Director/Writer/Executive Producer:



BLIND FLIGHT (2003). Cinema feature film.

Story:

The sole authorised film dramatisation of Brian Keenan and John McCarthy’s ordeal as hostages in Lebanon during the civil war.

Stars:

Ian Hart as Brian Keenan and Linus Roache as John McCarthy, with Ziad Lahoud, Bassem Breish, Mohamad Chamas, Dany El Khoury, Fadi Sakr.

Producer:

Sally Hibbin

Co-Producers:

David Collins, Eddie Dick


executive Producer:

Luke Randolph

D.O.P:

Ian Wilson

Design:

Andrew Sanders


1st ASSISTANT DIRECTOR:

Charlie Leech

Casting:

Celestia Fox

Script Consultants:

Archie Tait, Pippa Best

Editor:

Kristina Hetherington

Composer:

Stephen McKeon

SOUND RECORDIST:

Stuart Bruce

Sound Designer:

Nicky Moss

Production Companies:

Parallax Independent, Samson, Makar, Partisan

Financiers:

The UK Film Council, Scottish Screen, Irish Film Board, Northern Ireland Film and TV Commission, Glasgow Film Office, Moviehouse Entertainment, ZDF/Arte.

Distributor:

Optimum Releasing.

Release (UK):

Theatrical in April 2004. BBC1 premiere in October 2006.

Nominations:

FIPRESCI International Film Critics' Director's Award for Best First/Second
Feature Film (London Film Festival 03)
Best Narrative Feature Film (TriBeCa Film Festival,New York 04)
Best First/Second Feature Film (TriBeCa Film Festival,New York 04)
Best Film Award (Irish Film & TV Awards 04)
People's Choice Award (Irish Film & TV Awards 04)
Best Music Award (Irish Film & TV Awards 04)
Best Actor Award - Ian Hart - (BAFTA Scotland Awards 04)
Best Actor Award - Linus Roache - (BAFTA Scotland Award 04)
Best Actor Award (British Independent Film Awards 04)

Awards:

Winner of Best Actor Award - Ian Hart - (TriBeCa Film Festival,New York 04)
Audience Best Film Selection - 3rd Place of 74 (Sydney Film Festival 04)

Festivals:

London, Dublin, Tribeca (New York), Sydney, Taormina, Karlovy Vary, Melbourne, Auckland & Wellington, Hamburg, Stockholm. more




DIRECTOR/PRODUCER/WRITER/CAMERA/EDITOR:



GROUNDWELL: THE GRASSROOTS BATTLE FOR THE NHS AND DEMOCRACY 2014 – 2019

SOUND:

Pat Scott Robson, Tom Turner

Camera:

Charles Stewart, Gus Coral, David Aspinall, Macauley Macdonald

ASSEMBLY EDITING:

Gus Coral, David Naden

ADDITIONAL EDITING:

Elam Forrester, Emma Vickers

DUBBING MIXER:

Iain Grant

PRODUCER:

Anson Hartford

EDITING:

Gus Coral, John Furse

FILMED, PRODUCED & DIRECTED:

John Furse

PRODUCTION:

Banyak Films, Partisan Productions

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

Barbara Beese, Lyn Bingham, Lynne Carter, Katya Chelli, Danny Davidsson, John Donovan, Sara Furse, Suki Furse, Barbara Gordon, Dan Hasson, Ian Hart, Nina Klaff, David Lascelles, Gaynor Lloyd, Danny Nissim, Anke Plummer, John Ralph, Alan Sekers, Ray Thompson, Fran and Martin Wood.




Director/Writer/Producer:



HELEN BAMBER-ON THE TRAIL OF TORTURE  (BBC4, 2002)

Story:

TV documentary about Helen Bamber founder/director of The Medical Foundation For The Care Of Victims Of Torture.

Presented by John McCarthy. 30 mins. (see References)

Camera:

Robert Letts

Editor:

Dai Vaughan


Director/Writer/Executive Producer:



BLIND FLIGHT - PILOT (UK Film Council, 2002).

Story:

10-minute feature film pilot containing key scenes from the 'Blind Flight' screenplay. The pilot, shot by Directors of Photography Barry Ackroyd (DoP for Ken Loach) and Mike Eley (DoP on 'Touching The Void'), led to cornerstone financing for the later realised film.


Stars:

Ian Hart as Brian Keenan and Joseph Fiennes as John McCarthy.


Director/Originator/Co-Producer/Writer:



LOOKS THAT KILL (BBC1 ‘Inside Story’ series, 2000).

Story:

First-ever TV documentary about a young woman suffering from the little known mental condition Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) aka Elephant Man Syndrome, involving acute self mutilation and exceptional suicidalism. 50 mins.
4 million viewers. 2nd largest - ever BBC Helpline response to date. Led to BDD’s national recognition and establishment of nationwide UK services to deal with the condition.

Producer:

Roger Graef

Editor:

Dai Vaughan


Camera:

Alan James

Sound:

Mike McDuffie


Production Companies:

Films Of Record/Partisan Productions more




Director/Producer/Writer:



SANCTUARY (Channel 4. 1998).



Story:

1-hour pilot TV documentary about The Medical Foundation For The Care Of Victims Of Torture, with special access given to the work of doctors, therapists, staff and founder/director Helen Bamber with torture survivors from around the world.

Co-Producer/Presenter:

John McCarthy.

Executive Producer:

Roger Graef

Editor:

Dai Vaughan


Camera:

Nick Gifford



Producer/Writer:



THE TIME OF OUR LIVES (BBC2 ‘Fine Cut’ series/BFI. 1994):



Story:

State-of-the-nation feature documentary centred on a London East End family.

Director:

Michael Grigsby

Producers:

Belinda Allen, Ben Gibson (London International Film School)

Editor:

Alan Mackay


Camera:

Dan Holmberg

Nominations:

BAFTA Grierson Award 1995

Awards:

Winner of Cinema Du Reel’s Prix Des Bibliotheques.


Producer/Writer/CO-Deviser:



LIVING ON THE EDGE
(Central TV/BFI. 1987).:



Story:

Cinema/TV documentary about Thatcher’s Britain, theatrically distributed on 35mm in the UK and overseas. ("One of the most original documentaries to be shown on British national television during the 1980's." - The Art Of Record by John Corner, published by the Manchester University Press in 1996).

Director:

Michael Grigsby

Editor:

Julian Ware

Camera:

Ivan Strasburg, Tom McDougal

Sound:

Mike McDuffie

Research:

Catherine Bailey, Sara Tibbetts

Awards:

Winner of Houston Film Festival’s Special Jury Award 1988;
British Press Guild Award for Documentary;
'Masterpiece' highlight of the NFT Retrospective 'Michael Grigsby and the
Documentary Tradition' in June 04 and the Dinard British Film Festival’s
‘Michael Grigsby Retrospective’ in October 06. more


Screenwriter:


Following nomination by The European Script Fund was selected as one of the first 12 ‘most promising’ new UK screenwriters for the British Producers Association’s inaugural Screenwriters Studio Course in 1990, a major film industry initiative to develop new British screenwriters. more


True-story screenplay/film treatment adaptations:



OUT OF THE DARK

- based on a 2003 Bestseller, a true ‘buried memory’ story about a suicidal mother's journey back to sanity with the help of a Jungian psychotherapist.

BLIND FLIGHT

(Channel Four/European Script Fund/MEDIA 2 /UK Film Council) – based on the No 1 Bestsellers (1.5 million UK sales) by Brian Keenan and John McCarthy of their experiences as hostages in Lebanon.

CONVERSATIONS WITH AN EXECUTIONER

- the true story of a Polish World War Two Resistance hero’s incarceration by the Stalinist regime in a cell with the Nazi General responsible for the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto (European Script Fund).

SNIPER

- a fictionalised version of the story of the Russian sniper hero Vassili Zaitsev at the Battle Of Stalingrad and his duel with the Nazis’ top sniper.

STORMY WEATHER

- a satire on Britain since the 1940's centred on the true story of a misfit father and son relationship between gay artist/film maker Derek Jarman and his World. War Two RAF hero father. Based on Jarman’s life, books and work.

TIME DOESN'T HEAL

- a true story about Chilean exile Luis Munoz's return to his homeland in 2002 to testify against his former Pinochet torturers, a journey which involves him having to face his now adult daughter whom he was prepared to sacrifice to them for the sake of his comrades and his cause.

IN THE WINGS

- A magical, offbeat, erotically charged true-story of 1960’s early gay parenting - Valerie Rossmore's adoption from age 7 to 18 by the founder of Dublin's legendary Gate Theatre the mesmeric Irish gay actor/writer/designer Micheál MacLiammóir.

THE ROARING BOY

- Patrick Maguire's poignant, tragi-comic true story as the youngest child of the Maguire Family, wrongly convicted as IRA bombers in 1976. Based on Maguire's autobiography My Father's Watch (2008), written with Carlo Gébler.



Original story screenplays/film treatments

:

MATUSHKA

- a teenage love story set among the destitute orphans of the Russian Civil War and Revolution.

HELLBENT

- a fictional feature film about a gay artist/film maker's journey of self-destruction and redemption following his HIV diagnosis, for director Derek Jarman (British Screen).

THE SYSTEM

- an international big-budget film-noir thriller set in the worlds of high finance and green politics.

THE CHARMER

- a magical realist story about a country healer.

AFTERMATH

- a film noir about a young Englishman’s quest in Ireland to find the remains of his father, a British Army Intelligence Officer assassinated by the IRA.

STEP BY STEP

- a romantic comedy about two young phobics.

THE CRUNCH

- a major fictional drama set in the near future, based on own original story/treatment. In a debt-ridden UK Britons from all walks of life battle with the forces of the financial markets, part of an international struggle to free the world from the yoke of debt. As civil resistance amasses, the threat of a UK default looms. If the UK defaults the world goes bust. Three ordinary British families from across the social divides are caught up in these epochal events.


Educational work:



Screenwriting Advisor on Moonstone Screenwriters’ Lab , Scotland 2005.
Screenwriting Mentor at the London International Film School 2006.
Visiting Lecturer in Production at the Danish Film School in 1988/9. more