Retrospective: Stranger Shorts

Drama / Experimental / Mystery / Horror / Thriller
“Stranger Shorts â€“ An Obscure Journey through British Film History“

Q&A with David McGillivray, screenwriter and executive producer of “The Errand“

From the 1960s until the 1980s the supporting programme was a common phenomenon in many cinemas across the United Kingdom. The Eady Levy tax and other funding programmes such as the BFI Experimental Film Fund encouraged filmmakers to run wild and create adventurous short films to be exhibited on the big screen - which sometimes led to eccentric cinematic results. “Stranger Shorts“ presents some of the more eerie, uncanny, strange and provocative works that were produced during those years, leaving a mark before disappearing into the obscure corners of film history.

Dream A40 (1965) (Drama), D.: Lloyd Reckord, 15:41 Min.
Two years before the Sexual Offences Act decriminalised homosexuality in the United Kingdom, a young gay couple on a road trip tries to refrain from any public displays of affection, which results in a Kafkaesque nightmare.

The Pit (1962) (Experimental), D.: Edward Abraham, 26:59 Min.
A gothic adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Pit and the Pendulum,“ capturing the source material’s claustrophobic mood without any dialogue.

The Lake (1978) (Horror), D.: Lindsey C. Vickers, 33:07 Min.
The romantic picnic of two young lovers in the English countryside gets dark, when echoes of a horrific crime that happened nearby leads to an unexpected turn of events.

The Errand (1980) (Thriller), D.: Nigel Finch, 28:41 Min.
A soldier at a mysterious military institution is sent on a strange mission that all of a sudden becomes a nightmarish fever-dream. Written and produced by underground film icon David McGillivray (“Trouser Bar“).