Projects matching: Jez Lewis

Synopsis

Aged 24, Kit was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour. In a small town on the South Coast of England, his dad Lawrence, responds by throwing himself into a series of obscure diversion tactics. From growing herbal medicine in his spare room, to relinquishing his lifelong atheism and secretly attending a local synagogue, he begins to transform his identity for good. His estranged mum, a community nurse who spends her time caring for dying patients, can’t cope with the idea of living through the death of her son and must find a way to reconnect with her son before time runs out.
What follows is Kit’s journey into the depths of the soul. As both filmmaker and character, he examines the nuances of living with a terminal disease and dissects the fear that comes with it. The film weaves a tapestry of each character's experience that unravels from a single moment that tore their lives apart and creates a powerful portrait of a dysfunctional family battling with issues of spirituality, kinship and death, whilst proving that humour and love always prevail.
Official Selection True/False Film Festival 2023 - World premiere
Official Selection Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival 2023 - European premiere
Official Selection Sheffield DocFest 2023

Synopsis

What does it take to change a child’s life? 'H is for Harry' is a coming of age story about Harry, a charismatic 11-year old boy, who arrives at secondary school in suburban London unable to read or write. With the help of Sophie, his extremely dedicated teacher, can he overcome the illiteracy ingrained across generations of his family?
Against the backdrop of a Britain riven with debates around class, identity and social mobility, the film follows Harry over two years as he fights not only to improve academically but also to believe in a different future for himself.

Synopsis

Millions of British families can never afford a holiday. We follow one such family as they leave their council estate under the Heathrow flight path for a subsidised rural break, revealing some little-recognised truths about poverty along the way.

Synopsis

The small UK town of Hebden Bridge, where film-maker Jez Lewis grew up, is a beautiful and quirky rural idyll. But while it is paradise to many, it is purgatory to others. In the twenty years since he left, dozens of Jez's old friends have died young, many of them through suicide and drug overdoses.

Beginning with a personal quest for understanding, the film moves into a year-long drama of human tragedy and redemption as Jez re-bonds with his oldest friend Cass.

Coming to terms with his own imminent mortality, Cass attempts to lift himself out of the cycle of self-destruction he has lived amidst for so long. Around this emerges an intimate study of a place claimed to be the funkiest town in Europe, but which harbours an undertow of lethal hedonism and disillusionment. As young people continue to die by their own hands, a maelstrom of conflicting values throws up unexpected truths about the human condition, whilst Jez finds himself drawn inexorably into the action.

Filmed among friends, with absolutely unrestricted access, Shed Your Tears And Walk Away is a searingly authentic portrayal of a marginalised and overlooked people who seem to have lost their survival instinct.

Synopsis

This is film based on a true story.  It is disturbing portrayal of a secret world that is all around us.
 
Ai Qin, a young Chinese girl from Fujian borrows $25,000 to pay the Snakehead gang to smuggle her into the UK so she can support her son and family back in China. Once in the UK she becomes another one of three million migrant workers that are the bedrock of its food supply chain, construction and hospitality industries. She lives with 15 other Chinese in a two-bedroom suburban house. With an illegally forged work permit, she works in factories preparing food for British supermarkets.  In their search for better paying jobs to repay their debts they end up cockling in Morecambe Bay at night. On 5 February 2004 23 Chinese drowned in Morecambe, their families in China are still paying off their debts.
 
Ai Qin and the other principal characters are played by Chinese former illegal immigrants who have drawn on their life experiences to give passionate and authentic performances. The director, Nick Broomfield, has stepped out of his documentarian role, to create a grippingly compelling film that will change your views on the entire migrant population and leave you wondering about slavery in the 21st century.