BFI Films

Directed by Terence DaviesUK 27 minutesWhile at Coventry Drama School in the early 1970s, Terence Davies wrote the script for Children which he directed in 1976. He subsequently took up a place at The National Film School and with the support of the BFI Production Board, made his graduation film Madonna and Child (1980). Three years later, also part-funded by the BFI, he completed the Trilogy with Death and Transfiguration.Restored by the BFI National Archive who worked closely with Terence himself, the films are preserved by the BFI and are now released on DVD for the first time alongside The Long Day Closes (1992).Before Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) and The Long Day Closes confirmed Terence Davies' status as one of the cinematic masters of our day; these three early shorts reveal a filmmaker of great promise.

Directed by Martin Scorsese & Michael Henry WilsonUK USA 133 minutesA fascinating exploration of some of the landmarks of American cinema, as well as some of its lesser-known byways. Under chapter headings such as The Director’s Dilemma or The Director as Iconoclast, Scorsese analyses the work of filmmakers as diverse as D.W. Griffith, F. W. Murnau, Sam Fuller and John Cassavetes. This is no academic history, but a declaration of passion for cinema from one of its most celebrated contemporary practitioners.

Directed by Derek JarmanUK 77 minutesIntense, dreamlike, and poetic, The Angelic Conversation is one of the most artistic of Derek Jarman's films. With his painter's eye, Jarman conjured, in a beautiful palette of light, colour and texture, an evocative and radical visualisation of Shakespeare's love poems.Of the 154 sonnets written by Shakespeare, most were written to an unnamed young man, commonly referred to as the Fair Youth. Here, Judi Dench's emotive readings of 14 sonnets are coupled with ethereal sequences; figures on seashores, by streams and in colourful gardens. The disruption of these magical scenes with images of barren and threatening landscapes echoes perfectly the celebration and torment of love explored in the sonnets.Shot on Super-8 before being transferred to 35mm film, the unique technical approach results in a striking aesthetic, with Coil's languorous soundtrack completing the intoxicating effect.

Directed by James BidgoodUSA 64 minutesPink Narcissus is a breathtaking and outrageous erotic poem focussing on the daydreams of a beautiful boy prostitute who, from the seclusion of his ultra-kitsch apartment, conceives a series of interlinked narcissistic fantasies populated by matadors, dancing boys, slaves and leather-clad bikers.The film was shrouded in mystery following its 1971 release, its creator credited only as 'Anonymous', and falsely attributed to filmmakers including Kenneth Anger and Andy Warhol, before being rediscovered and revealed as the work of artist and photographer James Bidgood. It was shot in a haphazard, piecemeal fashion between 1964 and 1970 on 8mm, mainly in Bidgood's small apartment. Its cult status endures, as does adoration for its star, the gorgeous and enigmatic Bobby Kendall.With its highly charged hallucinogenic quality, its atmosphere of lush decadence, and its explicit erotic power, Pink Narcissus is a landmark of gay cinema.

Directed by Patrick KeillerUK 38 minutesA man and his gay friend Robinson, are recruited as spies. They set out on seven trips around England - to the west and east of London; Oxford and Bristol; the West Midlands; Birmingham and Liverpool; Manchester and Hull; Scarborough and Whitby; and Blackpool and Sellafield.

Directed by Patrick KeillerUK 81 minutesLondon is neither feature film nor documentary but a provocative essay in the form of a journal, recording fictitious journeys through a very real city. Writer, director and photographer Keiller shot the film during 1992, a year which witnessed the re-election of John Major, the continuation of the IRA bombing campaign and the beginning of the 'fall of the house of Windsor'. The narrator employed by the enigmatic and unseen Robinson, gives many wry insights into the city and its mysteries.

Directed by Waris HusseinUK 94 minutesWinner of the Ethnic Minorities Media Achievement AwardBombay, 1962: Sera Kotwal (Souad Faress) gives birth to Brit (Firdaus Kanga), a boy whose bones are so brittle that he can just hiccup and break a rib. Based on Kanga's acclaimed autobiographical novel, Trying to Grow, Sixth Happiness is the funny, acerbic and moving story of a young man's sexual awakening as family life crumbles around him.Located within Mumbai's Parsee community, the film shows a thoroughly non-stereotypical Indian family. With powerhouse performances from Kanga and Faress, and featuring great support from Nina Wadia (Goodness Gracious Me), Indira Varma (Bride and Prejudice) and Meera Syal (The Kumars at No. 42), Sixth Happiness manages to turn just about every stereotype about India, disability and sexuality on its head.Firdaus Kanga, who also wrote the screenplay for the film, describes the story as a 'reimagination' of his childhood and youth. Blurring the boundaries between fact and fiction even further was the decision to cast Kanga himself in the role of Brit even though he had no experience as an actor. Kanga's creation - both as writer and performer - resists drawing Brit as either martyr or victim. Brit is bright, spiky, opinionated and selfish with a razor-sharp tongue. He prefers the Kama Sutra to Shakespeare and does not allow gender to come in the way of his desire for sex.

Directed by Chris PetitUK 100 minutesFeaturing music from David Bowie, Kraftwerk, Lene Lovich, Ian Dury, Robert Fripp, Wreckless Eric and DevoChris Petit's cult classic Radio On (1979), released on DVD in May by the BFI, is one of the most striking feature debuts in British cinema - a haunting blend of edgy mystery story and existential road movie, crammed with eerie evocations of English landscape and weather.Stunningly photographed in monochrome by Wim Wenders' assistant cameraman Martin Schfer, Radio On is driven by a startling new wave soundtrack featuring David Bowie, Kraftwerk, Lene Lovich, Ian Dury, Wreckless Eric, Robert Fripp and Devo, and reveals an early screen performance by Sting.Following a young London DJ (David Beames) on the road to Bristol to investigate the mysterious death of his brother, Radio On offers a unique, compelling and even mythic vision of a late 1970s England, stalled between failed hopes of cultural and social change and the imminent upheavals of Thatcherism.

Directed by the Quay BrothersUK 12 minutesBorn in Philadelphia and based in London, but with a creative sensibility derived from the remoter corners of Eastern Europe, identical twin animators the Quay Brothers have produced a unique body of work, and have also made a major contribution towards establishing the puppet film as a serious adult art form.Filtering a huge range of literary, musical, cinematic and philosophical influences through their own utterly distinctive sensibility, each Quay film is a dialogue-free and usually non-narrative experience, riveting the attention through hypnotic control of dcor, music and movement. With a grasp of the uncanny that rivals Luis Buuel and Lewis Carroll, their films evoke half-remembered dreams and long-suppressed childhood memories, fascinating and deeply unsettling by turns.

Directed by the Quay BrothersUK 17 minutesBorn in Philadelphia and based in London, but with a creative sensibility derived from the remoter corners of Eastern Europe, identical twin animators the Quay Brothers have produced a unique body of work, and have also made a major contribution towards establishing the puppet film as a serious adult art form.Filtering a huge range of literary, musical, cinematic and philosophical influences through their own utterly distinctive sensibility, each Quay film is a dialogue-free and usually non-narrative experience, riveting the attention through hypnotic control of dcor, music and movement. With a grasp of the uncanny that rivals Luis Buuel and Lewis Carroll, their films evoke half-remembered dreams and long-suppressed childhood memories, fascinating and deeply unsettling by turns.

Directed by the Quay BrothersUK 44 minutesBorn in Philadelphia and based in London, but with a creative sensibility derived from the remoter corners of Eastern Europe, identical twin animators the Quay Brothers have produced a unique body of work, and have also made a major contribution towards establishing the puppet film as a serious adult art form.Filtering a huge range of literary, musical, cinematic and philosophical influences through their own utterly distinctive sensibility, each Quay film is a dialogue-free and usually non-narrative experience, riveting the attention through hypnotic control of dcor, music and movement. With a grasp of the uncanny that rivals Luis Buuel and Lewis Carroll, their films evoke half-remembered dreams and long-suppressed childhood memories, fascinating and deeply unsettling by turns.

Directed by the Quay BrothersUK 4 minutesBorn in Philadelphia and based in London, but with a creative sensibility derived from the remoter corners of Eastern Europe, identical twin animators the Quay Brothers have produced a unique body of work, and have also made a major contribution towards establishing the puppet film as a serious adult art form.Filtering a huge range of literary, musical, cinematic and philosophical influences through their own utterly distinctive sensibility, each Quay film is a dialogue-free and usually non-narrative experience, riveting the attention through hypnotic control of dcor, music and movement. With a grasp of the uncanny that rivals Luis Buuel and Lewis Carroll, their films evoke half-remembered dreams and long-suppressed childhood memories, fascinating and deeply unsettling by turns.

Directed by the Quay BrothersUK 25 minutesBorn in Philadelphia and based in London, but with a creative sensibility derived from the remoter corners of Eastern Europe, identical twin animators the Quay Brothers have produced a unique body of work, and have also made a major contribution towards establishing the puppet film as a serious adult art form.Filtering a huge range of literary, musical, cinematic and philosophical influences through their own utterly distinctive sensibility, each Quay film is a dialogue-free and usually non-narrative experience, riveting the attention through hypnotic control of dcor, music and movement. With a grasp of the uncanny that rivals Luis Buuel and Lewis Carroll, their films evoke half-remembered dreams and long-suppressed childhood memories, fascinating and deeply unsettling by turns.

Directed by the Quay BrothersUK 30 minutesBorn in Philadelphia and based in London, but with a creative sensibility derived from the remoter corners of Eastern Europe, identical twin animators the Quay Brothers have produced a unique body of work, and have also made a major contribution towards establishing the puppet film as a serious adult art form.Filtering a huge range of literary, musical, cinematic and philosophical influences through their own utterly distinctive sensibility, each Quay film is a dialogue-free and usually non-narrative experience, riveting the attention through hypnotic control of dcor, music and movement. With a grasp of the uncanny that rivals Luis Buuel and Lewis Carroll, their films evoke half-remembered dreams and long-suppressed childhood memories, fascinating and deeply unsettling by turns.

Directed by the Quay BrothersUK 20 minutesBorn in Philadelphia and based in London, but with a creative sensibility derived from the remoter corners of Eastern Europe, identical twin animators the Quay Brothers have produced a unique body of work, and have also made a major contribution towards establishing the puppet film as a serious adult art form.Filtering a huge range of literary, musical, cinematic and philosophical influences through their own utterly distinctive sensibility, each Quay film is a dialogue-free and usually non-narrative experience, riveting the attention through hypnotic control of dcor, music and movement. With a grasp of the uncanny that rivals Luis Buuel and Lewis Carroll, their films evoke half-remembered dreams and long-suppressed childhood memories, fascinating and deeply unsettling by turns.