FILMS
LYRA (lee-rah) (92 mins) Erica Starling Productions Channel Four/ TG4 Directed by Alison Millar
An emotive, intimate film on the life and death of acclaimed young Northern Irish journalist Lyra McKee, whose murder by the New IRA in April 2019 sent shockwaves across the world. Lyra was the voice of her generation, and her death served as a tragic reminder of Northern Ireland’s fragile peace. Directed by her close friend, LYRA seeks answers to her senseless killing through Lyra’s own work and words.
Available on Channel 4
Awards: - Grierson Award, Best Single Documentary - Domestic, Winner - Sheffield International DocFest, Tim Hetherington Award, Winner - Cork International Film Festival Audience Award, Winner - Prix Europa, Best European TV Documentary of the Year, Winner - AIB Awards, Human Interest TV and Video, Winner - Broadcast Awards, Best Documentary Programme, Winner - Docs Against Gravity, Warsaw, Best Film for Young Audience Award, Winner - Amnesty International Human Rights Award, Barcelona - Giffoni Film Festival, Best Documentary, Winner - Televisual Bulldog Award, Best Single Documentary, Winner - BIFA, Best Feature Documentary, Nominated
THE BAN (26 mins) Erica Starling Productions / Unbecoming Productions Directed by Roisin Agnew Produced & Edited by Sam Howard The New Yorker
During the Northern Ireland conflict a practice developed that saw actors hired to dub those associated with the IRA on broadcast media. Via unseen archive footage and present-day interviews with key figures such as Gerry Adams and Stephen Rea, THE BAN reflects on the British Government’s use of the threat of ‘terrorism’ to justify censorship, drawing inevitable comparisons with the present.
Awards: - BAFTA, Best Short Film, Official Longlist - BIFA, Best Short Film, Official Longlist - London Short Film Festival, Best UK Short, Winner - Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Best Short Documentary, Winner - Focal Awards, Best Use of Archive in Short Film, Winner - Sight and Sound, Best Video Essays 2024
Festivals: - Tribeca Film Festival - IDFA - CPH:DOX
LEE MILLER: A LIFE ON THE FRONTLINE (59 mins) Erica Starling Productions /Ronachan Films BBC Two/BBC Four /ARTE Directed by Teresa Griffiths
Lee Miller is one of the most remarkable female icons of the 20th century. A model turned photographer turned war reporter, Miller chose to live her life by her own rules.
LEE MILLER: A LIFE ON THE FRONTLINE celebrates a subject who defied anyone who tried to pin her down, put her on a pedestal or pigeonhole her in any way. It tells the story of a trailblazer, often at odds with the morality of the day, who refused to be subjugated by the dominant male figures around her.
Awards: - BAFTA Craft Awards, Director: Factual, Winner - BAFTA Craft Awards, Editor: Factual, Winner
ARENA: THE CHANGIN’ TIMES OF IKE WHITE (80 mins) Erica Starling Productions BBC Four Directed by Daniel Vernon
Ike White was a gifted and critically acclaimed musician whose talent was discovered while he was serving a life sentence for murder. When he was released, he went into hiding under a pseudonym for decades. Masking his dark past, he had an incredible story that he hadn't told a soul.
In ARENA: THE CHANGIN’ TIMES OF IKE WHITE extraordinary animation combines with Ike’s archive to try to understand and get inside the head of this complex, talented and ultimately damaged man.
Awards: - Royal Television Society NI, Best Documentary, Winner - Camden International Film Festival, Best Doc Feature, Nominated - Krakow Film Festival, Best International Music Doc, Nominated
SEARCHING FOR SHERGAR (60 mins) Erica Starling Productions /Ronachan Films BBC Two / BBC One NI/ RTE One Directed by Alison Millar
The story of one of the world's most valuable racehorses, Shergar, who disappeared in 1983 at the height of the Troubles. Decades on, in SEARCHING FOR SHERGAR, Alison Millar sets out to see if changed times will help her unearth the secrets of this famous mystery.
Awards: - Prix Europa Awards, Best Documentary in Europe, Silver - Royal Television Society NI Awards, Nominated
LEONORA CARRINGTON: THE LOST SURREALIST (57 mins) Erica Starling Productions /Ronachan Films BBC Four Directed by Teresa Griffiths
British surrealist Leonora Carrington was a key part of the surrealist movement during its heyday in Paris and yet, until recently, remained a virtual unknown in the country of her birth. LEONORA CARRINGTON: THE LOST SURREALIST explores her dramatic evolution from British debutante to artist in exile, living out her days in Mexico City, and takes us on a journey into her darkly strange and cinematic world.
Available on BBC iPlayer
Awards: - Grierson Award: Best Arts Doc, Winner - Royal Television Society NI Awards, Winner
THE SUMMER OF LOVE: HOW HIPPIES CHANGED THE WORLD (2 x 59 mins) Erica Starling Productions /State of Grace BBC Four Directed by Mike Connolly
THE SUMMER OF LOVE: HOW HIPPIES CHANGED THE WORLD series takes the countercultural explosion that was 1967's Summer of Love and looks at how it set in motion an era of social upheaval that pitted America's youth against its elders and how ideas, music and lifestyles from Asia, Europe and the American left became entwined in California.
ELVIS: THE REBIRTH OF THE KING (59 mins) Erica Starling Productions /State of Grace BBC Four Directed by Mike Connolly
The widely accepted Elvis narrative is that the Vegas period was the nadir of his career, but this film argues that Elvis reached his peak both as a singer and performer in the first few years of his Vegas period. He became, in those short years, the greatest performer on earth. ELVIS: THE REBIRTH OF THE KING tracks this five-year renaissance with some of his key musical and artistic collaborators of the period, including the creator of his most memorable jumpsuits, to celebrate the greatest pop reinvention of all time.
DISPATCHES: KIDS IN CRISIS (59 mins)
Erica Starling Productions Channel Four Directed by Alison Millar
In this special report DISPATCHES: KIDS IN CRISIS meets with four families who all have children who suffer from mental illness. The lack of local residential care means these youngsters have to be separated from their loved ones to seek help, some having to be placed up to 100 miles away from home.
Awards: - Royal Television Society Award, UK - Best Current Affairs Programme, Winner - Royal Television Society Award, NI - Best Current Affairs Programme, Winner - Prix Europa, Best Current Affairs Film in Europe, Nominated - Broadcast Awards, Best Current Affairs, Nominated
THE DISAPPEARED (85 mins)
Erica Starling Productions BBC Four Storyville /RTE One /BBC One NI Directed by Alison Millar
THE DISAPPEARED is the dramatic story of those killed and then secretly buried by the IRA. Darragh MacIntyre reveals the continuing trauma of the relatives of those taken, killed and buried, and investigates the alleged involvement of Republican leader Gerry Adams in the killing and disappearance of widow and mother-of-ten Jean McConville.
Edited version available on Prime Video
Awards: - IFTA, Best Documentary
- Celtic Media Festival Award, Best Current Affairs - Prix Europa, Best Current Affairs Programme in Europe, Special Commendation - FOCAL Awards, Best Archive in an International Story, Nominated
TRUE NORTH: THE MIRACULOUS TALES OF MICKEY McGUIGAN (59 mins) Erica Starling Productions BBC One NI Directed by Daniel Vernon
Miracles may defy logic, but millions around the world believe in them. In Ireland, as shown in TRUE NORTH: THE MIRACULOUS TALES OF MICKEY McGUIGAN, it's part of the traditional world of folklore and magic that people hang on to.
Mickey McGuigan guides us on this cinematic adventure through a hidden part of rural Northern Ireland, where anything is possible.
Awards: - Official Selection True/false Film Festival - Official Selection Hot Docs Documentary Festival
DISPATCHES: UNDER LOCK AND KEY (53 mins) Erica Starling Productions Channel 4 Directed by Alison Millar
Thousands of young people with learning disabilities and autism are still being locked up in hospital despite promises made by the government. This Dispatches: Under Lock And Key highlights the lack of bespoke care to meet their needs.
THIS WORLD: THE SHAME OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (59 mins)
BBC Two Directed by Alison Millar
Decades of clerical abuse and cover up have left the Catholic church in Ireland at breaking point. In THIS WORLD: THE SHAME OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH Darragh MacIntyre reveals new evidence of an abuse scandal that goes to the very top of the Irish church.
Awards: - BAFTA, Best Current Affairs, Winner
- Celtic Media Festival, Best Current Affairs, Winner - IFTA, Best Director, Nominated - Prix Europa, Best Current Affairs Film in Europe, Judges Commendation
ARENA: A BRITISH GUIDE TO THE END OF THE WORLD (73 mins) Erica Starling Productions BBC Four Directed by Daniel Vernon
A haunting film about Britain and the nuclear age, from the first bomb tests to our potentially futile preparations for attack during the Cold War. Framed by Britain's mission to build the bomb, ARENA: A BRITISH GUIDE TO THE END OF THE WORLD uses extraordinary unseen archive and exclusive testimonies from people directly involved in our nuclear story, from conscripted soldiers attending the early nuclear tests in the South Pacific to servicemen, volunteers and civil servants involved in the planning of how we might have managed in the event of a nuclear catastrophe.
GERRY ANDERSON: LOSING IT (59 mins)
Erica Starling Productions BBC One NI Directed by Alison Millar
Radio Broadcaster Gerry Anderson is going bald and has decided to do something about it. This film, GERRY ANDERSON: LOSING IT, is his personal journey through the 'International World of Hairloss treatments.