FOCAL Awards 2023 Shortlisted Nominees

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Director:: dosas
Producer(s):: adsa
Footage Archive Producer:: ads

Stephen Maier for Stasi FC

Production Company:: Corso Film

Synopsis

Dresden, 1978: A musty-smelling locker room. The Dynamo Dresden players celebrate their outstanding victory in the GDR championship. But their laughter stops when Erich Mielke storms in. He has not come to congratulate them, but to make it clear that this will be the last championship celebration for the popular club for the time being. From now on, his team, BFC Dynamo Berlin, would take over the GDR league. And so it was: in the following ten years, Erich Mielke's favourite club won ten championships with the help of dubious refereeing decisions, forced player transfers and cunning manipulation. The Stasi's influence on the national football league - which is said to have triggered a government crisis - even went so far as to plot the murder of an East German footballer who had gone to the West.

For football fans in East Germany, the choice of their favourite club was often also a political statement and therefore had far greater significance than in West Germany. While BFC Dynamo received every conceivable kind of state support, it was much more difficult for Union Berlin to achieve success.

Archival highlights

Apart from interviews, "Stasi FC" consists almost exclusively of archive material. In his role as archive producer, Stephen therefore had a key position in this project. Without his knowledge of GDR film sources, his passion for research and his tenacity in clearing rights and negotiating prices, the project would not have been possible. Important film footage and photos, which are central to the story of the film, could only be used because Stephen did everything he could to fulfil the director's wishes. This was only possible because Stephen has maintained good contacts for several years with archives, some of which are difficult to access, that hold important material for the project.

Kyle Gibbon for The Stones and Brian Jones

Production Company:: Lafayette Film

Synopsis

THE STONES & BRIAN JONES looks at the relationships and rivalries within The Rolling Stones in those formative years. It explores the iconoclastic freedom and exuberance of the 60s, a time of intergenerational conflict and sexual turmoil which reflects on where we are today.

Featuring revealing interviews with all the main players and unseen archive released for the first time, THE STONES & BRIAN JONES explores the creative musical genius of Jones, key to the success of the band, and uncovers how the founder of what became the greatest rock & roll band in the world was left behind in the shadows of history.

Archival highlights

Kyle not only Produced this film but also undertook all of the archive research and clearance. Kyle has always had a natural talent for archive and in the ten or so years we have worked together we have made several archive feature films including Whitney: Can I Be Me, Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love (Focal winner), My Father and Me, and this latest film The Stones and Brian Jones.

Kyle's ability to find rare and interesting archive is unlike anyone I have ever worked with. On subjects that have been so well documented over decades he can still deliver unseen archive, as he did with The Stones and Brian Jones, which to me is remarkable - I can always rely on Kyle to deliver.

Jackie Clary for Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie

Production Company:: Apple Original Films / Concordia Studio

Synopsis

Told in his own words with a mix of archival and scripted elements, STILL: A MICHAEL J. FOX MOVIE recounts Fox’s rise to the heights of stardom in 1980s Hollywood. The look at his public life unspools alongside his private journey including the years following his diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease.

Archival highlights

Long story short: Jackie was the engine behind Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. It’s a film that is predominantly made of archival footage. Jackie is a rare treasure and a treat. She works like crazy to get what is requested and thinks gigantically out-of-the-box to get the best possible plus options. Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie would not be the beloved and award-winning film that it is today without Jackie Clary.

I joined the production of what turned out to be Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie in April 2021 as the main producer. Jackie was a recommendation from a friend of our editor Michael Harte, and I’ll be forever grateful for that recommendation.

Not only did Jackie present the experience and tenacity we were looking for, she also seemed like a lovely person AND was a long-time Michael J. Fox fan. Everything seemed perfect with this key hire.

Well. Not only did Jackie incredibly excel at this particular job, she did it under pressure. And she did it with the best attitude ever.

Jackie sourced not only all the usual suspects (and with Michael J. Fox, there are a lot of usual suspects) but she also tracked down incredibly rare and never-seen work that took a lot of time and persistence to find.

Not only am I thrilled that I met and hired Jackie, I will be forever grateful that she powered through it all with me every single day. And now Jackie is not only an incredible colleague and collaborator, but also a treasured friend.

Molly Rokosz for The Pigeon Tunnel

Production Company:: Apple Original Films / Ink Factory

Synopsis

A look at the life and career of former British spy David Cornwell – better known as author John le Carré. The film spans six decades as le Carré delivers his final interview and features archival footage and dramatized vignettes

Archival highlights

My goal in making The Pigeon Tunnel with John le Carré was to get inside the mind of one of the greatest authors of the 20th century and figure out how it worked. I wanted to discover the people and events that shaped him, and which were in turn reshaped by him in the course of his long literary career. His father, the arch-conman and libertine; his time nestled in the bosom of the British establishment, from boarding schools to MI5; his time on the front lines of the Cold War with MI6. To bring these moments to life and create a concoction for the audience like the one in John le Carré’s brain, I turned to archival producer Molly Rokosz for help.

Molly unearthed television programs featuring le Carré during his rise to fame, allowing the audience to experience what he was like as a young man. One show that provided a vast amount of material was an episode of London Weekend Television. It showed le Carré walking around Paris and West Berlin, sharing stories about his life and what it means to be an artist.

Just as important to my film as these glimpses of le Carré over the years was the footage Molly curated to establish the places and historical events that shaped him. The shots around Berlin from the time the Berlin Wall certainly come to mind. But so too do the grainy, black and white views of pigeons at Eton. And the rictus of an elderly Kim Philby on a picnic in Russia.

The archival footage for The Pigeon Tunnel is essential to helping the audience look into the past and understand where artistic inspiration is born. The fruits of Molly Rokosz’s archival research on this project enabled me to recreate a version of John le Carré’s mind’s eye and to illustrate his creative process, giving viewers unique insight into the workings of a literary wonder: a man whose output changed the way we view the history of the twentieth century.

Helen R. Russell for Bill Russell: Legend

Production Company:: High Five Productions, LLC

Synopsis

Bill Russell: Legend captures the remarkable life and legacy of an NBA superstar and civil rights icon. This two-part film from director Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI) features the last interview with Russell prior to his passing in 2022. Russell’s story is told in his own voice through original and archival interviews as well as excerpts from Russell’s memoirs read by actor Jeffrey Wright. WIth archival footage as the film’s backbone, Russell’s story spans history from the 1930s - 2020s. On the court, Russell led every team he played on to championships -- two NCAA titles, a gold medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics, and eleven NBA Championships in thirteen years as a Boston Celtic, his last two as the first Black head coach in NBA history. Off the court, Russell was a force in the fight for human rights - marching with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and leading boycotts in the NBA and local communities over racist practices and segregation — efforts which earned him the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom. From his humble beginnings in Louisiana to the top of the sports world, Bill Russell: Legend illuminates how Russell stood tall in every sense of the word.

Archival highlights

Helen tirelessly uncovered footage from his college years at the University of San Francisco through his tenure as a Boston Celtic and beyond as a coach, commentator, and television personality. She found never before seen home movies of the Celtics off the court at one of the player’s homes that said a lot about the team’s camaraderie and Bill’s close relationship with his teammates, and poignant audio from a town dinner to honor the Russell family that happened a short time before his home would be ransacked in that same neighborhood.

What set this documentary apart was finding visuals depicting Russell’s participation in the civil rights movement. Helen and the team uncovered footage that depicted Bill’s activism in the racially charged Boston of the 1960s and beyond; and footage of his travels to Mississippi after the death of civil rights activist Medgar Evers.

What her search uncovered was a man who was more than a basketball star. He was a human being whose measure went beyond the sport of basketball. Helen’s contribution was phenomenal and for my money ranks Helen as one of the best archivists I have ever had the opportunity to work with.

Prasad

Archival highlights

We are motivated by the tremendous strides our team has taken in establishing 8K as a cutting-edge service offering in the Indian market. Worldwide, 8K has not become mainstream yet. But in India, we strongly believed that we could crack this puzzle. It was just not about taking this service to market but a major operation struggle to scan at 8K. We faced technical issues, issues, challenges relating to scanning, film compatibility, and data storage. The Prasad team had to constantly innovate and bring in several improvements to the hardware and software to optimize performance.

Prasad physically restore and prepare deteriorating cultural and historical treasures to be ‘preserved4posterity™’. This is probably one of the largest Analog Film Restoration and Preventive Conservation project executed in the world. The ambitious project involved restoring approximately 60,000 reels, which accounted for about one-third of the archive's inventory. To achieve this, a combination of technologies, processes, and innovative thinking was employed on a large scale.

In addition, they launched two new services in 2023:
Film Colorization Services: Bringing in expertise in film preservation, they launched black-and-white film colorization services.

SDR to HDR conversion services: The consumer demand for high-quality video entertainment had surged in recent times. HDR is gradually becoming ubiquitous in the general streaming space.

Getty Images

Archival highlights

The EMEA Broadcast and Production team supported over 1,800 film and TV productions in 2023 across a variety of factual and scripted genres.

Getty Images offer key services to customers including Proof of Concept - free, content research feeding video and stills findings from our libraries back to customers. This service was used extensively in 2023, helping shape the viability or direction of over 3,000 projects.

To help deliver on the Getty Images mission of “keeping the customer at the heart of everything we do” an Advisory Group of notable, experienced archive researchers was created. This group ensures Getty Images continue to listen to what customers need and to provide the enhancements and improvements they request into the future.

September 2023 saw the re-launch of the much-improved VIDA platform collaboration between Getty Images and BBC Studios, giving access to BBC archive video and a new seamless search, purchase and download experience. The improved platform has met with overwhelmingly positive customer reaction, and to help onboarding, Getty Images ran an extensive VIDA webinar and various support activities.

Kinolibrary

Archival highlights

Kinolibrary is the perfect combination of the key facets exhibited by the best archive companies. Crucially, they have excellent material that is unique, high quality and easily accessible but they are also a lovely group of people offering excellent boutique service in their research, sales and in representing film-makers and licensors. They have also brought new talent into the industry who have since gone on to successful careers in production. I can’t think of another company that compares in such an all-round contribution to our sector.

In 2023, Kinolibrary released a new website providing users with more visibility on the collections that Kinolibrary hold. The site was built and designed with direct input from archive researchers and producers and provides a searchable database of curated clips from across the Kinolibrary collections.

In addition, Kinolibrary has continued to add high quality and exclusive content to their evolving archive, much of which has been made commercially available for the first time. These recent collections include underground LBGTQ nightlife in the 1990s, the Miner's strikes of the 1980s, the Irish Troubles from the 1970s and the UK 1960s art scene. They also completed scanning the Oscar-winning Hilary Harris' 35mm reel collection featuring beautiful scenes and communities from New York in the 1960s and 1970s

Yannis Dubois

Job Titles:: Archive Producer and Teacher
Company:: Le Chaînon Manquant

Archival highlights

LE CHAINON MANQUANT is a French company founded in 1992, dedicated to the research and clearance of additional content, whether for documentaries, fiction, advertising, exhibitions, etc.

I know that doing this job within a company rather than on a freelance basis is rather strange, but it has enabled me to work on some particularly numerous and challenging projects: documentary series for platforms, dramas awarded at the Cannes Film Festival or the César Awards, commercials for international brands, and so on. It was a rich learning experience!

That's why several training organizations, including INA (Institut National de l'Audiovisuel), entrust me with a large number of assignments every year, not only for their students but also for archive professionals. I also train interns and other new members of the Chaînon Manquant team.

I'm also a film director, notably for exhibition films and 100% archive corporate films, with a prize for best director at the Trophées de la Communication in 2020 for an SNCF (national train company) film.

Lucy Francis

Job Title:: Sales Support Manager, Motion Gallery
Company:: BBC Studios

Archival highlights

Lucy Francis, Motion Gallery’s Sales Support Manager, envisioned a digital workflow that would facilitate clients being able to carry out self-research and view digitised programmes on our VIDA library platform, select clips and submit them for approval. This could be achieved without clients contacting our sales team. To accomplish this Lucy brought together key stakeholders from Getty Images, Visual Data Media Services and Motion Gallery. Lucy laid out the benefits that this workflow would bring, minimising admin and increasing efficiency for clients, vital in an industry with very tight deadlines, whilst also reducing technical fees in a time of budgetary pressures. With our sales partner on board, and the technical expertise of VDMS, the opportunity to integrate the VIDA library platform with the Getty Images CRM system became a possibility, further streamlining the process for clients.

This innovation has given our clients much easier access to the BBC’s archive, with our collection now available globally 24/7. Since launch there has been widespread praise for the platform from our clients. Around 40% of their requests are now received directly from VIDA, allowing the Sales teams to focus on business development and our clients. This step change in our service was the result of Lucy’s vision and project leadership, from concept to delivery. Whilst delivering this fundamental innovation Lucy continued to manage her high performing team who never missed a beat.

Brian Sargent

Job Title:: Managing Director
Company:: Fox Archive

Archival highlights

Brian and his team are extremely responsive and so fun to work with. They always have the most unique material, and Brian knows the collection extremely well. Even more, if he doesn’t have something I’m looking for, he will prioritize digitization of what I need. It’s so helpful, and it leads to unique and interesting footage. Brian also will work with projects, understanding our limitations while also showing extreme reverence for his vast archive and the enormous work they are doing. He understands the value of what they are doing for our community, but they also have reverence for the projects they help.

Brian shares the credit for his successes with his whole team, and that shows. And perhaps most importantly for this nomination, Brian (and his colleague Ben Ramos) build us up as a community, bringing us together for events and conversations. His enormous digitization project is his pride and joy, and we are so very lucky to have him. Not only is he exceptional at his job, but Brian is personable and very funny. He’s a joy to work with.

Stephanie Molloy

Job Title:: Strategic, Product Specialist
Company:: Getty Images

Archival highlights

Stephanie is in a league of her own when it comes to delivering and licensing archive footage. Stephanie has been an integral part in project managing over 50 of the largest archive projects at Getty Images in 2023. Stephanie has nearly 30 years’ experience in the industry, which is evident with her wealth of knowledge.

She has passion, resilience and will do anything to get the best possible content delivered. She has a in-depth knowledge of archive content, processes and people. Not only has she been integral in delivering and licensing over 1000 minutes of archive footage, she has also been the Getty Images lead in launching the BBC’s ground breaking platform VIDA. Steph spent years, shaping, driving, testing and delivering the system. Stephanie led the webinar which had over 200 researchers, giving a demonstration of how it worked. To this day, Stephanie is still working with the archive community to understand where we can improve VIDA for the future. The best thing about Stephanie is ‘no’, or ‘it’s not possible’ is not acceptable, she gets to the core and pushes to get stuff done.

Dance Craze

Production Company:: R3store Studios Ltd

Synopsis

Capturing the peak of 2 Tone in the early 1980s, Dance Craze remains unique in the history of the concert film. Showcasing live performances from The Specials, Madness, The Selecter, The Beat, Bad Manners and The Bodysnatchers, it’s a valuable time-capsule of the British genre that merged Jamaican ska with punk and new wave music. It also broke new ground for how to film bands on stage.

Aside from a brief VHS release in 1988 from the 35mm and the odd screening over the years, it has rarely been seen since. Restoring it for the first time and from the 70mm print has allowed a whole new audience by being able to screen it at the IMAX.

Archival highlights

The biggest challenge with this film was the grade as the 70mm film was extremally faded to red which happens with certain film stocks over time. However as you will see, the lights coming from the side of the stage were also red so it was very difficult to try to take out the red in the film but still retain the red that was coming off the lights. The film was very sparkly and had some scratches within it. Removing scratches where there is a lot of movement is very difficult also.

LA GRANDE PASSION

Production Company:: TransPerfect Media France / CNC

Synopsis

La grande passion is a famous French silent film directed by André Hugon released in Paris the 21 December 1928. The original production company is "Films André Hugon".

On a hunting trip in the Pyrenees, Jean d'Esproey meets Patrick Bush, who is camping with his father and sister Harriet. A friendship develops between the young men, who are passionate about sport and especially rugby. The Pyrenean is captain of the Toulouse rugby team and a member of the French national team, in love with the beautiful Countess Sonia de Blich. Sonia is determined to use all her charms to distract Jean from his passion for rugby. She takes him to Chamonix, away from his team. But on the slopes, he runs into Harriet Bush, who is preparing for the luge championships. She reminds him of his passion and encourages him to resume training...

Archival highlights

This is the first digital restoration of the film, which has remained unseen for years because of a lack of screening material. The only surviving source material used for this restoration was the original nitrate black and white negative (7 x 300 meters reels), stored at the CNC (French National archive). The technical challenges faced to make a 4K restoration from a very damaged single source material added to the complexity of the restoration.

The Village / Unser Dorf

Production Company:: Cinémathèque suisse

Synopsis

Founded in 1924, Switzerland's oldest production company, Praesens-Film AG, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

The Village / Unser Dorf, the latest feature film directed by Swiss filmmaker Leopold Lindtberg for Praesens Films, is a drama driven by the idea of peace between nations. It tells the story of the fates of several war orphans from all over Europe, reunited in a village in the Swiss Alps at the end of the Second World War. A Swiss-British co-production, The Village / Unser Dorf is a multilingual work, like other collaborations between the filmmaker and the Zurich production company (Die letzte Chance, Die Vier im Jeep...); the performers come from ten different countries and the shooting, mainly in English and German, also includes scenes in French, Polish and Italian. Shot in Switzerland and England (Nettlefold Studios), the film was presented at Cannes in 1953, and was widely distributed on the international market, particularly in English-speaking countries. It won numerous awards, including the Bronze Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and the Silver Laurel at the David O. Selznick Awards.

Archival highlights

The restoration is the result of extensive preliminary work to identify and analyse all the film elements - over a hundred reels - deposited for this title at the Cinémathèque suisse by the Praesens-Films production company. Together with a meticulous study of the production's papers archive and press cuttings from the time, also kept at the Cinémathèque, it was possible to reconstruct a large part of the film's production history and to understand that there were two original versions from the very beginning : THE VILLAGE, technically of better quality, intended for the international market and presented at Cannes in 1953; and UNSER DORF, intended for the Swiss market, very similar to the first, but slightly longer and with around 20% of shots slightly different.

This project was carried out by the Cinémathèque suisse in collaboration with SRF and with the support of Memoriav.

The Complete and Utter History of Britain

Production Company:: R3store Studios Ltd

Synopsis

The Complete and Utter History of Britain was made in 1969, written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones, made by ITV. There are 6 episodes in the series and for many years it was thought they had been wiped. In 2014 the first two episodes were found and released on DVD. In 2023, the remaining episodes were found in the ITV Archive after being miscatalogues in the database. The restoration by R3store Studios has for the first time made all the episodes available in 2K which subsequently streamed on Britbox and ITVX.

Archival highlights

The original elements were lost on this project and the only surviving elements were16mm telerecording reels. All 16mm reels were scanned to 2K DPX and WAV on the Scanity Scanner. Restoring telerecordings requires much more manual intervention than a standard restoration due to burnt in tape faults, as well as film faults. Therefore the amount of manual work needed on this project was far higher due to the level of damage that the automated processes couldn't fix.

Now and Then, The Last Beatles Song

Director:: Oliver Murray
Producer(s):: Jonathan Clyde / Sophie Hilton
Footage Archive Producer:: Oliver Murray
Archival Sources:: Apple Corps Ltd / MPL Communications Ltd / British Pathé / Getty Images / Yoko Ono Lennon
Production Company:: Orofena Films / Apple Corps / Universal Music
Country of Production:: UK
Original Release:: 2023

Synopsis

Now and Then's eventful journey to fruition took place over five decades and is the product of conversations and collaborations between the four Beatles that go on to this day. The long mythologised John Lennon demo was first worked on in February 1995 by Paul, George and Ringo as part of The Beatles Anthology project but it remained unfinished because of the impossible technological challenges involved in working with the vocal John had recorded on tape in the 1970s. For years it looked like the song could never be completed. But in 2022 there was a stroke of serendipity. A software system developed by Peter Jackson and his team finally opened the way for the uncoupling of John’s vocal from his piano part. As a result, the original recording could be brought to life and worked on anew with contributions from all four Beatles. This remarkable story of musical archaeology reflects The Beatles’ endless creative curiosity and shared fascination with technology. It marks the completion of the last recording that John, Paul and George and Ringo will get to make together and celebrates the legacy of the foremost and most influential band in popular music history.

Nature Matters

Director:: Andy Burns
Producer(s):: Graham Relton
Editor(s):: Andy Burns
Footage Archive Researcher:: Megan McCooley / David Parsons / Montserrat Rovira Prieto / John Casey / Martin Watts / Ruth Patman
Footage Archive Producer:: Alexandra Stockdale-Haley / Martha Cattell
Executive Producer(s):: Martin Hall / Jenny Hall
Archival Sources:: Yorkshire and North East Film Archive collections, including local news material from our archive, ITV Archive and BBC Motion Gallery
Production Company:: Yorkshire and North East Film Archives
Country of Production:: UK
Original Release:: 2023

Synopsis

A love letter to nature and a call to action, ‘Nature Matters’ speaks across generations, using over a century of archive footage to remind us of our innate relationship with the natural world.

Have our fast-paced lives separated us from our childhood fascination with flora and fauna in the everyday, from countryside and coastal adventures, and knowledge of where our food comes from? Have we evolved to live in a society detached from nature?

“An empowering call to action – inspires without preaching.”

This timely short film explores our need for balance in a changing world: from the demand for resources, drive for profits and ‘progress’, offset against our fundamental human rights to access green spaces, clean air, water, and fertile soils to grow healthy food to feed our families.

What shines through is the human spirit, as individuals and communities fight to be on the right side of history, on a quest for environmental harmony and more sustainable lifestyles.

“[The film] has inspired me to try and get involved in more local community events and projects that will help the environment.”

Commissioned by York St John University’s Cinema and Social Justice Project, York Business School and the Yorkshire and North East Film Archives ‘Nature Matters’ project supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Incident

Director:: Bill Morrison
Producer(s):: Bill Morrison / Jamie Kalven
Footage Archive Researcher:: Bill Morrison
Footage Archive Producer:: Jamie Kalven
Archival Sources:: Chicago Police Department
Production Company:: Hypnotic Pictures / Invisible Institute
Country of Production:: USA
Original Release:: 2023

Synopsis

INCIDENT reconstructs a police shooting in Chicago in 2018, reassembling the event and its immediate aftermath from a variety of viewpoints, including surveillance, security, dashboard, and body-worn cameras as a continuous, synchronized split-screen montage.

They All Came Out To Montreux

Director:: Oliver Murray
Producer(s):: Stuart Souter / Bill Lord / Oliver Murray / Nicolas Bonard / Quincy Jones
Footage Archive Producer:: Maureen Ford / Thierry Amsellem / Fraser Kennedy
Archival Sources:: The Montreux Jazz Festival / The Claude Nobs Foundation / Radio Television Suisse / Getty Images
Production Company:: BMG Films / Beyond TNC / Orofena Films / The Claude Nobs Foundation
Country of Production:: UK / Australia / Switzerland
Original Release:: 2023

Synopsis

The extraordinary story of the world-famous Montreux Jazz Festival and its beloved founder, Claude Nobs. Starting in 1967, with no knowledge of the music industry, Claude began turning his sleepy hometown of Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva into a destination for the world's greatest music artists including Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, David Bowie, Muddy Waters, Miles Davis, Etta James, Santana, Alicia Keys and Prince. From the beginning of the festival Claude organised for these performances to be captured on film. Now this archive, recognised by the UNESCO inscribed 'Memory Of The World Register', is available to the audiences for the first time. The series takes the viewer back in time to hear the trumpet of Miles Davis, the piano of Nina Simone and the guitar of BB King echo through 5 decades of candid recollections by dozens of the festival’s star performers and industry insiders. Over three one-hour episodes, the series includes more than 40 testimonies, 30 concert performances and a variety of previously unseen film and photography. Never before has a documentary of this magnitude been made on the history of the Montreux Jazz Festival offering a breath-taking panorama of half a century of music history.

The Stones and Brian Jones

Director:: Nick Broomfield
Producer(s):: Kyle Gibbon / Shani Hinton / Marc Hoeferlin
Footage Archive Producer:: Kyle Gibbon / Simon Orman / Lisa Savage
Archival Sources:: BBC / Reeling In The Years / Bill Wyman / Historic Films / Kinolibrary
Production Company:: Lafayette Film
Country of Production:: UK
Original Release:: 2023

Synopsis

Featuring revealing interviews with all the main players and unseen archive released for the first time, The Stones and Brian Jones explores the creative musical genius of Jones, key to the success of the band, and uncovers how the founder of what became the greatest rock'n'roll band in the world was left behind in the shadows of history.

American Experience: The War on Disco

Director:: Lisa Q. Wolfinger
Producer(s):: Lisa Q. Wolfinger / Rushmore DeNooyer / Cameo George
Footage Archive Producer:: Mary Antinozzi Soule
Archival Sources:: Retro Video / Historic Films / Chicago Film Archive / KinoLibrary / Media Burn
Production Company:: Lone Wolf Media / WGBH
Country of Production:: USA
Original Release:: 2023

Synopsis

The War on Disco explores the culture war that erupted over the spectacular rise of disco music. Originating in underground Black and gay clubs, disco had unseated rock as America’s most popular music by the late 1970s. But many diehard rock fans viewed disco, with its repetitive beat and culture that emphasized pleasure, as shallow and superficial. A story that’s about much more than music, The War on Disco explores how the powerful anti-disco backlash revealed a cultural divide that to some seemed to be driven by racism and homophobia. The hostility came to a head on July 12, 1979, when a riot broke out at “Disco Demolition Night” during a baseball game in Chicago.

Robbie Williams

Director:: Joe Pearlman
Producer(s):: Dominic Crossley-Holland / Asif Kapadia / Duncan Coates / Sally Brindle / Louis Mole / Kai Hsiung / Gabby Chelmicka / Helena Korner / Isabel Davis / Lottie Allen
Footage Archive Producer:: Tess Mcnally-Watson
Archival Sources:: Guy Chambers / RPW Archive / MTV EU / Universal / BBC
Production Company:: Ridley Scott Associates / Netflix UK
Country of Production:: UK
Original Release:: 2023

Synopsis

Robbie Williams is nearly 50, a dad of four with a loving wife and a happy family. But he can’t escape his past — and his past has all been captured on film in thousands of hours of behind-the-scenes archive. He has never seen it, no one has. Until now.

Robbie’s way of exorcising his demons is to go back through it all, every up and every down. Platinum albums, sell-out gigs; drink, drugs, rock bottom and whatever comes next when you get there and keep digging.

Robbie Williams is a four-part documentary series that tells the story of one of Britain’s greatest modern performers — while also watching him try and make sense of it all. The star who famously promised to entertain you now has to ask himself, ‘At what price?'

Stephen Curry: Underrated

Director:: Peter Nicks
Producer(s):: Ryan Coogler / Erick Peyton / Ben Cotner / Marissa Torres Ericson / Sean Havey
Footage Archive Researcher:: Loi Almeron
Footage Archive Producer:: Matthew Fisher
Archival Sources:: NCAA / NBA / CBS Sports / Southern Conference / Catapult
Production Company:: Apple Original Films / A24 / Unanimous Media / Proximity Media
Country of Production:: USA
Original Release:: 2023

Synopsis

The coming-of-age story of one of the most influential players in the history of basketball: Stephen Curry. The documentary blends cinéma vérité, archival footage and on camera interviews to document Curry’s rise from an undersized college player to a four-time NBA champion.

Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project

Director:: Michèle Stephenson / Joe Brewster
Producer(s):: Michèle Stephenson / Joe Brewster / Tommy Oliver
Footage Archive Producer:: Hannah Shepard
Archival Sources:: WNET / WGBH / Getty / Fox / British Pathé
Production Company:: Rada Studio / Confluential Films / Cinetic Media / HBO Documentary Films
Country of Production:: USA
Original Release:: 2023

Synopsis

"The trip to Mars can only be understood through Black Americans." Legendary poet Nikki Giovanni's revelation is a launching pad to an inspiring exploration of her life and legacy. Through a collision of memories, moments in American history, live readings of her poetry, and impressions of space, Giovanni urges us to imagine a future where Black women lead, and equity is a reality.

Directors Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson (American Promise, The Changing Same) craft a vision fit for the radical imagination of Nikki Giovanni. Present-day Giovanni reckons with the inevitable passing of time, while an evocative melding of vérité and archival images act as openings into her mindscape, transcending time and place. Brewster and Stephenson's approach is imaginative and dreamlike, akin to the way Giovanni's words are hair-raising in their power to summon unrealized ways of seeing. The Afro-futuristic lens honors Giovanni's complexity and transports us on a journey through Black liberation from the perspective of one of America's most acclaimed and beloved writers, a profound artist and activist. Next stop, Mars.

Mad About the Boy: The Noel Coward Story

Director:: Barnaby Thompson
Producer(s):: Barnaby Thompson / Gregor Cameron
Footage Archive Researcher:: Emma Gibbs / Chris Lovell / Mark Macey
Footage Archive Producer:: James R.M. Hunt
Archival Sources:: The Noel Coward Estate / BBC / BBC Motion Gallery / David Paradine Productions Ltd / Reelin’ In The Years Productions / ITV Archive / Sony Pictures Content Licensing
Production Company:: Fragile Films / Unigram / AI Films / BBC Films / BBC Arts / Altitude Distribution / Warner Music
Country of Production:: UK
Original Release:: 2023

Synopsis

Noel Coward grew up in poverty and left school when he was only nine years old. He was queer in a very straight world. And yet by the age of 30, he was the highest paid writer in the world, and a star on the Broadway stage. He wrote, directed and acted in some of the finest plays and movies of all time, including Private Lives, Blithe Spirit, Brief Encounter and In Which We Serve. He also became a world renowned songwriter and performer of whom Frank Sinatra said, ‘If you want to hear how a song should be sung, go see Mr Noel Coward’.

And if that wasn’t enough, he discovered John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier and David Lean, and was a spy in the Second World War!

Against all odds, Noel Coward became the most successful multi-talented artist of the Twentieth Century. He defined an era and led an extraordinary life. This is his inspirational story told in his own words and music, and unique home movies. The film features Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Harold Pinter, Frank Sinatra, Lauren Bacall, Michael Caine and Lucille Ball. Narrated by Alan Cumming. Rupert Everett is the voice of Noel Coward.

Mary Pickford, a blessing and a curse

Director:: Clara Kuperberg / Julia Kuperberg
Producer(s):: Clara Kuperberg / Julia Kuperberg
Footage Archive Producer:: Clara Kuperberg / Julia Kuperberg
Archival Sources:: Mary Pickford Foundation / Bison Archives / Pond 5 / UCLA
Production Company:: Wichita Films / Kali Pictures
Country of Production:: France / USA
Original Release:: 2023

Synopsis

Mary Pickford's name remains inseparable from the legend of American cinema. She invented the star system at the beginning of the 20th century, and was the biggest star ever known, not just in Hollywood, but worldwide, at a time when actors didn't even have their names on movie posters.

She was more than a pioneer, she was a jack-of-all-trades: world-famous star, producer and formidable businesswoman, screenwriter and director in the shadows, studio boss, Mary Pickford alone embodied the entire legend of cinema and the advent of women in that particular era.

WHAM!

Director:: Chris Smith
Producer(s):: John Battsek / Chris Smith / Simon Halfon
Footage Archive Researcher:: Kitty Robertson
Footage Archive Producer:: Alex Black
Archival Sources:: BBC / Sony Music / MTV Viacom / So Pure / George Michael Entertainment
Production Company:: Ventureland / Library Films / Nemperor
Country of Production:: UK / USA
Original Release:: 2023

Synopsis

In 1982, the best of friends and still teenagers - George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley as WHAM! set out to conquer the world.

By June of 1986, they played their very last gig at Wembley Stadium having done exactly that.

Now for the very first time, told in their own words, the amazing story of how in four years they dominated the charts around the world with timeless and classic pop songs.

Hit after hit - Club Tropicana, Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, Freedom, I’m Your Man and of course Last Christmas.

Their time in the spotlight was white-hot, becoming the very first Western pop act to play in China.

It was a time that both encapsulated and epitomised not just their youth, but also those of the many millions of fans that adored them.

WHAM! is a feature-length documentary that captures this magical time, from director Chris Smith (Tiger King, Sr.) and producers John Battsek (The Deepest Breath) and Simon Halfon (Supersonic)

With unprecedented access to both George and Andrew’s personal archive including remarkable and never-before-seen footage, alongside rare, candid and previously unheard interviews.

WHAM! charts their incredible journey from school friends to superstars.

WHAM!

Director:: Chris Smith
Producer(s):: John Battsek / Chris Smith / Simon Halfon
Footage Archive Researcher:: Kitty Robertson
Footage Archive Producer:: Alex Black
Archival Sources:: BBC / Sony Music / MTV Viacom / So Pure / George Michael Entertainment
Production Company:: Ventureland / Library Films / Nemperor
Country of Production:: UK / USA
Original Release:: 2023