Video Diaries

Kevin Allen, a 28-year-old actor and long time 'student of the game', has made a unique fan's-eye view of the 1990 World Cup football finals in Italy in this 'road movie'. Armed only with a small video camera, he set out to travel and live on the campsites with Bobby Robson's unwanted and unloved army of England supporters. What emerged is an epic of chaotic wit, intrigue, fear and despair, and a deep affection for the game.

Stephen Hawthorne 's parents discovered he was gay two years ago. Rather than face them he left home. In his absorbing and humorous diary he tries to open a dialogue with his parents by involving them.

Artist Vicky Hawkins and marble mason Tony Chircop had lived in London's East End all their lives. When, last year in France, they discovered the farmhouse of their dreams, they decided to sell Vicky's studio in London and move to start a new life. Their diary records the joys and traumas they experienced as their dream became a nightmare.

Jo Spence discovered she had lymphatic leukaemia, and possibly the return of the cancer she thought she conquered eight years ago. Until then, she and her brother Mike Clode , who lives in Devon, had had only a sporadic relationship. When he heard the news, he sent her a self-made video, wishing her strength. Thus began an extraordinary journey which eventually brought them closer in adversity.

Jack Murton is serving a 12-year prison sentence for armed robbery. Destined to a lifetime pattern of crime and prison, his outlook was challenged by the suicide of a close friend in his cell at Maidstone Prison and Jack's subsequent move to Blantyre House. There, surrounded by long-term prisoners and armed with a video camera, he attempts to understand and explain himself and his unusual surroundings.

Photojournalist Nick Danziger is no stranger to the horrific suffering and imagery of war. Two years ago in Kabul, Afghanistan he discovered a group of orphans, abandoned in a derelict asylum, growing up among chained inmates. He resolved then to try and have them removed to a safer, more secure environment. His video diary is the remarkable story of what happened when he returned to negotiate the children's release, and is a shocking portrait of a city under siege and devastated by a forgotten war.

As a young Brazilian film-maker, Sergio Goldenberg is normally concerned with serious issues such as the rainforest or street kids; but for his video diary he points the camera at his own family in Rio de Janeiro: a psychoanalyst, an architect, a doctor, a computer analyst and an engineer - in his eyes, an ordinary middle class Jewish Brazilian family. Yet, with humour and irony, he provides an insight into his family relationships.

Fritz Joubert and his black British wife Jenni left London to try starting a new life in South Africa. Fritz had fled his country six years ago to avoid being conscripted into the South African Defence Force. His return could lead to imprisonment; certainly he would have to face his father who had disowned him because of his marriage. Their diary records the problems they face as they decide if a 'new' South Africa is to be their chosen home.

Steve Cribb is an active campaigner for Civil Rights. He is also disabled and lives his life with the help of a team of volunteers in London. For three months, he recorded his day-to-day experiences - with dramatic results. An intimate and funny account, which centres on his arrest by the Metropolitan Police.

When photographer Mirella Ricciardi travelled to the Brazilian rainforest to capture images of its endangered people, she developed an intriguing relationship with her young assistant Sofia.