NO ORDINARY LIFE

Rescued from brothels in India, horses pave their way to a new life.

8,000 feet up in the Nilgiris mountains of southern India, 3 special girls are learning to live a new life. It couldn't be further from where they were reared in the slums of Mumbai and Maharashtra, where they were trafficked or sold to brothels by their own families. A shockingly common practise in India and deeply ingrained in the cultures of certain castes, these girls are forced into a life of abuse and manipulation. They quickly become hardened and lose the ability to love `and be loved. The protective barriers they build around themselves also make their potential to return to a more normal way of life much more difficult. They have been deeply damaged, both physically and psychologically.

No Ordinary Life tells the very personal stories of 3 girls who were forced into the world of vice and subsequently rescued. We trace their stories from the brothels of Mumbai and Pune to the evocative mountain location of Ooty where they are being helped to reinvent their lives. At the centre of their world are a group of rescued horses, who in a different way have also been abused. They work together with the horses as a means of re-building trust firstly in animals, then in humans; they expand their self confidence and ultimately learn how to love other people. They are at different points in their journey of recovery and we will follow their progress over a one year period. We will also travel to their home villages to meet members of their families, to the locations of the brothels where they were forced to work and we will look at the other aspects of their rehabilitation such as their education and jewelry making enterprise. This is an uplifting, emotional story about a unique way of workng with animals to help build a new and successful life.

THE GALACTIC MORNING

A massive change is coming about in this world. Like nothing that has happened before since the dawn of creation. On December 21st 2012 the Galactic Morning will begin. From this day, great and positive changes will come about in the world.

All of the Mayan predictions to date have occurred. Without any source of technology they observed the cycles of the sun and stars creating their own calendar. This calendar paved the life path for generations of Mayan people to come and is still practised by Mayan descendants today. Each era lasts around 5,125 years. We are currently in the end of the Galactic Night and a new era, the Galactic Morning, will begin exactly on 21st December 2012.

The curious creation left by Lord Pacal Votan, one of the greatest avatars of the Maya civilization, will be revealed by Maya descendants who live in different regions of Guatemala, Belize and Yucatan. This documentary film will explore the beliefs, values and ancestral rituals which the Maya descendants live by and the preparations they are making for The Galactic Morning. With the most significant date on their calendar fast approaching, great and positive changes are predicted to come about in the world. They have already correctly predicted changes in the Earth for the past few years, such as earthquakes, flooding, tsunamis, volcanic activities, massive terrorist attacks and recession.

The whole idea of the famous prediction will be explained by the real Maya descendants living in Momostenango, Guatemala, where the Tzolkin calendar is still kept and followed by its community. The high priest will guide us through the cycles and patterns which effect every aspect of how they live. We will visit a number of other villages, including San Antonio in the Cayo district of Western Belize with Patricio Balona, a Maya expert who grew up in the village.

We will also interview scientists, anthropologists and other experts, such as Paul Johnson who has investigated the lifestyle of native Mayas living in Momostenango; Mat Saunders an anthropologist specializing in Maya Culture, Robert Sitler, a Cultural Anthropologist at Stetson University and Mark Van Stone a Maya artist and expert from Southwester University in California.

We will bring together Maya descendants, experts and opponents of the calendar in one of the Maya villages to debate the coming of The Galactic Morning and the logic and application of this unique way of life over the conventional Gregorian Calendar system. This is an insightful and inspiring documentary film which looks at a very different way of viewing the world and how positive changes may be just around the corner for all of us.

4 TAXIS: ONE WORLD

4 uniquely different lives, ultimately sharing the same needs and desires.

In Madras in southern India, Vijay wakes up in the small bedroom he sleeps in with his wife, son and mother. He goes into the alleyway that he shares with five other families in the slum and uses the shared tap to wash himslef. He returns to the room where he sits on the floor and eats his breakfast. Then he gets his 4 year old son to wash his teeth and bath in the alleyway and put on his school uniform. He says goodbye to his wife and mother and rushes with his son to his auto rickshaw taxi and artfully winds his way off through the chaos of the slum streets towards his son's school.

So begins a day in the life of one of four taxi drivers in 4 cities in the world – Mexico City, Mexico; Lagos, Nigeria; Dublin, Ireland and Madras, India. Each a unique character and orator of life, a receiver of very personal confessions, a moderator on worldly matters, a radiator of the cities' soul, a cultural ambassador and a social magnate. Each one with very special insights into the life of the city and country in which they live, a real sense of pride of place and the energy and motivation to survive in a difficult world.

4 disparate lives living worlds apart. Their cultural differences are enormous as is the way they lead their lives. They share a real passion for their work and the people they come in contact with. What's more their needs and desires are so similar – money, love, food, happiness, comfort, sex and fulfilment. They share amazing insights into life's hidden secrets. Ultimately their similarities far out weigh their differences.