FILMS
IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE SEA
(In production)
A film directed by Santiago Posada
Based on the novel by Tomas Gonzalez
A psychological mystery drama set in Colombia in the late 1970’s. Based on true events, the film tells the story of Jacobo and Elena; a couple decided to swap the parties and culture of the city for a simpler life on a remote spot by the sea. They expect to find an idyllic paradise amongst palm trees and sandy beaches, but instead find a sort of hell amidst indomitable nature, diseased animals, suffocating heat, torrential rain and alienating locals. Struggling to live up to their fantasy and faced with growing debt, they soon realise things are destined to go wrong. As their relationship breaks down, only having each other to count on, a sense of impeding doom takes over, leading them gradually to an inescapable and tragic end.
Produced by Marcus Werner Hed & Sophie Neave
A co-production with Colombia FDC - Tilt Films
OTHER, LIKE ME 2020
A film directed by Marcus Werner Hed & Dan Fox
Hull, England, 1970. In a run-down commune in a tough port city, a group of social misfits - mostly working class, mostly self-educated - adopted new identities and began making simple street theater under the name COUM Transmissions. Their playful performances gradually gave way to work that dealt openly with sex, pornography, and violence. COUM lived on the edges of society, surviving on meager resources, finding fellowship with others marginalized by the mainstream. At the core of the group were two artists, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti. As their work evolved, Cosey embarked on a career modeling for pornographic magazines, which she claimed for herself as a conceptual artwork, using it to forge a specific position in relationship to 1970s feminism. In performances, Genesis pushed himself to extremes, testing the limits of the human body. By the mid-1970s, having been chased out of Hull by the police and now living in London, they had caused one of the 20th century's biggest art scandals and been branded by the British press and politicians as 'the wreckers of civilization.' On the brink of art world success, COUM turned their attentions to music, starting a new phase as the confrontational and notorious band Throbbing Gristle. They built their own instruments, ran their own independent record label, and challenged the norms of rock performance. In their music, Throbbing Gristle confronted the dark side of human nature with brutal honesty and invented an entirely new genre of electronic music which they named 'Industrial'. The band imploded on stage in front of thousands of fans in San Francisco in 1981, before reforming 23 years later, having become a major influence on subsequent generations of musicians. Other Like Me is the first documentary to be made about COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle. It draws on the group's rich archive of photographs and video, and features new interviews with original members including Genesis and Cosey. Theirs is a story of creativity and survival against the odds, of fusing art with life completely, no matter what the cost.
A Willow Glen Films co-production with BBC UK
SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS - 2020
A film directed by Lisa Rovner
Sisters with Transistors is the remarkable untold story of female pioneers in electronic music who embraced machines and their liberating technologies to utterly transform how we produce and listen to music today.
This film maps a new history of electronic music through the visionary woman whose radical experimentations with machines refined the boundaries of music including Clara Rockmore, Daphne Oram, Bebe Barron, Delia Derbyshire, Else Marie Pade, Pauline Oliveros, Wendy Carlos, Eliane Radigue, Suzanne Ciani, and Laurie Spiegel.
A Willow Glen Films co-production with Anna Lena Films
THE R&B FEELING - 2015
A film directed by Marcus Werner Hed & Nathaniel Mellors
1971, the Los Angeles performance art scene is flourishing. Chris Burden has just ordered a studio assistant to shoot him in the left arm with a rifle, Barbara T Smith is staging provocative interventions at F-Space, and Paul McCarthy is painting his naked body with mustard and ketchup in the name of art. And among them all, Bob Parks: an energetic young artist from the UK, living with his beautiful and interesting San Fransiscan wife, Myriam Morales. Life is perfect, for a time. But when Bob's marriage fails, and Myriam leaves for Santa Fe, things fall apart. He walks the streets of Los Angeles for a year in a string bikini and sees his burgeoning art career come to pieces. Having been rescued by the parishioners of a South Central gospel church, and having spent six years worshipping and singing alongside them, Bob finally moves back to the UK to live with his parents in the New Forest. Despite planning to stay for only six months to finish a series of paintings and gather his thoughts, Bob stays for thirty years. We meet him as he continues to develop his art practice, continues to sing in a gospel church and continues to explore what he calls "the R&B feeling". Against this backdrop, Bob attempts to break free of a constraining and mutually dependent relationship with his mother, Miggie, whose health is failing. As time goes on Bob's obsession with his mother - and her impending death - deepens, before reaching a terrible and tragic conclusion.
A Willow Glen Films co-production with BBC UK
SOMMARSTÄLLET - 2013
A film directed by Marcus Werner Hed & Johan von Reybekiel
On the last weekend of summer a group of friends have gathered to celebrate Carl’s birthday in his family’s summer house on the west coast of Sweden. Carl’s beautiful cousin Stina has just moved back from London to resettle in Sweden, and brings devoted British boyfriend Nick along for the festivities. Their relationship is fraying, and is exacerbated over the weekend by Nick’s inability to fit in or grasp the language and rituals of the group. Stina finds herself annoyed by Nick’s cloying vulnerability, and fascinated by her cocky, charismatic cousin. When Stina’s flirtations with Carl provoke Nick, the boozy party escalates into a blur of taboo-laden conflict and an explosive investigation of love and commitment.
Starring Sara Blomqvist, Kalle Josephson, Ania Chorabik, Nanna Blondell, Carl Dackö, Julia Frändfors Tom Lloyd, Aliette Opheim och Aron Heineman.