BFI Player is now available on more TV apps

Subscription

Experimenta

Bringing together films and videos by artists that have transformed our experience of the moving image. Our collection includes films from outside the sphere of experimental filmmaking, including the celebrated surrealists and challenging works of narrative fiction.

But these are works united by their dedication to testing the boundaries and disrupting the distinction between form and content.

Read more Close

Discover exceptional cinema

Free for 14 days, then £6.99/month or £65/year


 

Subscribe to watch

LondonLondon

Animation & Artists Moving Image199485 minsDirector: Patrick Keiller

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

Subscribe to watch

BaitBait

Drama201989 minsDirector: Mark Jenkin

Simmering tensions between locals and newcomers in a modern-day Cornish fishing village reach boiling point in this hugely acclaimed British independent film.

Subscribe to watch

The GardenThe Garden

Animation & Artists Moving Image199192 minsDirector: Derek Jarman

Inside his modest, sparsely-furnished home on the barren, windswept Dungeness coastline, Derek Jarman dreams.

Subscribe to watch

The Angelic ConversationThe Angelic Conversation

Animation & Artists Moving Image198581 minsDirector: Derek Jarman

The Angelic Conversation sees Derek Jarman conjure an evocative and radical visualisation of Shakespeare’s love poems. With narration by Judi Dench and music by Coil.

Subscribe to watch

Enys MenEnys Men

Horror202291 minsDirector: Mark Jenkin

Mark Jenkin follows Bait with this chilling, endlessly mysterious folk horror tale, beautifully shot on grainy 16mm.

Subscribe to watch

Cette MaisonCette Maison

Documentary202274 minsDirector: Miryam Charles

An experimental ghost story and docudrama exploring the profound grief stemming from an unsolved murder.

Subscribe to watch

Un Chien AndalouUn Chien Andalou

Animation & Artists Moving Image192816 minsSilentDirector: Luis Buñuel

A scabrous study of desire, the subconscious and anti-clericalism - Buñuel and Dalí’s provocative first film is a classic of Surrealist cinema.

Subscribe to watch

The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver SteinerThe Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner

Documentary197546 minsDirector: Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog’s moving portrait of a record-breaking ski jumper.

Subscribe to watch

TogetherTogether

Animation & Artists Moving Image195648 minsDirector: Lorenza Mazzetti

Two deaf-mute dock workers eke out a humble East End existence in Lorenza Mazzetti's striking and poetic example of Free Cinema.

Subscribe to watch

HelenHelen

Thriller200975 minsDirector: Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor

An inventive and acclaimed British feature following the transformation of a teenager who agrees to portray her missing college friend in a highly detailed crime reconstruction.

Subscribe to watch

Pink NarcissusPink Narcissus

Fantasy197165 minsDirector: James Bidgood

With its highly charged hallucinogenic quality, its atmosphere of lush decadence, and its explicit erotic power, Pink Narcissus is a landmark of gay cinema.

Subscribe to watch

Visions of EcstasyVisions of Ecstasy

Drama198920 minsDirector: Nigel Wingrove

Nigel Wingrove's experimental depiction of the erotic imaginings of the 16th Century Carmelite nun remains the only film ever to banned under Britain's blasphemy laws.

Subscribe to watch

The ArborThe Arbor

Biopic201090 minsDirector: Clio Barnard

Clio Barnard's film about Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar mixes reconstruction, interviews (performed by actors) and scenes from the plays.

Subscribe to watch

Goltzius and the Pelican CompanyGoltzius and the Pelican Company

Biopic2012117 minsDirector: Peter Greenaway

An artist stages a series of erotic dramatisations illustrating sexual taboos from the Old Testament, in this startling and shocking return from director Peter Greenaway.

Subscribe to watch

Last and First MenLast and First Men

Animation & Artists Moving Image202070 minsDirector: Jóhann Jóhannsson

Two billion years ahead of us, a future race of humans finds itself on the verge of extinction. Tilda Swinton narrates this visually stunning lament for humanity by acclaimed composer Jóhann Jóhannsson (Sicario, Arrival).

Subscribe to watch

The Colour of PomegranatesThe Colour of Pomegranates

Animation & Artists Moving Image196880 minsDirector: Sergei Paradjanov

The film that Martin Scorsese compared to ‘opening a door and walking into another dimension, where time has stopped and beauty has been unleashed’.

Subscribe to watch

Man With a Movie CameraMan With a Movie Camera

Documentary192967 minsSilentDirector: Dziga Vertov

Dazzling document of Soviet life, by Dziga Vertov, showing a living city and the people and machines that propel it.

Subscribe to watch

Dreams That Money Can BuyDreams That Money Can Buy

Animation & Artists Moving Image194879 minsDirector: Hans Richter

Dadaist Hans Richter attempts to bring the European avant-garde to the masses, with this story about a man who discovers he has the power to create dreams, and sets up a business selling them to others.

Currently unavailable

Fantastic PlanetFantastic Planet

Animation & Artists Moving Image197372 minsDirector: René Laloux

René Laloux and Roland Topor’s surreal, psychedelic sci-fi animation imagines a world in which humanoid creatures are kept as pets by a race of giants.

Subscribe to watch

Fata MorganaFata Morgana

Animation & Artists Moving Image197176 minsDirector: Werner Herzog

Herzog’s intense, dreamlike mediation on desert life as if seen by an alien.

Subscribe to watch

Eden and AfterEden and After

Animation & Artists Moving Image196998 minsDirector: Alain Robbe-Grillet

Alain Robbe-Grillet’s sensual fantasy follows a group of students who enter a bizarre sado-masochistic realm after taking a mysterious drug.