Two Types: The Faces of Britain

Falklands' Most Daring Raid

March 2012 •English

Documentary film about the then longest range bombing mission in history, which changed the outcome of the Falklands War.

Font Men

March 2014 •English

You've never heard of Jonathan Hoefler or Tobias Frere-Jones but you've seen their work. They run the most successful and respected type design studio in the world, making fonts used by the Wall Street Journal to the President of the United States.

Un Jour en Royaume-Uni

January 2017 •French

A Year Of British Murder

January 2019 •English

Between January 1st and 31 December 2017, 768 people died as a result of murder or manslaughter in Britain - approximately 14 people a week. This powerful and original film tells the stories of some of those cases, exploring the human cost of murder - the ordinary people whose lives are changed forever and the communities left to wrestle with the consequences. Filmed over 12 months, it follows families and friends from the immediate aftermath of the crime, through the court process, and as they try to rebuild their lives. These stories are shown alongside statistical analysis of homicide figures for Britain since the Millennium, which reveal that so far this century, the pattern of homicides has remained strikingly similar in terms of the profiles of victims and the circumstances of the killing. This urgent, unflinching and intimate film goes beyond individual incidents to ask what the patterns of murder in our time say about the state of Britain.

Helvetica

September 2007 •English

Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type.

Elton John: A Singular Man

January 2016 •English

An in-depth portrait of British composer, pianist and singer Elton John, pop star and myth of modern culture.

Brexitannia

March 2017 •English

A sociological portrait of the United Kingdom after the historic Brexit vote of 2016. A funny, sometimes terrifying and non-judgemental look at the new populist politics sweeping western democracies.

The Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett Story

March 2003 •English

The full bizarre, tragic but celebratory story of Syd Barrett, the co-founder of Pink Floyd.

The Battle of the Somme

August 1916 •English

A documentary and propaganda film which shows the British Army's preparations for, and the early stages of, the battle of the Somme.

Someone's Daughter, Someone's Son

February 2024 •English

Now a successful filmmaker, Lorna Tucker was once a teenage runaway sleeping rough on the streets of London. For this frank, forceful and inspiring documentary, she returns to her former haunts and speaks to current and former homeless people about why, twenty-five years later, record numbers of people are still reduced to living on Britain's streets.

Car Tourist in Great Britain

April 1960 •Swedish

A movie about travelling to Great Britain from Sweden by car and exploring that country

Inquiry: The Great British Housing Disaster

September 1984 •English

David Jones investigates how 1960s council housing came to be built so poorly that thousands later needed to be demolished.

The Canal Map of Britain

March 2024 •English

A look at Britain's beloved canal network via a fact-filled cruise along the first superhighways of the Industrial Revolution. In the age before mechanisation, a frenzy of canal-building saw a new army of workers carve out the British landscape, digging out hundreds of miles of waterways using picks, shovels and muscle.

James Baldwin Abroad

February 2023 •English

Showcasing three short films by American writer James Baldwin, wherein he muses about race, sexuality and civil rights, among other topics, in Istanbul, Paris and Great Britain.

The Eagle and the Lion: Hitler vs Churchill

September 2017 •French

Winston Churchill, one of the most revered men of the twentieth century. Adolf Hitler, one of the most hated leaders in contemporary history. Between 1940 and 1945, these two enormously contradictory personalities faced each other in both politics and war. A clash of giants whose story begins in the trenches of the World War I and ends with the debacle of the World War II.

A Life on the Farm

May 2023 •English

A strange story from Somerset, England about a filmmaking farmer and the inspiring legacy of his long-lost home movies.

Queen and the Crown

November 2022 •English

The Queen And The Crown a tribute: A feature length tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the UK’s longest reigning monarch, from her birth in London on April 21st 1926 to the nationwide outpouring of gratitude and thanks to Her Majesty in June 2022 marking the Platinum Jubilee, and then the sorrow just weeks later and her historic and epic funeral. Following the course of her life as the shock of the abdication in 1936 catapulted her father unexpectedly onto the throne, suddenly making the young princess heir to the crown, we see the way she pledged to give herself entirely to serving the nation.

The Last Punchcutter

November 2016 •English

One of the last punchcutters makes a new letter by hand - an artist at work.

King Arthur's Britain: The Truth Unearthed

September 2018 •English

With exclusive access to a major new excavation, Alice Roberts discovers what King Arthur's Britain was like, including surprisingly modern connections we all share with our past.

She-Wolves: England's Early Queens

March 2012 •English

Helen Castor presents an in depth and insightful series covering England's early Queens, from the High Middle Ages with Eleanor and get daughter-in-law Eleanor of Aquitane, through the Late Middle Ages with Isabella of France and Margaret of Anjou and finishing with Lady Jane Grey, Mary I and Elizabeth I.