Dark Matter

The Stranger in Your Lover's Eyes

October 2018 •English

This two-part visual essay features the son of director Don Siegel, Kristoffer Tabori, who reads from his father book A Siegel Film. The bulk of the content addresses the production history of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Legend of the Witches

June 1970 •English

A visual exploration into the origins of witchcraft in the UK and in particular the demystification of symbolism still embedded today within many modern religious artefacts and rituals. X-rated upon its original release, this documentary looks in detail at previously hidden magic rites and rituals. Sharing the secrets of initiation into a coven, divination through animal sacrifice, ritual scrying, the casting of a 'death spell', and the chilling intimacy of a Black Mass.

Mommie Dearest: Life with Joan

June 2006 •English

Documentary which delves a bit deeper into the story of the film in which the cast and crew discuss some of the narrative beats, the performances in some of the scenes, how true-to-life the depictions were and more.

The Infinitesimal: Remembering the Shrinking Man

October 2021 •English

A documentary about the creation of the novel THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN by Richard Matheson, including the making of a film adaptation, with an interview with the author's son, Richard Christian Matheson.

Jack Arnold Remembers The Incredible Shrinking Man

October 2021 •English

From footage filmed in 1983, this documentary presents an interview with director Jack Arnold and his reminiscences of the making of the 1957 film THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN.

The New Normal

December 2020 •English

Is the past the future we want ? The race to get back to normal made us question this very idea of normalcy itself – Is it normal that our planet is dying because of our economic priorities? Is it normal when lockdowns only protect the rich while the economically disadvantaged are left jobless and take to the streets? Is it normal that our children and relationships are dependent on the thin addictive threads of technology Is it normal that we live in a world without kindness? This film uses poetry and visual metaphor to explore these questions.

180

September 2011 •English

The film begins by showing images of the Holocaust, and stating that Hitler sanctioned the killing of 11 million people. This is followed by Comfort interviewing people about Adolf Hitler; their responses indicate a lack of historical knowledge, although he also finds a neo-Nazi who claims to love Hitler. Comfort proposes a hypothetical situation to his interviewees, asking if they would kill Hitler if they had the opportunity at that time in history. He asks more hypotheticals dealing with what his interviewees might do in other circumstances related to the Holocaust. He then switches his topic to make similar comparisons to abortion within the United States and the right to life, personalizing his arguments to make comparisons between the Holocaust and abortion in order to place the interviewees on the spot. The documentary concludes with Comfort stating that over 50 million abortions have occurred to date; he calls this the "American Holocaust".

Talking Heads 2021

September 2021 •Polish

The film was inspired by one of the most important documentaries shot by Krzysztof Kieślowski, Talking Heads (1980). The director asked his interlocutors seemingly simple questions, such as “Who are you?” and “What do you want?”.

The Militiaman

October 2021 •English

In the hills of rural Pennsylvania, the leader of a local militia must prepare his men for the turbulent political landscape of 2020 while at war with his own conscience. For over ten years, 48-year-old Iraqi War Veteran and machinist Christian Yingling has commanded a troop of private militiamen and women concerned with the government’s infringement on their constitutional rights. The group practices paramilitary drills, stockpiles food and ammo, and attends gun rights rallies in preparation for a doomsday scenario. Now that a worldwide pandemic has hit, followed by a summer of racial injustice protests and a Presidential election like no other, Christian—out of work and nearly out of money—must confront his allegiance and choose to act or not.

Thicket

April 2023 •Croatian

A short talk on having sex in the woods.

All My Babies... A Midwife's Own Story

December 1953 •English

George Stoney investigates the living conditions, both good and bad, in the rural, segregated South.

A Turning of the Earth: John Ford, John Wayne and 'The Searchers'

January 1998 •English

Documentary on the making of "The Searchers" (1956), starring John Wayne and directed by John Ford, with outtakes, behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with many of the surviving cast and crew.

138 Pounds in My Pocket: The Story of Hind Al-Husseini - Women, War and Welfare in Jerusalem

January 2009 •Italian

The Function of Fiction is the Abstraction and Simulation of Social Experience

October 2021 •Tagalog

Image production is fiction-weaving. Together with Sheena Absalud, we spent an entire day in Pride Month in my room documenting ourselves using different cameras: three mobile phones, one action camera, one CCTV camera, and one laptop, while asking each other questions about our asexuality. Recognizing the role of the moving image in constructing prejudice, self-identity, and desires, and therefore the expansion of neoliberalism, "The Function of Fiction" attempts to abandon temptations to define “asexuality” and its place in the context of “LGBTQIA+”, in pursuit of new socialities and possibilities. Music in the film was spawned with plants and machines.

Water from The Tremulous Stream

October 2021 •Spanish

A glimpse over the Diguillín River through the mechanical eye of an old digital camera. Light’s trail presents itself fortuitously over the reflection of the sun on the water, tracing infinite threads of concrete luminous information.

Bottled Songs: The Observer

October 2020 •English

A researcher finds a phone video showing hundreds of ISIS captives running through a desert. She is puzzled that the video is posted on YouTube by Les Observateurs, a French state-funded news channel as a work of “citizen journalism”. While the video has been removed from many other channels, the French news channel’s legitimacy allows the video to remain online and spread terror over several years. Further investigation uncovers multiple variants of the footage on countless other sites, leading her to despair.

Bottled Songs: The Spokesman

October 2017 •English

Kevin investigates the online traces of a British news reporter who was kidnapped and appeared in several Islamic State propaganda videos.

Making The Billion Dollar Code

October 2021 •English

In this featurette, ART + COM members join the cast and crew of the show to discuss its factual basis and the development of the court case.

Blue Box Blues (Staging a Photo Shoot)

September 2004 •German

Captures the violence and tenderness, alongside the dominance and submission, that is found in a single, intimate embrace.

St. Christopher

January 1967 •English

An affecting observational documentary about the education of youngsters with learning disabilities at two Rudolph Steiner schools, in Bristol and Yorkshire. An extra on the BFI Flipside DVD Private Road