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Experimenta
Bringing together films and videos by artists that have transformed our experience of the moving image. Our collection includes films from outside the sphere of experimental filmmaking, including the celebrated surrealists and challenging works of narrative fiction.
But these are works united by their dedication to testing the boundaries and disrupting the distinction between form and content.
The ArborThe Arbor
Biopic 2010 90 minsDirector: Clio Barnard
Clio Barnard's film about Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar mixes reconstruction, interviews (performed by actors) and scenes from the plays.
By Our SelvesBy Our Selves
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2015 80 minsDirector: Andrew Kötting
The latest psycho-geographical excursion from Andrew Kötting and Iain Sinclair
The Castle of OtrantoThe Castle of Otranto
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1977 18 minsDirector: Jan Svankmajer
Czech animator Jan Švankmajer's adaptation of Horace Walpole's Gothic novel.
Central BazaarCentral Bazaar
Drama 1976 142 minsDirector: Stephen Dwoskin
Five strangers explore their fantasies over a period of five days in Stephen Dwoskin's remarkable experimental film.
Un Chien AndalouUn Chien Andalou
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1928 16 minsSilentDirector: Luis Buñuel
A scabrous study of desire, the subconscious and anti-clericalism - Buñuel and Dalí’s provocative first film is a classic of Surrealist cinema.
DecasiaDecasia
Documentary 2002 67 minsDirector: Bill Morrison
Decasia is an artful collage of found archival footage, shot pre-1950 on a cellulose nitrate base and most of it in advanced stages of decay.
Edith WalksEdith Walks
Documentary 2017 61 minsDirector: Andrew Kötting
Andrew Kötting undertakes a pilgrimage in honour of Edith Swan Neck, first wife of King Harold, in this eccentric odyssey in search of English identity.
The Fall of the House of UsherThe Fall of the House of Usher
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1982 16 minsDirector: Jan Svankmajer
The first of Švankmajer's 'tactile experiments', chosen partly because the title was on an official list of 'approved' texts. In this version there are no humans, just a glimpse of a live raven as the camera roams around an eerie derelict house.
The FallsThe Falls
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1980 195 minsDirector: Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway's epic first feature, constructed as an excerpt from an imagined, filmic directory listing everyone affected by VUE – the Violent Unknown Event
HerostratusHerostratus
Drama 1967 143 minsDirector: Don Levy
Helen Mirren makes her film debut in the tale of a young poet (Michael Gothard) intent on turning his suicide into a mass-media spectacle.
HelenHelen
Thriller 2009 75 minsDirector: Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor
An inventive and acclaimed British feature following the transformation of a teenager who agrees to portray her missing college friend in a highly detailed crime reconstruction.
Forgotten the QueenForgotten the Queen
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2017 11 minsDirector: Andrew Kötting
This short animation intended to accompany Andrew Kötting’s feature-length Edith Walks explores the same themes around the life of Medieval queen Edith Swan Neck.
Innocence of MemoriesInnocence of Memories
Documentary 2016 97 minsDirector: Grant Gee
A multi-layered melding of fiction and fact, about Nobel prize-winner Orhan Pamuk and his Istanbul Museum of Innocence.
Laboured PartyLaboured Party
Documentary 1975 20 minsDirector: Stephen Dwoskin
An unsuspecting Labour Party canvasser stumbles onto an experimental film set and is drawn into a strange atmosphere of uninhibited abandon.
LondonLondon
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1994 85 minsDirector: Patrick Keiller
The first in Patrick Keiller’s highly imaginative trilogy of films is a photographic trip through London, recounted by our unseen narrator.
The Nine MusesThe Nine Muses
Documentary 2012 92 minsDirector: John Akomfrah
John Akomfrah mixes archive material, literary and musical quotations and newly shot silent footage in a wry, rapt meditation on memory and migration.
Pink NarcissusPink Narcissus
Fantasy 1971 65 minsDirector: James Bidgood
With its highly charged hallucinogenic quality, its atmosphere of lush decadence, and its explicit erotic power, Pink Narcissus is a landmark of gay cinema.
The Pendulum, The Pit and HopeThe Pendulum, The Pit and Hope
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1983 15 minsDirector: Jan Svankmajer
Švankmajer's second adaptation of the work of Edgar Allan Poe, in which a prisoner is forced to undergo trials of torture.
Riddles of the SphinxRiddles of the Sphinx
Drama 1977 87 minsDirector: Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen
Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen’s visually accomplished and intellectually rigorous film is one of the most important avant-garde films of the 1970s.
Rapunzel Let Down Your HairRapunzel Let Down Your Hair
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1978 75 minsDirector: Susan Shapiro, Esther Ronay and 1 more
An imaginative, experimental and playful look at myth, storytelling and female identity.
Sleep FuriouslySleep Furiously
Documentary 2007 90 minsDirector: Gideon Koppel
Gideon Koppel’s charming documentary about a small farming community in mid-Wales, observing the unalterable rhythms of country life and the monthly visits of a mobile library.
This Filthy EarthThis Filthy Earth
Drama 2001 106 minsDirector: Andrew Kötting
Andrew Kötting's tragic tale of passion and survival, following the existence of two sisters amidst a landscape of rural hardship and a community consumed with superstition
SkinflickerSkinflicker
Drama 1973 41 minsSilentDirector: Tony Bicât
Tony Bicât’s radical, found-footage record of a revolutionary act, in which three dissidents kidnap a cabinet and torture a cabinet minister.
Smart AlekSmart Alek
Drama 1993 19 minsDirector: Andrew Kötting
Sean Lock is a criminal 'Smart Alek' in this apparently true story of a family holiday turned bloody nightmare.
This Our Still LifeThis Our Still Life
Documentary 2011 56 minsDirector: Andrew Kötting
23-year-old Eden is shown drawing and painting still lifes in her Pyrenean family home.
SwandownSwandown
Documentary 2012 107 minsDirector: Andrew Kötting
Filmmaker Andrew Kötting and writer Iain Sinclair embark on a quest from Hastings to East London by pedalo.
Visions of EcstasyVisions of Ecstasy
Drama 1989 20 minsDirector: Nigel Wingrove
Nigel Wingrove's experimental depiction of the erotic imaginings of the 16th Century Carmelite nun remains the only film ever to banned under Britain's blasphemy laws.