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London

From the seedy streets of '60s Soho to the city's metropolitan sheen.

Welcome to the London collection.
 

In its tunnels and on its streets, a city hums with life. its arteries flow with stories of valour, love and struggle, pulled from the millions who live within.

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Battle of Soho Battle of Soho

Documentary 2017 100 mins Director: Aro Korol

Take a journey through London's most notorious district, meeting residents and campaigners at the forefront of a battle to keep its eccentric, diverse spirit alive.

Rent for £3.50

A Moving Image A Moving Image

Drama 2017 74 mins Director: Shola Amoo

The gentrification of London’s Brixton is examined in this probing and stylistically ambitious debut feature.

Currently unavailable

Dispossession: The Great Social Housing Swindle Dispossession: The Great Social Housing Swindle

Documentary 2017 82 mins Director: Paul Sng

Maxine Peake narrates this forthright polemic on the consequences of the 1980s Right-to-Buy scheme on the nation's affordable housing.

Currently unavailable

The Party's Over The Party's Over

Drama 1965 92 mins Silent Director: Guy Hamilton

The partying of a wild group of beatniks lead by Oliver Reed has shocking consequences. Written by Marc Behm, directed by Guy Hamilton and with music by John Barry.

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London Symphony London Symphony

Documentary 2017 72 mins Director: Alex Barrett

A poetic journey through the capital, presenting an artistic snapshot of London as it stands today, and a celebration of its rich diversity of culture, architecture and religion.

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Nighthawks Nighthawks

Drama 1978 113 mins Director: Ron Peck

A schoolteacher juggles everyday life with nights spent cruising for Mr Right in this fascinating landmark in British gay cinema

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My Brother the Devil My Brother the Devil

Drama 2012 107 mins Director: Sally El Hosaini

Sally El Hosaini's feature debut tells of the love and disenchantment of two British-Egyptian brothers as gangs, drugs and sexuality come between them.

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London London

Animation & Artists Moving Image 1994 85 mins Director: Patrick Keiller

The first in Patrick Keiller’s highly imaginative trilogy of films is a photographic trip through London, recounted by our unseen narrator.

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Peeping Tom Peeping Tom

Drama 1960 101 mins Director: Michael Powell

Michael Powell’s dark, disturbing, once controversial tale of a shy camera technician who films women as he kills them is now rightly deemed a classic.

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Deep End Deep End

Drama 1970 92 mins Director: Jerzy Skolimowski

Jerzy Skolimowski’s darkly comic and utterly compelling story of teenage infatuation in a run-down swimming pool. 

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Bullet Boy Bullet Boy

Drama 2005 86 mins Director: Saul Dibb

Ashley Walters impresses in the hard-hitting Hackney drama that’s still one of the best of Britain’s black urban crime films.

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Brick Lane Brick Lane

Drama 2007 97 mins Director: Sarah Gavron

Sarah Gavron’s subtle and intelligent adaptation of Monica Ali’s acclaimed novel charts the experiences of a Bangladeshi woman in London.

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This Is Tomorrow This Is Tomorrow

2007 54 mins Director: Paul Kelly

The final part of Saint Etienne and Paul Kelly’s London trilogy follows the renovation and reopening of the Royal Festival Hall through 2005-7.

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What Have You Done Today Mervyn Day? What Have You Done Today Mervyn Day?

Documentary 2005 45 mins Director: Paul Kelly

Paul Kelly’s second collaboration with pop band Saint Etienne traces the hidden history of East London’s Lower Lea Valley before its Olympic makeover.

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Finisterre Finisterre

Documentary 2003 59 mins Director: Kieran Evans and Paul Kelly

A journey from London’s suburbs to its heart, charting the influence of the city on indie pop band Saint Etienne.

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The Boy Who Turned Yellow The Boy Who Turned Yellow

Children's 1972 54 mins Director: Michael Powell

A London schoolboy’s surprise transformation marks the final collaboration of great British director Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

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Underground Underground

Romance 1928 93 mins Silent Director: Anthony Asquith

The BFI National Archive restoration of one of Anthony Asquith's finest silent films set in London's Underground, with a new score.

Rent for £1.00

Heart of the Angel Heart of the Angel

Documentary 1989 40 mins Director: Molly Dineen

Molly Dineen’s wry, humorous and sometimes touching look at the trials faced by the staff and passengers of London’s dishearteningly dilapidated Angel tube station, before its modernisation.

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Electricity Electricity

Drama 2014 96 mins Director: Bryn Higgins

Agyness Deyn stars in a powerful story seen through the eyes of a young woman whose epilepsy brings extraordinary hallucinations.

Currently unavailable

London the Modern Babylon London the Modern Babylon

Documentary 2012 128 mins Director: Julien Temple

The story of London told through a century of popular music and film archive treasures.

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Pressure Pressure

Drama 1978 121 mins Director: Horace Ové

Hailed as Britain's first black feature film, Pressure is a hard-hitting, honest document of the plight of disenchanted black youths in 1970s London.

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Burning an Illusion Burning an Illusion

Drama 1982 102 mins Director: Menelik Shabazz

Menelik Shabazz’s pioneering first feature traces the emotional and political growth of a young black couple in Thatcher’s London.

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Bronco Bullfrog Bronco Bullfrog

Drama 1970 87 mins Director: Barney Platts-Mills

A fascinating record of 1960s suedehead youth culture which is largely improvised by a non-professional cast of teenagers from east London

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Private Road Private Road

Drama 1971 89 mins Director: Barney Platts-Mills

A compelling tale about the struggle for personal freedom, starring Bruce Robinson (Withnail and I).

Currently unavailable

Chelsea Bridge Boys Chelsea Bridge Boys

Documentary 1965 31 mins Director: Peter Davis and Staffan Lamm

Made for Swedish television, a look at a gang of "Rockers" who meet at a tea-kiosk on Chelsea Bridge.

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Duffer Duffer

Drama 1971 75 mins Director: Joseph Despins and William Dumaresq

A bizarre study of obsession focusing on a teenage boy who is torn between the charms of a fleshly female prostitute and the sadism of an older man.

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The Moon over the Alley The Moon over the Alley

Musical 1977 108 mins Director: Joseph Despins

The Moon Over the Alley is a bizarre and compelling musical exploring the problems of multicultural Notting Hill residents in the early 1970s.

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Face Face

Crime 1997 101 mins Director: Antonia Bird

Robert Carlyle and Ray Winstone are members of a criminal gang that tears itself apart after a heist goes wrong, in Antonia Bird’s stylish thriller.

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The Day the Earth Caught Fire The Day the Earth Caught Fire

Science Fiction 1961 100 mins Director: Val Guest

The BFI’s HD remaster of the British sci-fi classic. A journalist discovers that the Earth has been knocked off its axis and is moving ever closer to the sun. Is the Earth doomed?

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Quatermass and the Pit Quatermass and the Pit

Horror 1967 94 mins Director: Roy Ward Baker

One of Britain’s finest sci-fi films, based on Nigel Kneale’s masterful script, about the discovery of ancient alien craft beneath central London.

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Nightbirds Nightbirds

Drama 1970 78 mins Director: Andy Milligan

Dark drama about the doomed relationship of two down-and-outers living in the squalid East End of London in the early 1970s.

Currently unavailable

Carousella Carousella

Documentary 1965 26 mins Director: John Irvin

A controversial, well-made documentary that follows the lives of three young striptease artistes working in Soho.

Currently unavailable

Pub Pub

Documentary 1962 15 mins Director: Peter Davis

Short documentary originally made for Swedish television which opens the doors a typical working-class pub in East London.

Currently unavailable

Strip Strip

Documentary 1966 26 mins Director: Don Defina, Peter Davis and 1 more

Documentary about the lives of the women who work at a striptease club called The Phoenix on Old Compton Street, in the heart of Soho in the swinging sixties.

Rent for £3.50

Oliver Twist Oliver Twist

Period drama 1948 116 mins Director: David Lean

Arguably the essential Dickens adaptation, David Lean’s evocative portrayal of Victorian London in sooty black and white features Alec Guinness as a memorably sinister Fagin.

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Seance on a Wet Afternoon Seance on a Wet Afternoon

Crime 1964 111 mins Director: Bryan Forbes

Bryan Forbes’ stylish psychological thriller about a medium who plans to kidnap a child and help the police solve the crime to bolster her reputation as a clairvoyant.

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The Elephant Man The Elephant Man

Biopic 1980 124 mins Director: David Lynch

David Lynch's moving true-life tale of the severely deformed Joseph Merrick and his rescue from the hell of a Victorian circus sideshow.

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She, a Chinese She, a Chinese

Drama 2010 99 mins Director: Xiaolu Guo

British-Chinese director Xiaolu Guo’s story of a young woman's journey from a remote Chinese village to London, in an attempt to realise the Western consumer dream.

Currently unavailable

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog

Crime 1926 91 mins Silent Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Ivor Novello plays a strange lodger who may be behind a number of Jack the Ripper-style killings in Alfred Hitchcock’s silent thriller.

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Terry on the Fence Terry on the Fence

Children's 1985 70 mins Director: Frank Godwin

11-year-old Terry runs away from home and is drawn into a gang of bullies, in a gritty Children's Film Foundation drama.

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The Monster of Highgate Ponds The Monster of Highgate Ponds

Children's 1961 59 mins Director: Alberto Cavalcanti

A boy receives a mysterious egg, but when it hatches a baby monster, mayhem ensues.

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The Salvage Gang The Salvage Gang

Children's 1958 52 mins Director: John Krish

John Krish directs this beautifully photographed Children’s Film Foundation caper about four children scavenging bomb-damaged London for scrap metal.

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Operation Third Form Operation Third Form

Children's 1966 58 mins Director: David Eady

John Moulder Brown (Deep End) fronts a crack children’s spy unit in this ripping boy's own adventure.

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Hide and Seek Hide and Seek

Children's 1972 61 mins Director: David Eady

Gary Kemp (The Krays) becomes entangled with a borstal escapee known as the Deptford Dodger in this cracking drama from the Children’s Film Foundation.

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Soapbox Derby Soapbox Derby

Children's 1957 64 mins Director: D'Arcy Conyers

Children’s Film Foundation adventure that sees a young Michael Crawford scrapping with a rival South London gang in Battersea.

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It Always Rains on Sunday It Always Rains on Sunday

Drama 1947 88 mins Director: Robert Hamer

Austerity noir: Ealing's downbeat but compelling East End thriller.

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Swandown Swandown

Documentary 2012 107 mins Director: Andrew Kötting

Filmmaker Andrew Kötting and writer Iain Sinclair embark on a quest from Hastings to East London by pedalo.

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Welcome to Britain Welcome to Britain

Documentary 1976 73 mins Director: Ben Lewin

Ben Lewin’s 1976 film captures a moment in Britain's evergreen immigration debate, focusing on new arrivals at Heathrow as they wrestle with immigration law.