The Workshop of the World: Birmingham (1930)

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.

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.

Paradise Lost: History in the Un-Making

When filmmaker Andy Howlett set out with his camera to document the final days of Birmingham's Brutalist Central Library complex, little did he know the rabbit hole he was stumbling into. Decried by the Council as an eyesore, but hailed by Historic England as an exemplar of postwar design, the story of John Madin's concrete colossus and the fight to save it is a curious one. In this psychogeographic detective story, Howlett weaves together archive footage with on-the-ground explorations in an attempt to figure out why we lost Paradise and how it might be regained.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Suit

The events revolve around Akram, who receives an invitation to attend a masquerade party. He decides to wear police uniforms, which causes him to suffer a crisis as a police officer, while looking for a particular file.

The City Gone Wild

Hard-boiled underworld melodrama, with gang wars and gunfights, in which criminal lawyer turns prosecutor to avenge a friend's death.

Ramen Heads

In Ramen Heads, Osamu Tomita, Japan's reigning king of ramen, takes us deep into his world, revealing every single step of his obsessive approach to creating the perfect soup and noodles, and his relentless search for the highest-quality ingredients.

The Future of Work and Death

The documentary focuses on how future technology could significantly change the two inevitable features of the human experience: punching the clock and fading away. With advanced automation and artificial intelligence, the utopia of the end of human labor or the dystopia of widespread unemployment could not be a thing of science fiction. Scientists, engineers and academics all come together to share their thoughts on the future.

Films That Last Seconds

Vlado Kristl's great mini show.

Ask Any Buddy

A kaleidoscopic snapshot of urban gay life during the gay liberation era — or at least how it looked in the movies.

Alaskan Sled Dog

The story of an Eskimo father and son who train and groom a sled dog team. When the father is lost on an ice floe, the son takes the unproven team on the search, and succeeds in finding his father.

St. Louis

Hamburg, Germany, 1939. Getting a passage aboard the passenger liner St. Louis seems to be the last hope of salvation for more than nine hundred German Jews who, desperate to escape the atrocious persecution to which they are subjected by the Nazi regime, intend to emigrate to Cuba.

Donald Duck's 50th Birthday

Donald is shown in both animated and costumed form, interacting with emcee Dick Van Dyke and other cast members. The film not only shows Donald's life, but also depicts an extensive international tour that Donald went on in 1984 as well as showing various celebrities of the day wishing Donald happy birthday. The tour culminates in a parade in Donald's honor at Disneyland.

One Small Step: The Story of the Space Chimps

One Small Step: The Story of the Space Chimps is the dramatic and moving real-life tale of the United States Air Force chimponauts and their NASA compatriots.

Mad As Hell

MAD AS HELL follows Cenk Uygur's transformation from unknown talk show host on local Public Access TV to an internet sensation with his online news show "The Young Turks," which has amassed over one billion views on YouTube. Once Cenk ventures from the internet into national television and lands the 6 PM time slot on MSNBC, his uncensored brand of journalism is compromised and Cenk becomes the nexus in the battle between new and old media.

Germany: A Summer's Fairytale

A documentary of the German national soccer team’s 2006 World Cup experience that changed the face of modern Germany.

Riding Giants

Riding Giants is story about big wave surfers who have become heroes and legends in their sport. Directed by the skateboard guru Stacy Peralta.

Dave Chappelle's Block Party

The American comedian/actor delivers a story about the alternative Hip Hop scene. A small town Ohio mans moves to Brooklyn, New York, to throw an unprecedented block party.

The Weavers: Wasn't That a Time

Documentary about the blacklisted folk group The Weavers, and the events leading up to their triumphant return to Carnegie Hall.

American Revolution 2

“AMERICAN REVOLUTION 2” includes footage of the 1968 Democratic Convention protest and riot, a critique of events by working class African-Americans in Chicago, and attempts by the Black Panther Party to organize poor, southern white youths.

The Michael Jackson Interview: The Footage You Were Never Meant To See

The Footage You Were Never Meant To See - THE TRUTH MUST BE TOLD AND SHOWN!

A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting

On October 27th, 2018, a gunman opened fire inside a Pittsburgh synagogue, killing eleven people as they prayed, in what would become the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history. This documentary is a deeply personal portrait of the survivors, victims and family members, who share their harrowing first-hand accounts of the impact of the shooting on the community.

Idina Menzel: Which Way to the Stage?

Feature documentary on the life and career of Tony winner Idina Menzel, culminating in her headlining a concert at Madison Square Garden in her hometown of New York City after a nationwide tour.

State of Denial: Arizona

'State of Denial' tells the behind-the-scene story about the state of elections in Maricopa Co., AZ. The movie brings the receipts and shows the evidence! The question then becomes, why are they doing this?

Bunch of Kunst - A Film About Sleaford Mods

Documentary following British punk duo Sleaford Mods on their two year journey from Nottingham bedroom recording sessions to chart success

Life After Life

Plot unavailable

Welcome to Lynchland

Creator of absolute freedom, David Lynch constructed his work as an enigma to be deciphered between dream and reality. A cult director from his first films ("Eraserhead", "Elephant Man", "Blue Velvet"), Lynch forever changed the world of television with his series "Twin Peaks", before tackling the lies of Hollywood in "Mulholland Drive". Tracing the life of the most influential filmmaker of his generation, this documentary explores the hidden meaning of a relentlessly consistent filmography and delves beneath the dark, teeming surface of the American Dream.