Directed by George Hoellering • Drama • With Leo McKern, T.S. Eliot • 1952 • 114 minutes

George Hoellering’s powerful adaptation of T.S. Eliot's classic verse drama is a stark and highly atypical example of British historical cinema. Little-seen despite winning a top prize at the Venice Film Fes...

Directed by George Hoellering • Drama • 1952 • 52 minutes

Alternative And Deleted Sequences from MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL

00:00 Alternative opening sequence
03:58 Extended King’s Court scene
14:56 Extended scene of priest addressing congregation, deleted song & extended scene of women’s chorus
2...

Directed by Claude Goretta & Alain Tanner • Documentary • 1957 • 16 minutes

The swirling neon frenzy of Piccadilly Circus has never been better captured than in this innovative short, which presents the London landmark as a bewildering collage of image and sound.

Swiss film enthusiasts and BFI ...

Directed by Harry Watt & Basil Charles Wright • Documentary • 1936 • 23 minutes

A cornerstone of British documentary, Harry Watt and Basil Wright's NIGHT MAIL, with music by Benjamin Britten and verse by W.H. Auden, stands as a beacon for John Grierson's original purpose for documentary - to mak...

Directed by John Akomfrah • Documentary • 2010 • 94 minutes

Structured as an allegorical fable set between 1949 and 1970, THE NINE MUSES is comprised of nine overlapping musical chapters that mix archival material with original scenes. Together, they form a stylized, idiosyncratic retelling of t...

Directed by Lindsay Anderson • Documentary • 1953 • 11 minutes

Lindsay Anderson’s 12–minute tour of Margate’s Dreamland funfair is immediately notable for its deliberately bleak and unattractive photography and a spare and impressionistic soundtrack. Despite the absence of a commentary, the film...

Directed by Florian Habicht • Documentary • With Nick Banks, Jarvis Cocker, Candida Doyle • 2014 • 89 minutes

Though culminating with the farewell concert the band played to thousands of adoring fans in their hometown of Sheffield, England, PULP is by no means a traditional concert film or rock ...

Directed by Richard Billingham • Drama • With Patrick Romer, Richard Ashton, Justin Salinger • 2018 • 107 minutes

On the outskirts of Birmingham and the margins of society, the Billingham family perform extreme rituals and break social taboos as they muddle through a life decided by factors beyo...

Directed by Robert Vas • Documentary • 1959 • 27 minutes

Director Robert Vas was himself a refugee from Hungary, having arrived in London only three years earlier when he received a grant from the BFI to make the film. Despite its slightly incongruous use of voiceover, the film was adopted by th...

Directed by David Bairstow • Documentary • 1951 • 54 minutes

A documentary account of the five-week visit of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh to Canada and the United States in the fall of 1951 includes the pageantry of Québec City; the National War Memorial in Ottawa; the Trenton Ai...

Directed by Aurélio Michiles • Documentary • With Stephen Rea • 2020 • 83 minutes

This is a documentary about the man widely considered to be the pioneer of international human rights inquiries, Roger Casement (1864-1916). His work in Africa, Brazil, and his native Ireland still has repercussion...

Directed by T. Cummins • Documentary • 1961 • 22 minutes

Record of the royal visit by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip to Sierra Leone between 25th November and 1st December 1961. The Royal yacht Britannia arrives in Freetown. Formal greeting from dignitaries including the Prime Minister Sir...

Directed by Lorenza Mazzetti • Documentary • 1956 • 52 minutes

Italian director Lorenza Mazzetti borrowed techniques from the neorealist school to conjure this striking study of East End life, one of the original Free Cinema shorts. Following the ambling existence of two deaf-mute dock workers, ...

Directed by Michael Grigsby • Documentary • 1962 • 18 minutes

Impressions of a typical Saturday at Blackburn, a milling town in the North of England.

Directed by Joshua Bonnetta • Documentary • 2020 • 90 minutes

The first solo feature from Joshua Bonnetta (co-director, El Mar La Mar), The Two Sights (An Dà Shealladh) explores the disappearing tradition of second sight in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. As we listen to locals' accounts of haun...

Directed by Stephen Frears & Michael Dibb • Documentary • With Gavin Lambert, Michael Apted, Alan Parker, Stephen Frears, Alexander Mackendrick • 1994 • 74 minutes

Shown on the set of `Mary Reilly', Frears hosts a guided tour through seventy-five years of British cinema from Hitchcock's `Black...

Directed by Karel Reisz • Documentary • With John Rollason, Thomas Ahearne, Patrick Ahearne • 1959 • 53 minutes

Karel Reisz’s honest and sympathetic depiction of South London teens aimed to challenge the media perception of ‘Teddy Boys’, and would be one of the last films to appear under the Fre...

Directed by Robert Vas • Documentary • 1962 • 20 minutes

This classic documentary by Robert Vas depicts the way of life in an east London Jewish community on Hessel Street, Whitechapel. Its back-to-back houses and small shops are about to be replaced by high-rise flats. The thriving community is...

Directed by Andrea Arnold • Drama • With Kaya Scodelario, James Howson • 2010 • 129 minutes

Andrea Arnold's WUTHERING HEIGHTS is an excitingly fresh and distinct take on the classic novel by Emily Brontë. An epic love story that spans childhood well into the young adult years, the film follows H...