THE FESTIVAL | 2016
There will be four screenings for the British Documentary Film Festival at the Roxy Bar & Screen in Borough, London. Feel free to scroll around and explore, or simply click on the screening time you're interested to jump straight to it!
DATES & TIMES
NOVEMBER 15TH
5:00PM
AFRICA'S TREES OF LIFE: CAMELTHORN TREE
Director: Stefania Muller
With a new perspective and fresh approach to wild life filmmaking this episode of Africa's Wild Havens tells the story of the predators, animals, birds and insects that live in the harsh Kalahari Desert in Tswalu – South Africa. Years of evolution have given predators and herbivores the tools to beat the desert's extremes: bodies that survive on the smallest amount of water, mechanisms that fool the brain into thinking it's not as hot as it really is, and ways to keep warm in the freezing nights.
BORN A BELIEVER
Director: Darius Norowzian
A documentary that shows how the charity 'Carney’s Community' helps ex-offenders and disaffected youths turn their lives around, breaking the cycle of gang life and how they no longer choose to fight outside the ring, only within it.
NOVEMBER 15TH
6:00PM
THE CHALLENGE
Director: Peter Williams
A documentary that tells the story of Alex Smith, who, in June 2015, completed an Ironman, known as the toughest single day challenge you can undertake, carrying his 40kg disabled son the whole way. An epic achievement for his son, who is dying from a fatal muscle wasting disease: Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
NOVEMBER 15TH
7:30PM
RECOVERY COLLEGE
Director: Michelle Coomber
This film - Recovery College - features the Severn & Wye Recovery College, which was set up by the 2gether Trust in 2013 to provide a new way to support people living with mental health problems. We look at how the college developed and the way it is harnessing peer support to help people manage their own recovery in the long term.
PILLS
Director: Pinny Grylls
Northumbria NHS Trust’s medication review brings together care home residents, their families and health professionals to ensure residents are getting the right mix of medicines. This increases the quality of life for residents, reduces unwanted side effects as well as cutting down on the time and money wasted from unnecessary prescribing.
GOLD LINE
Director: James Kent
The Gold Line is a 24/7 telephone service for people in their last year of life. Run by nurses, it supports care for people and their families across Airedale, Wharfedale, Craven and Bradford. The care provided by the nurses running the helpline and the services they coordinate has meant that a significantly higher proportion of people have been able to die in the place of their choosing (usually at home) than the national average.
THAILAND'S SEAFOOD SLAVES
Director: Environmental Justice Foundation
Over two and a half years after one of Thailand’s most high profile human trafficking cases generated international attention around the plight of the men forced to fish in a brutal seafood industry, EJF’s most recent investigation in Kantang has uncovered that abusive employers and corrupt officials continue to operate with impunity, trafficking networks remain unbroken and fishers are still at sea – trapped in an endless cycle of debt, exploitation and abuse.
ULIN
Director: Leo Plunkett
Over the past half century, the ancient lowland forests of Borneo have been destroyed at an unprecedented rate. We may be one of the few generations to preside over the complete destruction of these iconic landscapes, the richest terrestrial ecosystem on earth. One indigenous Dayak community has clung on to an incredible hotspot of biodiversity – a bastion of endangered ulin trees – solely, it believes, by the power of a curse. Until now, the logging companies that have destroyed so much of the island’s fragile biodiversity have been held off, but the forest is again under threat from plantation companies.
SIX OF SOUTH AFRICA'S SURVIVORS
Director: James Suter, Sam Suter & Oli Caldow
Six of South Africa's Survivors highlights the work of the South African organization, Hoedspruit Endangered Species Center, and their efforts to rehabilitate six rhinos who have been affected by the poaching crisis. A little known fact is that each year more rhinos are dying than are being born. Saving the survivors of these brutal attacks has become such a key component in fighting the war on poaching.
NOVEMBER 15TH
8:30PM
THE SEA OF LIFE
Director: Mónica González
The Sea of Life is a documentary that invites the viewer to reflect upon the importance of marine species to life on Earth. It is a profound vision that seeks to garner respect for our world's ecosystems. On one hand, it takes the viewer through protected areas of the planet that are an example of environmental protection while on the other, it shows the root causes that have taken thousands of species to the brink of extinction.
THE WINNERS
2016
THE ENVIRONMENTAL AWARD
Ulin
THE LIFE CHANGING AWARD
The Challenge
THE WILD ANIMAL AWARD
Six of South Africa's Survivors
BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
Thailand's Seafood Slaves