Second Run DVD - Lift / Travellers / Calais: The Last Border

UK, 2001 / 2002 / 2003
Length / Lift: 25 minutes
Length / Travellers: 48 minutes
Length / Calais: The Last Border: 59 minutes
Special feature: 19 minutes
Sound: Original stereo (restored)
Colour
OAR: 1.33:1 Full Frame
Language: English
PAL DVD9
Region 0
RRP: £12.99

Release Date: 29th June 2009
Second Run DVD 042

Marc Isaacs worked as an assistant to acclaimed filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski, who encouraged Isaacs to make his own film. The result was Lift, and from that debut onwards Isaacs has shown a great capacity to empathise with the protagonists of his films. Never judging by appearances, Isaacs’ skill at getting to know the characters becomes part of the narrative of the film, and their (and our) prejudices and preconceptions are challenged by the reality he finds.

Strong human characters are at the heart of all of Isaacs’ work and, in these three films, he creates a succession of deeply moving portraits, piecing together a unique vision of modern Britain.

• Newly filmed interview with director Marc Isaacs.

• New digital transfer from original materials, approved by the director.

• Booklet featuring essays by Nick Fraser (Producer and Series Editor, BBC Storyville) and writer Graeme Hobbs.

• Optimal quality dual-layer disc.

• Available for the first time on DVD.

Filmed and directed by Marc Isaacs

Lift
Editor – Russell Crockett
Production Manager – Rachel Wexler
Production Co-ordinator – Georgena McGahey
Sound – Stuart Bruce

Travellers
Editor – David Charap
Music – Michel Duvoisin
Production Manager – Tricia Chacón

Calais: The Last Border
Editor – David Charap
Music – Mustafa Santic / Michel Duvoisin
Production Manager – Jo Ralling

Two further volumes of Marc Isaacs’ acclaimed films
are also available on DVD from Second Run.

Vol. II contains two films:
All White in Barking / Men of the City

Vol. III contains two films:
Someday My Prince Will Come / Philip and His Seven Wives

Lift
2002 Grierson Award / Winner UK Best Newcomer
2002 Royal Television Society Award
2002 Oberhausen International Short Film Festival / FIPRESCI Award

Calais: The Last Border
2004 Berlin Britspotting Film Festival / Winner Best Film
2004 Docs Barcelona International Film Festival / Special Prize
2004 Grierson Award / Nominated Best Documentary

“(Isaacs’) wonderful, surprising and moving documentaries are given a superb transfer to DVD by Second Run, making this one of the best releases of the year.” DVD Times

“Isaacs has an astounding gift for getting people to open up to him and he uses film the way a skilled artist uses paint. The result is beautiful, heartbreaking and profoundly humane” Times Online

“[Isaacs] has quietly built a body of work that puts him amongst the most empathetic documentary observers we have of lives often overlooked” Time Out