Author: Jon W.

July 26, 2023 / Documentary

Produced in the 1970s, and at the time dubbed “The greatest wildlife film ever” by the BBC, this dramatic film records the struggle in Kenya’s Tsavo National Park to protect elephants from bow and arrow hunters supplying a rampant international ivory trade…. The film follows Tsavo’s warden, the late David Sheldrick, and his ranger force in their daily fight against armed poachers intent on wiping out Tsavo’s magnificent elephant herds and its dwindling population of Black Rhinos. We also follow the story of the baby elephants, rhino and other animals that have been orphaned due to poaching, and watch them as they are hand-reared and eventually return to the wild.

July 24, 2023 / Drama
July 24, 2023 / Documentary

A portrait of Raymond Francombe, jobbing gardener and composer. Ray is a familiar figure around the centre of Bristol. What will not be known by most of those who pass him every day is that for years he has been composing sacred music – and, until this programme was made, he had never actually heard a note of it performed. In this film Derek Jones gets to know Ray, and attempts to have his music professionally assessed.

July 24, 2023 / Animation
July 24, 2023 / Experimental

A young woman awakens in a hospital bed, as she staggers to her feet the world around takes on an otherworldly ambience. Her circular, unending life revolves into a nightmarish loop as she confronts herself and her dead end existence.

July 24, 2023 / Thriller
July 24, 2023 / Documentary

In 1974 the film Emmanuelle redefined the adult movie, with the British Board of Film Certification chairman James Ferman describing it as making “sex respectable in cinema”. With an X certificate it made a star of actress Sylvia Kristel and launched one of the most successful film franchises of all time. In the programme film-maker Alex Cox reviews the controversy, the censorship, and the way that Emmanuelle altered what was acceptable for film-makers to show on screen.

July 24, 2023 / Drama

Anna, a woman in her fifties, has just moved into her seaside new house somewhere in Brittany. The place is still cluttered with boxes out of which ghosts appear that start tormenting her. Anna has lived many lives: she has been married three times and has had three daughters from three different men. Quite logically life has not been easy for Anna and for her offspring, Fanny, Camille and Lilli. All those who counted for her, dead or undead, have moved with her into her new house and assail her with reproaches, regrets and accusations. Will Anna manage to escape them and be able start a new life?