Sound and Image 2: The Visual Documentary

Prepare for total immersion. No dialogue. No commentary. Just images, brilliantly set to music and ambient sound.

Introduced by Patrick Russell, Senior Curator of Non-Fiction, BFI National Archive

  • Total running time 120min

Muscle Beach

USA 1948. Directors Joseph Strick, Irving Lerner. 9min. 35mm

Sunday by the Sea

UK 1953. Director Anthony Simmons. 14min. 35mm

Trinidad & Tobago

UK 1964. Director Various. 19min. 16mm

This Is Shell

UK 1970. Director Geoffrey Jones. 8min. 35mm

Overture: One-Two-Five

UK 1978. Director David Lochner. 7min. 16mm

The Dancing Fleece

UK 1950. Director Frederick Wilson. 20min. 35mm

Stone into Steel

UK 1960. Director Paul Dickson. 35min. 35mm

Sound and Image was a highlight of 2023’s Film on Film Festival, so we’re delighted to present a sequel: another varied selection of non-fiction shorts eschewing commentary and dialogue in favour of images set to songs or instrumental music. All draw us inexorably into their universes: from relaxing sunny beaches to the fiery furnaces of steelmaking, via oil wells, railway lines and even a bonkers ballet promoting Britain’s wool trade through the medium of dance.

Patrick Russell