Ticking Time Bomb

Ticking Time Bomb: The Truth Behind Takata Airbags follows the Takata whistleblower and former engineers as they unveil a deadly corporate cover-up leading to the largest international recall in history.

There’s a good chance you or someone you love is driving one of 100 million cars with a pipe bomb ticking away in their steering wheels. Japan’s Takata Corporation put defective airbags in one out of every four cars on American roads, including some of the most expensive rides in the world – BMW’s, Mercedes, Ferraris, and Teslas – but expect no help from the manufacturer or the government. Takata’s airbags have already killed or maimed more than 350 people and are on track to blast at least 2,000 more.
We showcase evidence that top Takata engineers and executives were informed in early reports the airbags were dangerous explosives before and after they went to market. More than 100 million vehicles worldwide continue to drive with defective airbags as the recall continues, and most drivers have no idea their airbag may be the next to cause irrevocable harm – or death.

Bad Hombres

Bad Hombres explores the most heavily used migration route on Earth. Journalist Stef Biemans traveled between Guatemala and the US to see what the so-called ‘bad hombres’ hope to find in the USA.
Who are the people who inspired the building of a wall on the Mexican border?

“Biemans stays calm at all times and defers to his subjects. The result is rich and integral television, sometimes moving and always captivating”

De Volkskrant

Also available as a five part series:

Episode One:

Episode Two:

Episode Three:

Episode Four:

Episode Five:

How Mephedrone Conquered Eastern Europe

This is how Mephedrone (4-MMC) has spread across Eastern Europe and become the most popular drug for everyone from ravers to intravenous users.

M-Cat is king of Russia and a number of former Soviet states, such as Georgia. It is cheap, available and increasingly potent which explains why it’s turned into most people’s favourite amphetamine.

We explore how this trend started in Russia and expanded into a number of bordering countries and how it’s morphed from just a party drug into something far more dangerous.

Mr. Fish: Cartooning from the Deep End

We find Mr. Fish, who once had success creating compelling, outrageous editorial cartoons, as his profession is dying out.

Editors who previously backed his controversial work are disappearing as fast as the newspapers which once employed him. Can an outspoken artist raise a family and maintain his unique defiant voice?

This intimate documentary follows the artist as he struggles to stay true to his creativity in a world where biting satiric humour has an ever-diminishing commercial value. Mr Fish: Cartooning from the Deep End examines the compromises a radical artist makes (or refuses to make).

 

“A stubbornly amiable film about a compulsively provocative talent, “Mr. Fish” ponders the outer limits of editorial cartooning in an age where there’s arguably more fodder for such commentary than ever… 

to further offset the queasiness that Mr. Fish’s images often generate, Bryant lends his well-crafted feature a bright, playful, even antic tenor, painting his subject as a lovable eccentric rather than a tortured artist.”
Variety

“The film hit my heart and brain with such velocity that it literally made me sit on the edge of my seat”
Ain’t It Cool News

Rise of the Sex Robots

Advances in computer science and engineering have lifted animatronic lovers from the realms of science fiction to reality with the first models due to go on sale by the end of the year.

We meet the men who are making the sex robots, the customers who want to buy them – and the critics who say they are dangerous.

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Contact us to request full treatment, budget, schedule, budget, finance plan or any other matters relating to potential partnerships.

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Director: Tom Silverstone
Writer / Presenter: Jenny Kleeman
Executive Producer: Charlie Philips
Executive Producer: Kazz Basma
Distributor: Sideways Film
Country of Production: UK
Language: English
We are looking for: Co-Pro and Pre Sales
Stage of Project: Early Development
Delivery Date: TBA

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Key Biographies

Director – Tom Silverstone

Tom Silverstone is a London and New York based filmmaker currently working for the Guardian, making short films across current affairs, tech and culture. You can see his portfolio at www.tomsilverstone.com

Writer / Presenter – Jenny Kleeman

Jenny Kleeman is an award-winning journalist who travels the world telling thought-provoking stories you won’t have heard from anyone else.

On TV, she’s reported for BBC One’s Panorama and The One Show and Channel 4’s Dispatches, as well as making 13 films from across the globe for Unreported World, Channel 4’s critically acclaimed foreign affairs documentary strand. She’s a regular commentator on Sky News’s nightly Press Preview.

Executive Producer – Charlie Philips

Charlie Phillips is the Head of Documentaries at The Guardian, commissioning and acquiring new short documentaries from all around the world. He was previously Deputy Director at Sheffield Doc/Fest and Editor of FourDocs for Channel 4.

Executive Producer – Kazz Basma

Kazz Basma set up Sideways Film in 2010 to distribute social justice and dramatic narrative documentaries. He has licensed films to broadcasters, all rights buyers, the education market and online on every continent and have been screened at prestigious festivals worldwide including Sundance, Tribeca, IDFA, Hot Docs and Sheffield Doc Fest. He attends at least twelve documentary festivals each year where he is regularly invited to speak on panels and at round-tables, serves as a guest lecturer at the London College of Communication and is an invited expert at EAVE (the European Audio Visual Entrepreneurs network).