Projects matching: James Erskine

Synopsis

Genre-busting tale of how unemployed amateur cyclist, Bryan Allen, and heavily in debt father-of-three, Paul MacCready, together with a rag-tag team of neuro-diverse outliers, set out on a death-defying and madcap quest to untangle the mystery of human powered flight and in doing so win the most coveted prize in aviation.
Built from a remarkable trove of recently discovered 16mm footage along with an arsenal of innovative techniques, this uplifting story of ingenuity, courage and determination, challenges us to question the assumptions we make about about society’s outliers and reminds us of how the stories we tell can help us to understand and perhaps change the world.

Synopsis

Told by the pioneering women who participated, this is the extraordinary story of the unofficial 1971 Women's World Cup, a football tournament witnessed by record crowds that has been written out of sporting history - until now.
Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2023 - World premiere
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2023

Synopsis

The incredible story of the greatest cycling race in history, the 1989 Tour De France, and how American Greg LeMond faced down betrayal, childhood sexual abuse and even death to complete one of the most inspiring comebacks in sporting history.
Official Selection Telluride Film Festival 2022 - World premiere

Synopsis

Billie Holiday one ofthe greatest voices of all time, a woman of breath-taking talent and globalpopularity, was throughout her short life a figure of controversy - a blackwoman in a white man’s world, a victim and a rebel whose performances and recordings of the protest song "Strange Fruit" earned her powerful enemies. She was also an enigma, her telling of her own life story a mix of half truths and free-form improvisations.
In the late1960s journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biographyof Billie. Over the next decade, she tracked down and tape-recorded interviews with the extraordinary characters that populated the iconic singer’s short, tumultuous life. Raw, emotional and brutally honest, these incredible testimonies ranged from musical greats like Charles Mingus, Tony Bennett, Sylvia Syms and Count Basie to her cousin, schoolfriends, lovers, lawyers, pimps and even the FBI agents who arrested her. But Linda’s book was never finished and the tapes unplayed – until now.
With unprecedented and exclusive access to Linda's astonishing 200 hours of never-before-heard interviews, BILLIE showcases an American legend, capturing her depths andcomplexity through the voices of those who knew her best. Painstakingly restored with footage and stills colourized by one of the leading colour artists, it is an arresting and powerful tale of one of the greatest singers who ever lived, and of Linda Lipnack Kuehl, the woman who would sacrifice her life intrying to tell it.
Official Selection Telluride Film Festival 2019 - World premiere

Synopsis

A moving portrait of resilience chronicling the unprecedented journey of 24-year-old Tracy Edwards and the first all-female sailing crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World Race.
The Whitbread Round the World Race (rechristened the Volvo Ocean Race in 2001) was considered an exclusively masculine endeavour when Edwards came along and, in the face of much sexist condescension, proved that skill, perseverance, and courage at sea know no gender.
Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2018 - TIFF Docs - World premiere

Synopsis

A searing documentary of a lost cultural icon. A story of art, sport, sexuality, and rebellion.
Watch any figure skating and it falls into two camps: before and after John Curry. From what was a macho, technical sport whose judges punished deviation, blossomed – through John Curry’s stubborn beauty – ice-dancing.
After winning gold at the Winter Olympics for a rebelliously balletic routine, audiences and reviewers alike were enthralled by his genius. But Curry’s story is about more than skating. On the night of the final, Curry became the first openly gay Olympian at a time when homosexuality was barely legal. From bullying and prejudice, to relief in the gay underworld, to his untimely death from AIDS, Curry’s story dovetails with the experiences of a generation.
This is the story of a man whose body was a battleground. From love affairs, to violence in sex clubs, to its ‘unmanly’ elegance on the ice, every act was rebellion. John Curry was no activist, but an artist expressing his authentic self – yet in a world where his existence was taboo, his life was unavoidably political.
Official Selection CPH:DOX 2018 - International premiere

Synopsis

A tale of a small boy with dreams and his journey to becoming the god of Cricket and the most celebrated sportsperson in his country.

Synopsis

In a world obsessed with knowing the future, we find Alberto, a Colombian immigrant working as a massage therapist in the City of London. Mild-mannered, almost shy, he blends into the multi-ethnic city to which he has come to earn money to pay for his mother's operation back home.
The streets of London aren't paved with gold but with old chip wrappers, and Alberto has found himself trapped in a vicious circle. Staying in London beyond his plans, the fervently religious man becomes obsessed that God has a destiny marked out for him. Everywhere he begins to see signs - on the streets, in bars and most potently on the clients he massages. When one day, a "third-way" politician, Jackie Jordan, visits the spa Alberto sees a sign that will set him on the path to his ultimate destiny.
Absorbing the Bible, Nostradamus, Palmistry and the Qur'an in its mythology, this is a taut, poignant East London based thriller with a supernatural twist.

Synopsis

The inside story of a group of men willing to risk all in the hunt for glory in the world’s toughest motor race: The 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The undisputed “King of Le Mans” is the dashing German driver for Audi, André Lotterer. The three-time winner is a master at fighting off pretenders to his throne but, this year, will the hunter become the hunted? His main challenge is Porsche's Aussie Grit, Formula 1 favourite Mark Webber - back at Le Mans after a long absence and determined to win. Having failed to finish the race in three attempts and come close to death on the track, he wonders how many more rolls of the dice he might have...
Focussing on the 2015 race, with unparalleled behind-the-scenes access, what plays out is a truly thrilling story of racing guts and glory with endless twists and turns for every team… This is racing seen as a battle for survival.
Presented in 4k 3D and using state-of-the-art technology, this is racing shown on the big screen as it has never before been seen. As Steve McQueen said, "Racing is life, everything else is just waiting."

Synopsis

Set during the 1986 World Cup when Northern Ireland met Brazil in the finals, the film tells the story of the Northern Ireland team’s momentous World Cup performance that year, through the eyes of players, fans (including a 10-year-old boy from East Belfast) and journalists. The film also includes the ‘wit and wisdom’ of Brazilian footballer Socrates de Souza.

Synopsis

In 1998 Marco Pantani took the cycling world by storm when he won both the Giro D’Italia and the Tour De France – a feat that has not since been matched. Just six years later, Pantani was found dead and alone in a cheap hotel room. This film charts his meteoric ascent to the top of his sport on the mountains he loved and explores the darker side of the sport that led to the catastrophic downfall. It is the story of the tragic battles fought by the most important Italian cyclist of his generation; man verses mountain, athlete verses addiction, Marco Pantani verses himself.

Synopsis

A look at the events leading up to the 1973 tennis match between retired men's champ Bobby Riggs and the current women's Wimbledon winner Billie Jean King.