First Cut
Season 2008
Series of short documentary films from new directors.
Where to Watch Season 2008
12 Episodes
- Saving Britney SpearsE1
Saving Britney SpearsFirst Cut takes a road trip across the USA to meet the people who've made Britney's breakdown their business. Young filmmaker Bruce Fletcher flies to LA to film the people who are capitalising on the breakdown of Britney Spears, either to make money or become famous themselves. They include paparazzi, disturbed adolescents and creepy preachers. NEW SERIES - Time Warp WivesE2
Time Warp WivesHaving rejected the independence that comes with being a modern working woman, Joanne, Debbie, Diane and Sammi are desperate to be old-fashioned housewives. The four women have found men who share their vintage obsession, and have turned their homes into vintage shrines, wilfully ignoring most aspects of modern life. - The Murder of Billie-Jo - Sion Jenkins' StoryE3
The Murder of Billie-Jo - Sion Jenkins' StoryIn February 1997 13-year-old East Sussex schoolgirl Billie-Jo Jenkins was beaten to death in her back garden. Her foster father, Sion Jenkins, was convicted of murdering her. However, he was subsequently retried twice; with no verdict having been served, he was acquitted, and is currently free. The case remains unsolved. In this film Anoop Pandhals follows Sion Jenkins over four months as he prepares to tell his side of the story of his foster's daughter's murder. - Watch Me DisappearE4
Watch Me DisappearEach year in Britain around 2,500 people are buried alone. No one claims them, and no one attends their funerals. Others have lain dead and undiscovered for weeks, or even years, before they are found, and relatives traced. Driven by a desire to find out more about these lonely individuals from the people who knew and loved them, Lucy Cohen’s bitter-sweet first film pieces together two peoples’ lives, and asks how it is possible for anyone to simply slip through the cracks and disappear. - A1: The Road MusicalE5
A1: The Road MusicalThe surprising stories of ordinary people who live or work along the A1 from London to Edinburgh, sung and spoken by the people themselves. Finding people local to the road through word of mouth and the press, Till interviewed them about their stories, adapted them as song lyrics and set them to music. He then coached, choreographed, and directed their performances. The result is both a tragic-comic tale of love, life, and lay-bys on the A1 and a compelling portrait of contemporary Britain. - Marriage Technique for BeginnersE6
Marriage Technique for BeginnersDirector Piers Sanderson is getting married, but he is feeling nervous. As the product of a particularly painful divorce, he is keen not to put his own children through what he experienced as a small child. Featuring stylised animation and a long journey around the UK that features interviews with a cross-section of couples up and down the country, the film follow Piers's attempts to write his marriage vows as his big day approaches. - My Boyfriend The Serial KillerE8
My Boyfriend The Serial KillerEarlier in 2008, Steve Wright was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders of five women from the Ipswich area. His unsuspecting partner Pam Wright was left to pick up the pieces of her shattered life. Tanya Freedman’s debut film for the First Cut documentary strand follows Pam over two months as she makes a new life for herself in Devon, after leaving a police safe house. But how do you move on when your boyfriend is a serial killer? - Half Ton VegE9
Half Ton VegDocumentary following three men who are obsessed with growing large vegetables for competition, and the plight of their long-suffering wives. Featuring a Mansfield couple who haven't been on holiday for 30 years as husband Joe is unwilling to be parted from his outsized vegetables, a man who has won the "best of show" prize at the UK Giant Vegetable Championships for 10 consecutive years, and a newcomer to the pursuit. - Britain's Whitest FamilyE10
Britain's Whitest FamilyWaheed Khan directs this intriguing documentary following three young men who suffer from albinism. Extraordinarily, two of them have siblings who are also albinos. In the case of one, the coincidence is explained by the fact that both his parents are albinos, matched as a couple in their native Pakistan at a young age for fear they would remain partnerless. The three adolescents followed by Khan face varying degrees of prejudice. One of them, Joey, the only ethnically white subject of the film, has been the victim of frequent bullying. The visual conspicuousness of these teenagers makes their search for inner identity all the more affecting - Junk Mail BritainE11
Junk Mail BritainHere, Mark Craig collects the junk mail that comes through the letterbox and meets the people who send them out - the estate agent, the pizza shop owner, the organic-food distributor, the Jehovah’s Witness, and so on. In doing so, he discovers a shared humanity lurking behind those despised leaflets. - Jail DateE12
Jail DateTonight's opener by documentary filmmaker Lizzie Wingham explores the growing online-dating phenomenon in which thousands of men from across the US search for romance with women prisoners on specialist "jail date" sites. Men like Richard, who is prepared to forego sex while he waits for Beckey, who is serving a life sentence for murder in Texas. (NEW SERIES)