an experimental short film

10 Best Short Films to Get Into Experimental Cinema

10 Great Movies Based on Short Films

Best oscar-winning animated short films of all time, ranked, 10 war dramas to check out after 'the six triple eight'.

Short films are the best way to start with experimental cinema as they enable the viewers to quickly become familiar with a range of different techniques, themes, and styles. The reason why experimental cinema seems like a barrier impenetrable to cross for many movie aficionados is because these movies follow no conventional structure. With the lack of traditional narratives and visual appeals, viewers should find themselves compelled to watch an experimental film as if it's their first film ever.

The experimental, or the avant-garde , intends to explore cinema as an elastic, ever-changing artistic expression, denying any formulas or perpetual ideas. While these movies often push the boundaries of the acceptable, not every experimental film needs to be necessarily hard to watch. There certainly are many masterpieces out there that are perfect to get going into such a challenging, yet versatile cinematic approach.

10 Song of Avignon (1998)

Jonas Mekas dedicated his entire career to capturing his life and that of his closest friends on camera, committed to a moving exercise of memory and nostalgia. Spending most of his youth years imprisoned under the Nazi regime or feeling lost in refugee camps, the filmmaker's obsession with capturing his whereabouts and the people around him feels like a confession of a man who lost too much and now uses his camera to regain the time and memories he left behind.

Song of Avignon is about Mekas, and Mekas only. Structured like a filmed stream of consciousness, the short movie consists of fast-moving images of a trip the filmmaker took to Avignon, France, while recovering from a harsh depressive episode. He narrates a beautiful poem filled with pain and longing, but also hope and notalgia; a rhythmic piece of art that, mixed with the beautiful images Mekas registered, composes a unique song of redemption.

9 Rehearsals for Retirement (2007)

Experimental cinema is often tied to seeing beyond the surface, rummaging in what's already completed for a new meaning and new message to tell. In this context, Phil Solomon shares his own original perception of the video game Grand Theft Auto . While most people saw an immersive open-world adventure with an array of tasks to complete, locations to discover, and characters to interact with, Solomon saw an enriching virtual landscape fueled by melancholia and yearning.

Despite the many features the game offers, there are so many empty spaces to fill and unattainable places to access. Solomon invites the audience to incorporate themselves in a new reality, and as he turns such a violence-filled, electrifying game into a beautifully poetic journey, he welcomes a new medium into cinema in unexpected ways.

8 Mothlight (1963)

Perhaps the most flattering question a movie can bring about is "How did they make this?", and anyone going through Mothlight will most definitely ask themselves this question. The movie consists of leaves, wings, and parts of different insect bodies moving rapidly across the screen, causing an impression these elements are naturally incorporated into the film. In a sense, they are; Stan Brakhage used simple, yet inventive techniques to integrate the distinctive elements and moth parts into the print.

One of the pioneers of the experimental movement in cinema, getting into Brakhage is no easy task. However, Mothlight 's captivating brevity and straightforward approach represent the perfect entry door as they highlight the filmmaker's eagerness to always innovate despite the limited resources in hand.

7 The Girl Chewing Gum (1976)

John Smith is the master of the routine, deconstructing his daily life and turning them into absurd depictions of London's cityscapes. In The Black Tower , an underrated horror movie, Smith captures the same building from different perspectives to craft the story of a man haunted by a tower that follows him wherever he goes.

In The Girl Chewing Gum , Smith once again plays with perspective in inventive, even humorous ways; following pedestrians, cars, and birds in East London, Smith narrates the images before the action unfolds, as if he's instructing the people and objects onscreen. It's a simple, yet brilliant idea that pays tribute to the ordinary, finding magic and thrill in everyday life, experimenting with the concept of meta-narratives by turning the man behind the camera into God.

6 Thunder (1982)

With Thunder , Takashi Ito fills the void of unexpressed emotions, vast liminal spaces, and unseen frequencies. Through these fast-paced images, the filmmaker finds the perfect contrast between light and dark, the material and the unknown. The disruptive editing enables the sensation that Ito is filming the unfilmable, or at the very least he's delivering a message from the future. After all, Thunder could easily be one of those videos broadcast on one of Blade Runner 's holographic billboards. It's the kind of artistic product that audiences don't need to understand, but rather accept as something way ahead of its time.

Several reputed filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson were short filmmakers before they launched their career into feature filmmakers

5 The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo (1955)

There have been many attempts to translate literature into film, but when it comes to poetry, only few artists manage to do a good, convincing job. Margaret Tait's short film summons the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins , choosing the particularly difficult "The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo", with many word plays and allusions to different literary movements, to express with images.

What makes the movie so good is that Tait doesn't try to evoke individual meanings verse by verse; instead, she crafts a beautiful mosaic of images that complement each other and the poem in a delicate reflection on time's oppressive force, youth, and the overwhelming beauty of the nature around us.

4 Outer Space (1999)

Outer Space is an experiment in the very literal sense of the word; taking footage from the 1981 horror film The Entity , Peter Tscherkassky recycles the images and explores Christian Metz's concept of "film as a mirror" . The term "mise-en-scène" calls up every component of the active scene. With Outer Space, Tscherkassky seems to revolt against formula and angle; he tears the mise-en-scène apart, and bends it into itself, giving it a new meaning.

The character onscreen, a woman, is guided with a new purpose by Tscherkassky, who brutally removes her from the narrative and inserts her into his own universe of collapsing images. Outer Space is a living statement of what experimental cinema stands for; chaos prevails, and one image multiplies into thousands and thousands of fragmented pieces, each one with a different artistic purpose.

Academy Awards have gone to some of the greatest animated short films of all time for more than 90 years, and these are the best of the bunch.

3 L’Eau de la Seine (1983)

L’Eau de la Seine is the ultimate Narcissus reflection, with nature as the main character. Teo Hernández films the water of the Seine and the images it reflects; editing the images at a rapid pace, the reflected light turns into something volatile and fascinating. Water acts as the catalyst for the other elements — earth, fire, and air — in a search for timeless movement. Everything simultaneously fades and takes form, the cinematic equivalent of tears in the rain. Here, Hernández takes the idea of "moving pictures" that cinema represents and takes it to unpredictable extremes, resulting in a beautiful, short masterpiece.

2 Scorpio Rising (1963)

The 1960s were the time experimental cinema really kicked off, and Kenneth Anger was one of the scene's key players. Scorpio Rising feels like an authentic statement on freedom and rebellion, following a gang of Nazi bikers unveiling the mysteries of the night, while images of the occult overlap their storyline.

The film can be labeled as one of the most consistent portraits of its time, both embracing the disruptive artistic expressions of the 60s and announcing the changes that were yet to come. Scorpio Rising is violent and beautiful, and benefits from being a relatively easy experimental film to follow, welcoming new enthusiasts of erotic, tameless cinema.

1 Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)

The list of renowned filmmakers influenced by Maya Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon is too extensive to be presented in full, but it ranges from Ingmar Bergman to David Lynch. Deren is regarded as the mother of the avant-garde in cinema, blending reality and dreams, clarity and disorientation in images filled with originality and expression. Meshes of the Afternoon challenges the primary notion of time and space, telling a story within a story within a story.

Following a woman reliving the same dream in and out of the real world, the movie deconstructs conventional narrative without detaching itself from aesthetic realism. It's both delicate and scary, enveloping the viewer in a mythical atmosphere with many different layers.

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Published 2019-12-17T19:43:41.602Z

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50 Best Experimental Short Films of the Decade 2010-2019

The Rules: --world premiere between 2010 and 2019 --one film per maker (and yes, that was a hard decision to make) --29 minutes or less --suggested "substitutions" (click 'read notes') are not so much ties as genuine whims based on mood, that the reader should feel free to regard as truly interchangeable

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“Elle” by Fatty Soprano & Aidan Grossman

Seeking validation from the only friends that remained in her life. Reflections in the mirrors that surround her.

Latest Submissions

This is our curated list of the latest short films, documentaries, animations and music videos from today’s independent filmmakers. Take some time and add these to your queue - these films demand your attention.

Short Films

A spiritualist instructs Loreen to give her distraught younger sister, Rosa, three baths to get rid of a malevolent spirit that appears to be moving closer and closer to her.

Eight stories intersect to explore the transformative power of learning, brought to life through narration crafted from 250 real voicemails.

In a futuristic Mumbai (India) most new mothers have somehow stopped lactating after an apocalyptic storm. Many households have lost their source of income because of the climatic impact in the city. Few mothers who are still lactating start to sell their milk to the government-owned milk banks as the only means of survival and end up becoming the property of the government left with very little choices of their own.

Four high school boys and a Catholic priest play a disastrous game of telephone.

A stoner teenager before army recruitment and his retired military career father are forced to stay alone at home for the first time when the mother goes on vacation. The tension between them leads to an explosion – But not the kind that they expected.

In this raunchy and outlandish queer comedy, best friends Robby and Noah-Lee – employees at Portland's historic Clinton Street Theater – find themselves confronted by a parade of increasingly wacky, genre-tinged suitors.

Music videos

The music video for “Feigling” takes viewers on a metaphorical journey through an artist’s inner turmoil and external challenges, depicting his struggle to overcome self-doubt and chaos. Utilizing striking surreal visuals, the artist undergoes a symbolic rebirth, ultimately finding inner clarity and peace.

Memories of one hip hop singer.

In a haunting music video styled as a short film, the dark world of cult rituals is explored, inspired by the Order of the Solar Temple and the Peoples Temple. This immersive narrative delves into themes of psychological manipulation and the search for meaning in moments of despair.

Directed by Nono + Rodrigo and produced by Partizan, Damiano David of Måneskin reveals the surreal and stunning music video for his debut solo song, 'Silverlines.’

‘Thank God for Me' takes us into Q's world, a daydream-like reflection on the experiences that left him 'blue-lipped'—speechless from what he’s seen—while showing how his success is rooted in staying solid and how he’s operating from a completely different artistic and mental headspace, proving he’s in a league of his own.

Music video for "Nothing Love" by Surrija, where the artist is trapped in a liminal space that becomes visually corrupted with CRT glitch video art aesthetics, as she fights her own dissociation.

Goblin b-movie music video extravaganza.

documentaries

A futile attempt to help a Melbourne street cat with a degloved tail. Candidly captured footage compiled into a short documentary.

After a life-altering snowboarding accident, adventurer Shell Robshaw-Bryan embarks on an emotional journey of recovery, using the healing power of nature to mend both her body and mind.

A meditation on life, contentment, and the power of hope.

After missing bronze by 1/100th of a second at Rio, para swimmer Lizzi Smith shares her intimate journey to redefine her identity, and in turn, empower the next generation of female athletes.

A sculptor’s spiritual journey unfolds as he brings religious figures to life, transforming faith into art with deep devotion and precision.

10 photographers feeling the Andalusian Crush.

Eric Kaffine explores a work hard, play hard mentality. Without the pain is the success as sweet? Am I remembering to enjoy life?

Art & Experimental Films

Balance amidst chaos || In nature, it remains.

Inner light emerges where souls lie trapped in silence.

A young girl discovers the devastating effects of a global water shortage and embarks on a mission to bring water back to Earth.

Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night. These lines from William Blake's famous poem are bound to become reality if we continue down our chosen path.

A cinematic promo follows Twitch star Kai Cenat as he prepares for his ultimate SEKIRO: Shadows Die Twice marathon, embodying the resilience and warrior spirit needed to conquer the game's toughest challenges.

An alien trying to fit in New York, or is it...

What happens when you dig through your partner's camcorder that is full of hidden gems?

21. Documentary and Experimental Short Films

1. Un chien andalou

2. À Propos de Nice

3. Zero for Conduct

4. Night Mail

5. Listen to Britain

6. The Battle of Midway

7. The Nazis Strike

8. The Silent Village

9. Meshes of the Afternoon

10. The Negro Soldier

11. San Pietro

12. The Last Bomb

13. Death Mills

14. A Defeated People

15. Van Gogh

16. Seal Island

17. Gauguin

18. Beaver Valley

19. Guernica

20. Nature's Half Acre

21. Sunday by the Sea

22. Notes on the Port of St. Francis

23. Neighbours

24. The Olympic Elk

25. Water Birds

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