Spring 2025 sees three films looking at photographers and their work. First up is I am Martin Parr which is in cinemas from 21 February. Since the 1970s, British documentary photographer Martin Parr has fearlessly held out his unique photographic mirror and given us some of the most iconic images of the past century. Through an intimate and exclusive road trip across England with the artist, director Lee Shulman (The Anonymous Project) uncovers the life of Magnum photographer Parr: an ironic chronicler of British kitsch, a fierce critic of consumerism, and a narrator of stories suspended between comedy and tragedy. Compiled from exclusive archival footage alongside interviews from various individuals in Martin’s life - close family, fellow photographers, artists and filmmakers, from artist Grayson Perry to musician Mark Bedford (Madness). The film offers a portrait of an extraordinary photographer who revolutionised contemporary photography by inventing a political, humanist and accessible photographic language.
Ernest Cole: Lost and Found is released on 7 March. Winner of the L'Œil d'or for Best Documentary Film at Cannes Film Festival 2024, Ernest Cole: Lost and Found is directed by celebrated filmmaker Raoul Peck, best known for his BAFTA-winning and Academy Award-nominated film I Am Not Your Negro (2016). Narrated by Academy Award nominee LaKeith Stanfield, it documents the life of Ernest Cole (1940–1990), the South African photographer whose groundbreaking work exposed the horrors of Apartheid-era South Africa to a world audience. The film recounts Cole’s wanderings, his turmoil as an artist and his anger, on a daily basis, at the silence and complicity of the Western world in the face of the horrors of the Apartheid regime. Through his photographs, writings, and audio from the expanded Cole archive, Ernest Cole: Lost and Found paints an intimate portrait of a remarkable photographer who is finally getting his dues.
Finally, on 21 March is Two Strangers Trying Not To Kill Each Other. Nominated for two British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs), the film is the story of artist couple Joel Meyerowitz and Maggie Barrett. Meyerowitz (84) is a world-renowned photographer. British-born Barrett (75) is a talented but less recognised artist and writer. Thirty years after a chance encounter, Maggie and Joel are still very much in love. But there is a knot of unease in their relationship, which is further strained when Maggie falls and breaks her leg and Joel becomes her caregiver. In the shadow of mortality, each with a long and dramatic life behind them, the hard truths of life together provoke in Maggie and Joel an attempt to find a shared inner-peace while there is still time. With unique access to the couple’s lives, directors Jacob Perlmutter and Manon Ouimet have created a profoundly moving film about living, creating and loving.
A trailer for I am Martin Parr is available here: TRAILER
More details or to arrange a screening see here: https://releasing.dogwoof.com/
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