narrative and musical elements throughout.

Synopsis

Random Acts of Intimacy is a film about brief moments of contact and sexual intimacy. It addresses notions of erotic memory, sexual fantasy, sexual desire and romantic love. It explores the possibility that sex with strangers might be the closest we get to realising current notions of romantic love - intense, passionate, impulsive.