A provocative and poetic exploration of how the British people have seen their own land through more than a century of cinema. A hallucinated journey of immense beauty and brutality. A kaleidoscopic essay on how magic and madness have linked human beings to nature since the beginning of time.
In 1908, amateur naturalist and pioneering filmmaker Percy Smith stunned early cinema goers with his footage of the juggling fly. Hailed as the father of Natural History film, Smith was a hugely influential visual pioneer, inventing many techniques that are still used today. Being both a genius and...
“In the films of Méliès, it is the whole world of gilt-edged books from awards ceremonies that comes to life; the world of fairy tales revisited by the magic lantern, the world of a trip around the globe, of famous tightrope walkers and illusionists, of fake, plush-fringed Gothic furniture.”...
As part of the 2017 UK/India Year of Culture, the British Council and British Film Institute share a unique collection of films documenting the sights and culture of a bygone India. Filmed between 1899-1947, and preserved in the BFI National Archive since then, these rare films capture many...
