In a well-appointed flat, a series of scenes unfolds around the circumference of a room: a man sits on a couch, head resting on his fist as if lost in troubled thoughts; across the room another man crouches over a dark wood chest -- is he doubled over in pain or merely inspecting the valuable antique

Documentary photography, Enigmatic, Erotic, Grand, Playful, Quirky, Young british artists, Young british/kitchen sink/free cinema

If Britain had a blacklist during the Thatcher era, Ken Loach was on it. Pound the pavement though he might, he couldn't persuade anyone to fund his films. His made-for-TV documentaries met with steep resistance -- in fact, his depiction of the 1984 coal miners' strike was banned outright. Why? Loach

British documentary movement, Gritty, Industrial, Intense, Political, Sincere, Violent, Young british/kitchen sink/free cinema

Lynne Ramsay has the qualities of a good ghost: she swings open doors and pulls back curtains, not to nag or threaten but just to remind the present of the values of the past. In her short career as a director and writer, Ramsay has brought a beautiful, slowed-down sensibility back into contemporary

Depressive, Gritty, Moody, Psychological, Urban, Young british/kitchen sink/free cinema

When artists come together in a spirit of union, they inevitably need a pulpit from which to expound their theories. For the Brits making films in the late '40s and early '50s, that pulpit was Sequence. Many filmmakers of the Free Cinema Movement and the British New Wave found the pages of this journ

Dark, Lyrical, Violent, Visceral, Young british/kitchen sink/free cinema