Exchange and Divide

Exchange and Divide 1980

1

A marital breakdown is brought to life through a mixture of dramatisation, monologue, montage and animation. Through the perspectives of the husband, the lawyer, the couple’s parents and their “home help”, a picture emerges of the transactional nature and economic fall-out of marriage, along with issues of class and gender politics affecting single mothers.

1980

Out of Order

Out of Order 1988

1

Unemployed Anthony announces he is joining the police, much to the horror of his girlfriend and friends.

1988

The Song of the Shirt

The Song of the Shirt 1979

1

Song tells the story of the women who worked in Victorian London's clothing sweatshops, eschewing a conventional narrative in favour of a series of still photographs and acted reconstructions to show that this story has been rewritten/written-over many times before.

1979

At the Fountainhead (Of German Strength)

At the Fountainhead (Of German Strength) 1980

1

A rich and challenging account of the experiences of a German Jewish musician who settled in Britain to escape Nazi persecution. Two of his friends are being sued by a former SS Kommandant, who denies their accusation that he was responsible for the genocide of 300 Belgians. Documentary interviews and archive footage merge with dramatised scenes to create a new way of representing history and memory.

1980

Miss Queencake

Miss Queencake 1991

4.00

A tragi-comic boat movie in which Beauty and The Beast live out their own particular fairytales.

1991

Skinflicker

Skinflicker 1972

1

This chilling and provocative faux home movie presents the story of three dissidents and their plan to commit a revolutionary act on film. Bicât and scriptwriter Howard Brenton explore the consequences and co-option of political violence with hard, grubby directness and a pre-punk, semi-nihilistic attack on bourgeois values.

1972

Requiem for a Village

Requiem for a Village 1975

6.50

The idyllic, rural past of a Suffolk village comes to life through the memories of an old man who tends a country graveyard.

1975

Going Going

Going Going 2001

1

Anna follows her absent Mother on her nightly ritual, as she walks round the family house, turning the house lamps on one by one. In the course of the lamp walk, Anna talks about being afraid of the dark and of the secrets that all families and lovers keep from one another.

2001

Piccadilly Circus by Night

Piccadilly Circus by Night 1995

1

European emigre Tanya moves to London to work as a family au pair. Still grieving for her recently deceased father and rejected by an old friend, Tanya draws closer to her employer's husband. The sights and sounds of the Capital at Christmas form a deceptively romantic backdrop, for this brief meditation on loneliness and love.

1995

When the Dog Bites

When the Dog Bites 1988

1

“Film questions whether the encouragement of very low paid jobs and schemes - both in general and specifically how they function in the area affected by the closure of the Consett steelworks in 1980 - is a sufficiently visionary response to the question of survival in post-industrial Britain. Local people talk about their experiences, an escapologist performs and a drag act sings. Plus drama sequence in which Bill tells Rose that making a fortune is easy.” - BFI.

1988

Angel in the House

Angel in the House 1978

1

Inspired by Virginia Woolf, a young writer worries that marriage will hinder her literary ambitions. The film includes extracts from Virginia Woolf's novel To the Lighthouse and her essay Professions for Women, both read by feminist filmmaker and theorist Laura Mulvey.

1978

Value for Money

Value for Money 1970

1

A girl takes her camera along to a rocky beach, but quickly becomes fascinated with a far stranger mechanical contraption that she finds there.

1970

Mad Bad Mortal Beings

Mad Bad Mortal Beings 1992

1

Cait, who has lost her boyfriend Marvin to another woman, sets herself a number of rituals to help overcome her loss.

1992

The Telephone

The Telephone 1981

1

A young woman enacts an imaginative revenge on her boyfriend for playing away. Director Chris Petit made this three-minute short to test a new super 16mm Kodak film stock to be used on Peter Greenaway’s upcoming feature The Draughtsman’s Contract.

1981

Relax

Relax 1991

6.70

An elegant film about one man's fears and fantasies regarding HIV testing.

1991

One of the Missing

One of the Missing 1968

7.10

A Southern soldier in the American Civil War is sent to reconnoiter the enemy positions and becomes trapped beneath a huge pile of rubble by Northern cannon fire. His loaded gun is left pointing precariously at him and he is faced with imminent death.

1968

Fly a Flag for Poplar

Fly a Flag for Poplar 1974

1

Poplar's long tradition of political and social activism is on show in this community film. The East London district has been home to both grassroots and high-profile radicals, from social reformer George Lansbury in the 1920s to the contemporary Teviot Festival Committee. This film was made by Liberation Films, a non-profit company which grew from a group of anti-Vietnam War activists.

1974

Enverounen

Enverounen 1973

1

An elderly man takes a hypnotic journey through his memories in the moments before his death.

1973