Gizmo Films, Documentaries, Bob Mullan

The visionary art of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis

Gizmo Films was founded in 1986 by writer and director, Bob Mullan. Since that time it has produced over 40 documentary films, including the award-winning The Man Under the Sea, which follows the last few months in the life of Norwegian writer, Axel Jensen; A Peaceful Journey Home, a film about Iranians living in exile, including an exclusive interview with Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last Shah of Iran; Hasidic Blues, a film about the New York Hasidic-blues band, The Sway Machinery; Second Time Around, featuring former Motown artists, Mary Wells, Edwin Starr, and The Elgins as they prepare to perform at a down-at-heel seaside resort; In the Footsteps of Ambedkar, which follows the founder of the Western Buddhist Order as he travels across India; Sufism: the Heart of Islam, a three-part series for Channel 4; and another award-winning film, Bhagwan: My Dance is Complete, a unique glimpse inside the ashram of the late Indian guru, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.

The Man under the Sea

Gizmo is also actively involved in developing both documentary projects and television drama. These include Showland, a darkly comic six-part television series set in the world of Britain's last remaining sub-culture, travelling showmen. Relationship Junkies is based on the misadventures of six women who meet at a self-help group. Therapy is a documentary series about the work of counsellors and therapists.

The company also maintains a back catalogue, and leases footage which it owns.

A Peaceful Journey HomeSufism:the Heart of Islam

Gizmo is currently developing a slate of feature films. These include Mad to be Normal, the story of controversial psychiatrist R.D. Laing and the infamous experiment he ran at Kingsley Hall, the medication-free asylum which made headlines around the world in the 1960s. Robert Carlyle is attached to play Laing, with Hayley Atwell as his wife, Jutta. Two Sisters is a story of 'survivor guilt' and the healing power of love, set in the Jewish East End of London in the late 1960s, with compelling flashbacks to 1941 Lithuania. Sonata of the Stars based on the tragic life of the Lithuanian artist, composer and visionary, Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875-1911) is due to go into production in early 2011.