THE FESTIVAL | 2015
This year, there will be four screenings for the British Documentary Film Festival at Whirled Cinema in Brixton, London. Feel free to scroll around and explore, or simply click on the screening time you're interested in to jump straight to it!
DATES & TIMES
JUNE 29TH
7:30PM
STREET BLUES
Director: Nikolas Migut
It’s in the fall of 2012 that documentary film maker Nik and a homeless man named Alex meet for the first time. Shortly before five in the morning, they set out from the railway mission in the Berlin Zoo station on a brief nighttime trip. After sharing breakfast, they each goes their separate ways – not to meet again until two and a half years later, when they are brought back together thanks to a tip from someone at a film festival...
RETURN OF THE SALMON
Director: Tim Plowden
Narrator: Christel Veraart
The theme of The Return Of The Salmon is the final stage of the salmon’s lifelong odyssey. The salmon’s single-mindedness and determination is the driving force for the story. This short nature documentary zooms in on salmon as they deal with challenges during their migration to their natal rivers in the vast Alaskan wilderness. What unfolds gives an insight to the key role of salmon in their environment and reflects the cyclical nature of life.
JORDANNE
Director: Zak Razvi
Jordanne is a short portrait film about a 22 year old British female disabled tennis player, Jordanne Whiley. Jordanne was born with brittle bone disease. The film is narrated by Jordanne, and filmed in her hometown of Halesowen, UK, in the lead up to the US Open 2014. If she wins the US Open, she would become the first British athlete, to have ever won all four grand slams in the same year.
MOVEMENT
Director: Ellard Vasen
Cast/Featured: Luka Tomac, Ina Ytterstad Bjørnrå, Nathan Niedermeier & Lucy Patterson
Young people all across Europe are fighting for climate justice. Some campaign and do actions, others raise awareness through artistic work. But all are convinced this planet is worth fighting for. Who are these people? What are their initiatives? What drives them? Ellard and Job travelled across Europe to find out. Their investigation resulted in this feature-length documentary!
JUNE 30TH
7:30PM
FATHER
Director: Tresa Ponnor
A story about fathers: one physical, one spiritual. A young Vietnamese-Australian man and his father share their journeys of sacrifice, isolation and freedom.
LEMBRANCAS DO FIM DOS TEMPOS
Director: Rafael Câmara
Cast/Featured: Pedro de Kastro
At the height of his career, an artist must deal with the fact that in a few months, he can totally lose the ability to draw.
LUCHADORA
Director: River Finlay
In Mexico, Lucha Libre rivals soccer in popularity and has been a beloved national pastime since the early 1900’s when masked men first came to embody the struggle between good and evil in the ring. Women eventually fought their way into the sport – defying resistance from their male “luchador” counterparts and cultural expectations of femininity.
Luchadora follows Luna Mágica - an aging professional Lucha Libre Wrestling star who dreams of becoming World Wrestling Champion while struggling to make ends meet as a single mom in Mexico City and regain custody of her son who was taken by her estranged husband who claims she is unfit to be a mother because of her profession as a luchadora.
THE PENGUIN COUNTERS
Director: Peter Getzels
Armed with low-tech gear and high-minded notions that penguin populations may hold the key to human survival, Ron Naveen lays bare his 30 year love affair with the world’s most pristine scientific laboratory: Antarctica. Famed as a place that ‘wants you dead,’ his ragtag team of field-biologists embark on a journey to some of the harshest corners of the planet, where they track the impact of climate change and ocean health on penguin populations - one nest at a time. But penguins aren’t the only stars. During the fifteen-day voyage to the rookeries, Ron discovers that the ashes of Ernest Shackleton’s best friend and colleague - Frank Wild - are on board his ship, along with descendants of both the Wilds and Shackletons.
THE WINNERS
2015
THE ENVIRONMENTAL AWARD
Movement
THE LIFE CHANGING AWARD
Street Blues
THE WILD ANIMAL AWARD
The Penguin Counters
THE HERITAGE AWARD
Father
BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
Jordanne