Roger Shannon

On a Clear Day

After decades of laboring as a Glasgow shipbuilder, Frank Redmond, a no-nonsense 55-year-old working-class man, suddenly finds himself laid off. For the first time in his life, he is without a job or a sense of direction, and he's too proud to ask for guidance. His best mates - rascally Danny, timid Norman and cynical Eddie - are there for him, but Frank still feels desperately alone. An offhand remark from Danny inspires Frank to challenge himself. Already contemplating the state of his relationships with loving wife Joan and all-but-estranged son Rob, Frank is determined to shore up his own self-confidence. He will attempt the near impossible - swimming the English Channel.

Festival

'Festival' is a black comedy set during the annual Edinburgh Fringe festival. The film is based around both the judging of a major comedy award and the performers at one of the smaller venues. Various plot strands interweave, including the bitter relationship between a famous self-obsessed British comic and his ever-suffering assistant, an actress debuting at the festival with a one-woman show about Dorothy Wordsworth and a depressed, rich housewife who spies on the stoned Canadian theatre troupe to whom she has rented out her house

Dad's Dead

Our narrator looks fondly back at his childhood in Liverpool and the antics of his best friend Johnno. Well known for being a showman and a keen one for joking and the like, Johnno starts to change for the worse after he announced that his father has died.

Lawless Heart

In a British seaside resort, several lives intertwine following the funeral of a gay restaurant owner.

My Brother Tom

A teenage girl, Jessica, befriends a teenage boy called Tom, who is bullied by a local gang. She is abused by Jack, who is both her neighbour and school teacher, and Tom is sexually abused by his father. Together they bond in the woods, creating a private reality that no-one else can enter.

I Could Read the Sky

The film concerns an old Irish immigrant living in London who is looking back over his life. He recalls his early life in the west of Ireland, his first love, emigrating to England, searching for his brother Joe, who disappeared after he emigrated several years previously. His marriage and wife's later depth is also remembered.

Heart

A woman, plastered in blood, is arrested by a grave, and a tale of loss, lust and jealousy slowly unfolds.

Under the Skin

Although married and pregnant Rose has always been mother's favorite, it is younger sister Iris whose life is shaken up by mother's death. Suffocating, Iris spirals out of control and copes by losing herself in sexual oblivion.

Peggy Su!

Peggy wants to be married.......

Butterfly Kiss

Deeply mentally unbalanced drifter Eunice roams grim northern Britain committing psychosexual serial murders of both men and women while ostensibly searching for an unknown woman named Judith. She spares the life of lonely but kind-hearted gas station cashier Miriam, who abandons her dismal life to follow her damaged new lover. While attempting to hide the evidence of her multiple crimes, Miriam tries to understand Eunice's bizarre quest.

Out of Order

Unemployed Anthony announces he is joining the police, much to the horror of his girlfriend and friends.

Property Rites

Partly based on a true event, the death in 1817 of a Birmingham woman, Mary Ashford, and the consequent trial of a local man, Abraham Thornton, for her rape and murder. The film is concerned with the response of her contemporaries to her behaviour on the night before she died, and by situating this within the fictional circumstances of a modern woman, explores current attitudes to rape, and the forces and assumptions underlying them.

The Miners' Campaign Video Tapes: Not Just Tea and Sandwiches

Part of BFI collection "The Miners' Campaign Video Tapes."

Traces Left

The career of Norman McLaren is well documented; less so that of his collaborator, the textiles artist, sculptress and active member of the Glasgow Kino Film Group, Helen Biggar. Traces Left explores the part Biggar played in the making of Hell Unltd, plus her contributions to the vibrant Glaswegian art and political scene of the 30s and 40s. Don’t miss this rare screening.

Mirror, Mirror

This keenly observed short reflects on the duality of a modern Asian woman’s life in 80s Birmingham