Talk Dirty Live Clean
In 1958, America was in the grip of its first opioid crisis. For heroin addicts desperate to get straight, there was no treatment outside of prison or the mental hospital. But then a group of dope fiends discovered a new way to stay clean together. Their motto was ‘Criminal A helps Criminal B’ - and they were about to start a revolution.
A short animated doc about the dramatic rise and fall of the world’s first therapeutic community for recovering addicts.
California Documentary Project Fund
Dok Leipzig, nominated Best German Short
Streaming on True Story
[co-directed with Sam Hopkins]
Berlin International Film Festival, Special Mention in Competition
Berlin Today Award.
White Lobster
On the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, everybody's out on the beach searching for it. But is the 'White Lobster' a gift from God, or the work of the Devil?
A documentary about a town that fell under the spell of windfall cocaine - a strange unintended consequence of the US War on Drugs.
Made In Chinafrica
Every year, thousands of Africans arrive in China to seek their fortunes. The export city of Guangzhou is the epicentre of a booming global market in counterfeit goods. Here, immigrant lives are shaped by risk, racism, and great opportunity.
Using traditional shadow animation, this short documentary makes visible an underground trade and a migrant community that thrive in secrecy.
The End for Beginners
In a retirement home in Paris the elderly residents wait out their last days. Nothing much happens other than Muzak and trouble with the lifts.
But unusual visitors are about to disturb the peace - and set the scene for a strange confrontation between those at the beginning of life, and those at their very end.
Official selection: Edinburgh, Visions du Reel, Camerimage...
Nominated Best Short: Dinard, Britdoc
"outstanding" Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
"worthy of Jacques Tati" Greencine
Winner: International Press Prize, Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival.
Winner: Main Prize, Paris Signes de Nuit Film Festival
Official selection: Telluride, Aspen, AFI Docs, Cinepossible.
Broadcast on Al Jazeera International's 'Witness' documentary strand.
"I really dig your movie" - Godfrey Reggio
On the Run with Abdul
Abdul is a 16-year old Afghan boy living in the notorious Calais 'jungle'. He spends his days dreaming of a new life in the UK, and his nights trying to jump the ferry to Dover.
But when we fall foul of the town's people-trafficking mafia, Abdul is forced to flee - and we set off with him on a tragi-comic journey with no destination.
Alfred's Free Press
After years of civil war, many people in Monrovia, Liberia can't afford the price of a newspaper. They rely on The Daily Talk - a chalkboard news bulletin - to keep them informed.
This film tells the stories of ex-child soldier, Michael; Nathan, a trainee preacher; shoe-maker Larry; and Kormassa, a single mother - all of whom depend on one-man news agency Alfred J Sirleaf - Proprietor, Managing Director, Editor and Chief Correspondent of Africa's premier hand-written news daily.
Winner: Sheffield DocFest WorldView prize
Broadcast on Al Jazeera International's 'Witness' documentary strand
Vote for Me, I'm Loony.
In the absurdist fringes of the General Election, three ordinary-ish men uphold a Great British tradition.
Alan 'Howling Laud' Hope took over as leader of the Monster Raving Loony Party when his best friend 'Screaming Lord' Sutch killed himself.
Reformed Marxist-Leninist John Cartwright has never quite fitted in. His autism expresses itself in an obsessive interest in elections.
Shy handyman Pete Berry finds a new lease of life in politics - as alter-ego Baron von Thunderclap.
GZ Calling
Every year hundreds of billions of dollars of cheap Chinese-made goods ship out of Guangzhou bound for markets across Africa.
Travelling in the opposite direction, thousands of young Africans flock to China with dreams of making their fortunes in the export business.
And going undercover among them, a private detective tracks counterfeit goods through the city's vast wholesale malls for his American corporate employer.
"GZ Calling" is a 3-channel gallery installation mixing documentary and fiction.
Chinafrika, GfZK Leipzig
McaM Shanghai
Lagos Biennial
[co-directed with Sam Hopkins]
[co-directed with Ana de Sousa]
Angola: Birth of a Movement
Inspired by the Arab Spring, a group of friends in Luanda plot to bring down a dictator.
Under the 32-year rule of President dos Santos, Angola has become one of the most unequal societies in the world - the capital's skyscrapers and yacht-clubs are the playground of a super-rich elite, while millions live in slums without power or water.
Over the course of a turbulent election season, rap star Luaty (a.k.a. Ikonoklasta) and fellow activists Carbono and Mbanza struggle to lead a popular protest - despite beatings, death-threats and intimidation by the secret police.
Official selection: Film Africa
Broadcast on Al Jazeera's 'Activate' international documentary strand
WorldView New Genres Broadcast Fund
British Council
Shakespeare in South Sudan
Declaring independence after years of conflict, a group of amateur dramatists are trying to build a national theatre company. But in the sweltering dustbowl of Juba - a new capital in the midst of economic crisis - nothing goes smoothly.
For their first production, the group is staging a Shakespeare play - amid the city's water shortages, oil blockades and tribal tensions. And soon the threat of a new civil war looms over rehearsals...
