This year we are delighted to host the 2023 FOCAL Awards at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms on June 15th, we hope you can join us. Congratulations to all the shortlisted nominees.
2023 shortlisted nominations
Echoes of the North: Four Chapters in Time
Producer(s):
Jonny Best (Yorkshire Silent Film Festival)
Editor(s):
Andy Burns
Footage Archive Researcher:
Bob Geoghegan, Geoff Senior
Footage Archive Producer:
Graham Relton
Composer:
Neil Brand
Archival Sources:
Yorkshire and North East Film Archives, North West Film Archive, Archive Film Agency
Production Company:
Yorkshire and North East Film Archive, Yorkshire Silent Film Festival, Neil Brand
Country of Production:
United Kingdom,
Synopsis
Echoes of the North: Four Chapters in Time is a non-narrative film which brings together hundreds of archive clips from the 1890s to the 1920s.
Audiences are transported down the highways and byways of northern life in the early twentieth century - its industries, its wartime and festivals, holidays, family excursions, and huge, city-wide occasions. The production is set to new music for brass band, composed by Neil Brand and performed in its premiere performance (and audio recording) by Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band.
Echoes of the North consists of four impressionistic, flowing chapters, each structured around a thematic idea:
Chapter One: Rebuild, focuses on the industrial north and rebuilding of a nation after WWI, a period of great change in working life.
Chapter Two: Recharge, reflects the human desire to escape the grime and industry to reconnect with the land, sea, and nature.
Chapter Three: Remembrance, remembers the fallen of WWI, their bravery and sacrifice for their nation.
Chapter Four: Rejoice, sings of hope and joy, as people celebrate together as couples, families and communities.
1979 The Year of the Islamist Revolution
Director:
Jonathan Hacker
Producer(s):
Jonathan Hacker
Archive Researcher/ Producer:
Mungo Drake, Diana Sedgwick, Alex Kandauroy, Raphael Lefevre
Archival Sources:
AP, NBC, CBS, Getty Images, Reuters
Production Company:
OR Media Ltd
Country of Production:
United Kingdom
Synopsis
1979 The Year of the Islamist Revolution:
This is the gripping story of the cascade of momentous events that in just 12 months changed the Middle East and launched political Islam onto the world stage.
Episode 1 - January to June
The year began with the earthquake that was the Iranian Revolution, and its impact was soon felt across the region. In Afghanistan, rebels against the Communist government took courage from its success, as did Muslim Brotherhood members in Syria who launched their own uprising. Meanwhile, the success of President Sadat of Egypt at making peace with Israel also caused many on the left in his country to find inspiration in political Islam.
Episode 2 - June to December
Discontent at the pace of modernisation in Saudi Arabia would have momentous consequences. For over two weeks a group of extremists occupied the Grand Mosque of Mecca awaiting the arrival of the Mahdi. Meanwhile, discontented Shias rose in revolt. Over in Afghanistan, the success of rebels prompted a Soviet invasion. Together these events were laying the groundwork for the birth of al Qaeda and other Islamist organisations across the region. For many, Islam would soon become a byword for terrorism.
Normandie Will Not Sail Tonight (Normandie ne partira pas ce soir)
Director:
Tal Zana
Producer(s):
Julie Meigniez, Song Pham
Archive Researcher/ Producer:
Tal Zana, Julie Meigniez, Michael Dolan
Archival Sources:
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Atelier des Archives, Gaumont-Pathé Archives, Lobster Films, French Lines & Cie
Production Company:
Talweg
Country of Production:
France
Synopsis
Normandie, built in Saint-Nazaire in 1932, was the pride of France; the most beautiful, largest and fastest liner in the world. In the chaos of World War II, this grandiose dream is reduced to ashes in a matter of hours.
The destruction of Normandie stuns America. The official investigation finds it was a catastrophic accident. But in a paranoid atmosphere where fear of foreigners, spies, and saboteurs blurs the line between reality and fantasy, the shipwreck becomes the focal point of a whole nation’s dread.
Eighty years later, the myth of an attack refuses to die. Through unseen archives and personal documents, Normandie Will Not Sail Tonight revisits New York at the dawn of war — a New York inhabited by Hitchcock, real and fake spies, and a drifting French crew. It is an original exploration of America, in a time when conspiracy theories and rumors were not yet called “fake news”.
Meltdown: Three Mile Island
Director:
Kief Davidson
Producer(s):
Carla Shamberg, Michael Shamberg, Kief Davidson, Dan Levinson, Robert Fernandez
Footage Archive Producer:
Barbara Gregson
Archival Sources:
Veritone, Getty, WHP, US Department of Energy, WITF
Production Company:
Moxie Pictures, MAS Production
Country of Production:
United States
Synopsis
Meltdown tells the story (previously unexplored in documentary format) of three engineers who, in 1983, risked everything to blow the whistle about a looming nuclear apocalypse during the cleanup at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant. Their actions, which cost the men their careers, likely spared the eastern seaboard from calamity.
