David Hewson

The debate on death penalty is loud and impassioned. Instead of echoing that cacophony, The Death of Us, quietly reflects on a range of cases in which the death penalty was pronounced. Sometimes, ending in the execution of the convicted; sometimes in commutation to a life sentence; and sometimes to acquittal and release. Speaking to some who have been on death row, and others closely involved with the cases, we engage in complex conversations on crime and punishment, revenge and justice, popular rhetoric and personal experiences. Only to find ourselves confronted by larger ethical and moral questions across time and space.

Little did Michael Watson know that when he stepped into the ring on 21 September 1991 to fight Chris Eubank for the World Boxing Organisation Super Middleweight title, it was a fight that would nearly cost him his life. Ten years on, Fighting Back: The Michael Watson Story, tells of his remarkable recovery from the brink of death and features his first public meeting with Eubank.

A 10-year-old girl and her 6-year-old brother are dumped by their abusive mother and her boyfriend to spend a few days at the rambling country house of their grandfather, who has been estranged from the family for the past ten years. The girl discovers the old mans corpse in his room, and, fearing that they might be blamed for killing him, devises a cover-up plan, which is almost foiled by a local boy.

This movie deals with the problems suffered by many smaller girls' boarding schools during the early 1990s recession, and makes use of metaphor and analogy in its critique of the John Major government of the day.

A group of teenage boys are tricked into accompanying their teacher on a survival holiday to a deserted island. But when the teacher suffers a nervous breakdown and turns hostile, the boys are forced to fend for themselves.

A young boy dies after swimming at a seaside resort, and the local children, led by Gavin, investigate and are led to suspect that contamination from a nearby nuclear plant is to blame. Their teacher is sympathetic, but has broken into her house, perhaps as a warning. Gavin is nearly killed after talking about the problem on TV, but gradually all is uncovered - with terrible consequences for Gavin.

A gang of boys who run their money raising 'business' - on strictly free market lines - is threatened by the arrival of another group. - A socialistic group, headed by a black girl!

When Kelly and Max, two 13-year olds from widely different social backgrounds, form an unlikely alliance and take off in Max's father's Ferrari for an illegal trip to Brighton. On the way they discover more about life and each other than they had bargained for.

Middle-class parents have bought a run-down school in the country. Their two children, plus an assortment of friends, are staying there over the summer. One day an old lady is found in the school, claiming she used to work there. The children hold her to ransom, but no-one takes any notice.

Lisa and Jamie, residents of the Alton House Children's Home, learn that the home is to close because of government cuts. They decide to run away, and meet up with Mr. Skeeter who brings them food but steals their emergency money.

After a nuclear war, a group of children at an isolated farmhouse debate what the outside world might be like. Soon one of them leaves the house to investigate, and finds out that things aren't the way they thought.

An Indian summer, 1942: "When I was thirteen, all I wanted to be was a hero." A young evacuee's response to the surrounding war-obsessed adult world seems the only one available to him, until he forms 'a particular friendship' with another boy, a Jewish refugee. This threatens the stability of his gang (who also mirror the racist/jingoist attitudes of adulthood), and he is caught in Forster's great liberal crux: your country or your friend?

Strange things start to happen when Mr Dark's Pandemonium Carnival arrives in Greentown.