Paradise Lost: History in the Un-Making (2021)

Rolling at The Tower

Dating back to the 1800s, Birmingham’s roller skating scene is a flourishing, diverse community - but it lacks dedicated spaces. This community documentary explores the history of one roller venue, The Tower Ballroom, and considers what it tells us about the power of community action.

A & E: When Patients Attack

Hospital staff are reporting more violence and anti-social behaviour than ever before. In 2015, 8 staff were assaulted every hour – a new record high. At The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham – one of the UK’s biggest hospitals – they think they have the answer. Here a private security force of 46 uniformed guards, and a sophisticated CCTV system, keep staff and patients safe. A colourful mixture of characters ranging from ex-soldiers, to bouncers, to former elite sportsmen, it’s the security team’s job to keep the hospital running smoothly. With more than 2 million visitors they have to deal with all aspects of crime and anti-social behaviour. All against a back drop of life changing and life saving procedures.

Handsworth Songs

The Black Audio Film Collective’s acclaimed essay film, 'Handsworth Songs', examines the 1985 race riots in Handsworth and London. Interweaving archival photographs, newsreel clips, and home movie footage, the film is both an exploration of documentary aesthetics and a broad meditation social and cultural oppression through Britain’s intertwined narratives of racism and economic decline.

Reconstruction of Hill Street Birmingham

An engineering feat: Second city civil engineers complete a new bridge to carry traffic over New Street's tangled railway intersections.

The Workshop of the World: Birmingham

Spellbinding images of Birmingham between the wars.

Bhaji on the Beach

A group of South Asian women try but cannot escape their problems on a day trip to a British beach resort.

Tolkien

England, early 20th century. The future writer and philologist John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973) and three of his schoolmates create a strong bond between them as they share the same passion for literature and art, a true fellowship that strengthens as they grow up, but the outbreak of World War I threatens to shatter it.

Felicia's Journey

Seventeen and pregnant, Felicia travels to England in search of her lover and is found instead by Joseph Ambrose Hilditch, a helpful catering manager whose kindness masks unsettling secret.

Ray & Liz

On the outskirts of Birmingham and the margins of society the Billingham family perform extreme rituals and break social taboos as they muddle through a life decided by factors beyond their control. At times shocking and laced with an unsettling humor, three episodes unfold as a powerful evocation of the experience of growing up in a Black Country council flat.

Privilege

Britain's biggest pop singer, Steven Shorter, receives unwavering adulation and possesses total control over his rabid fans, which includes nearly the entire population. Yet Shorter is not an autonomous performer -- he is little more than a puppet for the government, promoting whatever agenda they see fit. When a beautiful artist, Vanessa Ritchie, is commissioned to paint his portrait, she pushes Shorter to question his obedience to his manipulative handlers.

I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle

When a motorbike gang kills an occultist, the evil spirit he was summoning inhabits a damaged bike. The bike is then bought and restored, but reveals its true nature when it tries to exact vengance on the gang, and anyone else who gets in its way.

Tina Turner: Private Dancer Tour

The Private Dancer Tour was the fifth concert tour by singer Tina Turner. In support of her fifth studio album, Private Dancer (1984), the tour helped to establish Turner as a major solo artist of the 1980s and a dynamic solo performer, after initially starting out singing with ex-husband Ike Turner's band. The tour is often considered one of the best comebacks in music history. The 180-date, eleven-month world tour traveled across Europe, North America and Australasia. Notably, Turner played a show in Budapest, Hungary, the only show of the tour behind the Iron Curtain. The concerts received many accolades, including the "Most Creative Tour Package" and "Comeback Tour Of The Year" awards from Pollstar. The two March 1985 shows at Birmingham, England's NEC Arena were filmed and released as Tina Live: Private Dancer Tour. It featured special guests Bryan Adams and David Bowie. In 2025 a 4K upgraded blu ray of the concert came out, including bonus video clips.

Un Zoo Pas Comme Les Autres: En France

Plot unavailable

Scar

A film about the pupils of the Čiobiškis Special School, children abandoned by their parents on the margins of society, the film sensitively portrays a huge wound in society.

Sesame Street Pitch Reel

Rowlf the Dog presents the concept of the revolutionary educational children's show, Sesame Street (1969), to Kermit the Frog.

The Winter Garden’s Tale

The film’s story is based on the fate of the Floriculture Pavilion of the former Exhibition of Achievements of the People’s Economy, and its elderly employee Valentyna Voronina, who maintains this space, investing her own life into it, until suddenly changes come to her. After forty-five years of work, she is asked to retire. But Voronina does not agree with that, because she thinks that all the plants will die without her. Meanwhile, a group of mysterious radioesthesists find a channel of positive energy right in front of the entrance to the pavilion.

Pink Floyd - L'histoire d'un groupe de Rock légendaire

Plot unavailable

Two/2

Music scores are atomized and recompiled into instructions for visual edits and cues. Ties are uncovered between sight and sound.

In the Ocean, on Land

Panasonic PV-GS83 in a plastic bag thrown in the ocean.

A Staircase

Single frames vectorized and stitched before processing through an analog EAB.

Water Theater

White Rock Lake Water Theater in Dallas, Texas. Sculpture by Frances Bagley and Tom Orr. Video compiled from 35mm stills.

XYZ

Oil spills around Oak Cliff, Dallas.

The Sun

Compiled and animated from still images.

Mudder's Hands

A dash of youth, a pinch of age, and an unrecorded recipe: Mudder's Hands is a charming documentary conversation about arthritis, centered around the tradition of baking Newfoundland raisin bread.

Sunflowers

Working closely with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Sunflowers goes beyond a ‘virtual exhibition’, delving into the rich and complex stories behind each of the paintings to unveil the mysteries of the sunflowers. What did the flowers mean to Van Gogh, and why do they resonate so much with audiences today? With a striking portrayal of the artist by actor Jamie de Courcey and fascinating insights from art historians, botanists and everything in between, the film offers a unique insight into Van Gogh’s life and artwork.

The Alhambra: Fortress of Andalusia

An examination of the artistic and construction techniques, architecture and design of this immense fortress in the south of Spain, built mainly by the Nasrid dynasty in the 13th century. Its outward austerity conceals an explosion of refinement and ornamentation, gardens and marble fountains in the grandest tradition of Moorish style and Islamic art of the period.

Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet

David Attenborough and scientist Johan Rockström examine Earth's biodiversity collapse and how this crisis can still be averted.

The Lives of Albert Camus

Albert Camus died at 46 years old on January 4, 1960, two years after his Nobel Prize in literature. Author of “L'Etranger”, one of the most widely read novels in the world, philosopher of the absurd and of revolt, resistant, journalist, playwright, Albert Camus had an extraordinary destiny. Child of the poor districts of Algiers, tuberculosis patient, orphan of father, son of an illiterate and deaf mother, he tore himself away from his condition thanks to his teacher. French from Algeria, he never ceased to fight for equality with the Arabs and the Kabyle, while fearing the Independence of the FLN. Founded on restored and colorized archives, and first-hand accounts, this documentary attempts to paint the portrait of Camus as he was.

The Poison Squad

The story of government chemist Dr. Harvey Wiley who, determined to banish dangerous substances from dinner tables, took on the powerful food manufacturers and their allies.

Balcerowicz. Gra o wszystko

Plot unavailable

Mitterrand, président culturel

On the occasion of the fourty years anniversary of François Mitterand's election, a look back to the relationship between the President and artists, from admiration to manipulation.

Inche Machi

Through the story of an elderly Machi and two young Machi we will learn about their life stories —essential for the Mapuche communities—, their deep relationship with medicinal herbs, and how the state laws of Chile along with private companies continue to affect their work as Machi and their existences as people of the land. The Mapuche people-nation resists.

Edward Prince of Wales' Tour of India: Indore, Bhopal, Gwalior and Delhi

The future Edward VIII enjoys a stately procession and visits the Taj Mahal before meeting senior Indian royalty.

The Block

In central Oslo, Egil (78) and his neighbors in an apartment block are threatened with losing their rented flats to a billionaire raiding such old apartment blocks around Oslo, just as he has done all over Northern Europe. We face the harsh reality of living on the wrong side of the shiny welfare state in one of the world’s wealthiest countries. The film portrays what happens when a group of people constantly live in fear of being thrown out of their homes in an affluent society.

Cracking the Shakespeare Code

Norwegian researcher Petter Amundsen claims to have deciphered a secret code hidden in legendary playwright William Shakespeare's works that reveals a map leading to the location of certain treasures. British Shakespearean scholar Robert Crumpton embarks on a mission to prove he is spectacularly wrong. (A remake of “Shakespeare: The Hidden Truth,” including new discoveries.)

Ultra

A unique drama about everyday athletes who join an extreme running race. Their dream and burden is to test their personal limits, heal their souls and release their demons.

Deep Purple: From Here To Infinite

Feature length documentary about the story behind the pioneering and influential British heavy metal band as they enter the studio to record their new album.