Duthchas is a beautiful film about life on the island of Berneray, combining a family archive of film shot in the 1960s with interviews with residents and their descendants. The title Duthchas is a word roughly translated here into Home, but has no direct translation in English, encompassing a wealth of ideas, including heritage, lineage,…
Ooft! Off The Rails is a documentary about a group of young guys in Guildford into parkour. The film follows their story from 15 to 22, showing the ups and downs of their lives as they try to turn their passion into a career. What this film is really about is class. It’s about the…
I didn’t like it. The Ballad of a Great Disordered Heart is a film made by Aidan O’Rourke, Mark Cousins and Becky Manson about the area known as Little Ireland in Edinburgh’s Old Town, and its cultural and musical legacy. I admit to a bit of trepidation going in, because I’d loved Iorram with Aidan…
Really fascinating film. Taking place almost entirely inside the back of a truck, four migrants hope that the journey from Belgium to the UK will provide them with a chance at a better life. The film exists somewhere between documentary and fiction, as the directors film from within a reconstructed space, but the four guys…
Right, so it’s a 70s Afrofuturist blaxploitation flick created by cosmic jazz artist and absolute legend Sun Ra. Knowing that going in, it still somehow managed not to be what I was expecting. First things first, like most blaxploitation movies, it’s made on a budget of £2.50, so bear that in mind going in. Despite…
Afronauts is an atmospheric short film about a girl preparing to go into space, as Zambia tries to beat the U.S. to be the first on the moon. The film has this early sci-fi feel, filmed in black-and-white on the rocky gravel of a quarry. The homemade aluminium spacesuit made for the main character has…
What I liked about Does Your House Have Lions is that it tries to be a documentary without being a documentary, it tries to be with its people rather than show its people. The people in the film, vqueeram, Dhiren, and Devangana, are living through extraordinary times, documentary-worthy times, but rather than pull back and…