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Shorts

If you’re a subscriber who’s pressed for time or simply a lover of the short-form format, you’ll find something to enjoy in these perfectly formed brevities.

Encompassing early gems from future filmmaking greats to cult items from the stranger corners of British cinema, these shorts will excite and inspire – in small doses.

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Children Children

Drama 1976 46 mins Director: Terence Davies

The first part of Terence Davies' formidable Trilogy explores the effects of violence on a Liverpool schoolboy, told in a series of flashbacks.

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Madonna and Child Madonna and Child

Drama 1980 28 mins Director: Terence Davies

Autobiography as art: the centrepiece of Terence Davies' devastating Liverpool-set Trilogy focuses on his fictional alter-ego in middle age.

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Death and Transfiguration Death and Transfiguration

Drama 1983 26 mins Director: Terence Davies

The Terence Davies Trilogy reaches its astonishing climax as tortured Liverpool clerk Robert Tucker prepares to meet his maker.

Rent for £1.00

The Pendulum, The Pit and Hope The Pendulum, The Pit and Hope

Animation & Artists Moving Image 1983 15 mins Director: Jan Svankmajer

Švankmajer's second adaptation of the work of Edgar Allan Poe, in which a prisoner is forced to undergo trials of torture.

Currently unavailable

The Castle of Otranto The Castle of Otranto

Animation & Artists Moving Image 1977 18 mins Director: Jan Svankmajer

Czech animator Jan Švankmajer's adaptation of Horace Walpole's Gothic novel.

Rent for £1.00

The Fall of the House of Usher The Fall of the House of Usher

Animation & Artists Moving Image 1982 16 mins Director: Jan Svankmajer

The first of Švankmajer's 'tactile experiments', chosen partly because the title was on an official list of 'approved' texts. In this version there are no humans, just a glimpse of a live raven as the camera roams around an eerie derelict house.

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Smart Alek Smart Alek

Drama 1993 19 mins Director: Andrew Kötting

Sean Lock is a criminal 'Smart Alek' in this apparently true story of a family holiday turned bloody nightmare.

Rent for £1.00

Forgotten the Queen Forgotten the Queen

Animation & Artists Moving Image 2017 11 mins Director: Andrew Kötting

This short animation intended to accompany Andrew Kötting’s feature-length Edith Walks explores the same themes around the life of Medieval queen Edith Swan Neck.

Rent for £1.00

A Portrait of Eden A Portrait of Eden

Documentary 2011 22 mins Director: Gideon Koppel

A week in the life of 22-year-old Eden Kötting, who has Joubert's Syndrome. A moving, tender film by Gideon Koppel (Sleep Furiously).

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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.

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The Home-made Car The Home-made Car

Comedy 1963 28 mins Director: James Hill

In this charming short film directed by James Hill, a man restores his dilapidated Bullnose Morris under the watchful eye of a curious young neighbour.

Rent for £1.00

The Great Steam Fair The Great Steam Fair

Documentary 1964 18 mins Director: David Gladwell and Derrick Knight

The Great Steam fair is a documentary filmed at Shottesbrooke Park, Berkshire in 1964, at an event which brought together many traditional fairground rides and steam engines.

Rent for £3.50

Hands of Destiny Hands of Destiny

Drama 1954 52 mins Director: Tony Young

The strange prophesies of Dr Josef Ranald, palm reader of choice to Nazi war leaders.

Currently unavailable

Good Mothers Good Mothers

Documentary 1942 12 mins Director: Carl Th. Dreyer

Carl Theodor Dreyer’s first short film honours the work of the Mother’s Aid Institution, a state-funded organisation offering services for new mothers.

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Incident Incident

Animation & Artists Moving Image 1959 13 mins Director: Norman J. Warren

The debut short film of British exploitation director Norman J. Warren is an enigmatic story about a girl who meets a boy at a fairground.

Rent for £1.00

Kill the Day Kill the Day

Drama 2000 18 mins Director: Lynne Ramsay

An ex-drug addict reflects on life in and out of prison in this short by BAFTA-winner Lynne Ramsay, based on real accounts.

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The Last Chapter (1974) The Last Chapter (1974)

Drama 1974 30 mins Silent Director: David Tringham

Dark tale in which a best-selling author (Denholm Elliot) is unbalanced by an assured young fan (Susan Penhaligon) who questions the move into easy commercialism displayed in his recent writing.

Rent for £1.00

Man in Fear Man in Fear

Thriller 2011 11 mins Director: Will Jewell

Luke Treadaway stars as a paranoid man convinced he is destined to be the victim of a conceptual art 'accident'.

Currently unavailable

Ostia Ostia

Drama 1987 26 mins Director: Julian Cole

A fascinating short, starring Derek Jarman, that reconstructs the events leading up to the murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini.

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Relax Relax

Drama 1991 22 mins Director: Christopher Newby

A gay man awaits the results of an HIV test, drifting into moments of fantasy as he copes with his fears and memories.

Rent for £1.00

The Party The Party

Animation & Artists Moving Image 1962 16 mins

The Party is a time-capsule short film about an art school get-together where a boy blows his chances with his date.

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A Gun for George A Gun for George

Comedy 2011 17 mins Director: Matthew Holness

Pulp author Terry Finch is determined to wreak vengeance on those who killed his brother. And to complain to Kent library services.

Currently unavailable

The Forgotten Faces The Forgotten Faces

Documentary drama 1961 19 mins Director: Peter Watkins

A gripping newsreel style account of the 1956 peoples' uprising in Hungary directed by celebrated innovator of the docudrama form, Peter Watkins.

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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.

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Flames of Passion Flames of Passion

Romance 1989 17 mins Director: Richard Kwietniowski

An ingenious gay homage to Brief Encounter.

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What Can I Do with a Male Nude? What Can I Do with a Male Nude?

Comedy 1985 24 mins Director: Ron Peck

Ron Peck tests the thin line between pornography and art with his amusing rumination on the difficulties of showing the naked male form.

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Rosebud Rosebud

Drama 1991 14 mins Director: Cheryl Farthing

A lesbian couple arouse the interest of their new neighbour in this erotic tale of voyeurism, power dressing and fantasy.

Rent for £1.00

Rose Red Rose Red

Animation & Artists Moving Image 1994 19 mins Director: Simon Pummell

Simon Pummell's (Bodysong) visually ravishing sci-fi thriller exploring the future of virtual reality and the desire to transcend human limits.

Rent for £1.00

Summer Discord Summer Discord

Amateur film 1955 17 mins Silent Director: David Gladwell

A Summer Discord is silent, amateur short film directed by David Gladwell which is set in the countryside and tells the story of a little girl who is reprimanded by her mother.

Rent for £1.00

To Have and to Hold To Have and to Hold

Drama 2000 13 mins Director: John Hardwick

A woman finds that death will not part her from her deceased lover.

Rent for £1.00

You're Human Like the Rest of Them You're Human Like the Rest of Them

Animation & Artists Moving Image 1967 17 mins Director: B.S. Johnson

William Hoyland stars in this legendary, multi award-winning short film directed by the modernist writer and film-maker BS Johnson.

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Visions of Ecstasy Visions of Ecstasy

Drama 1989 20 mins Director: Nigel Wingrove

Nigel Wingrove's experimental depiction of the erotic imaginings of the 16th Century Carmelite nun.

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The Village Church The Village Church

Documentary 1947 14 mins Director: Carl Th. Dreyer

Carl Theodor Dreyer recounts the history of churches in Denmark, in this hypnotic and powerfully realised short.

Rent for £1.00

The Burning The Burning

Drama 1967 31 mins Director: Stephen Frears

A white woman and her young grandson come face to face with a black uprising in Apartheid South Africa, in a tough short film by Stephen Frears.

Currently unavailable

The Contraption The Contraption

Horror 1977 33 mins

Darkly humorous short in which a man builds a sinister contraption, the dreadful purpose of which is only revealed in the final shot.

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.

Rent for £1.00

A Friend of Dorothy A Friend of Dorothy

Drama 1995 32 mins Director: Raoul O'Connell

A gay man studying in New York develops a crush on his male roommate in this cute and breezy short.

Currently unavailable

The Lay of the Land The Lay of the Land

Drama 1998 14 mins Director: Fraser Macdonald

A man with a history of gay-bashing enters a smoky bar and strikes up a conversation with a drag queen in this dark short.

Rent for £1.00

Caught Looking Caught Looking

Drama 1991 35 mins Director: Constantine Giannaris

Years before Grindr, a gay man turns to virtual reality to satisfy his sexual fantasies in this strangely prophetic short film.

Rent for £1.00

Recluse Recluse

Crime 1979 29 mins Director: Bob Bentley

Based on the true story of a tragic murder and suicide that took place on the Luxton farm in Devon in the 1970s.

Rent for £1.00

Miss Thompson Goes Shopping Miss Thompson Goes Shopping

Animation & Artists Moving Image 1958 23 mins Director: David Gladwell

From the visionary British director David Gladwell, this 1958 short contrasting rural and urban life is based on the poem by Martin Armstrong.

Currently unavailable

Road to Saint Tropez Road to Saint Tropez

Drama 1966 31 mins Director: Mike Sarne

Director Mike Sarne's debut film is an 'anti-travelogue', starring Udo Kier.

Currently unavailable

The Fight Against Cancer The Fight Against Cancer

Documentary 1947 11 mins Director: Carl Th. Dreyer

Carl Theodor Dreyer’s film for the Cancer Society exhorts Danish citizens to listen to their doctors.