FrightFest: Beneath the Dark Heart of Cinema

Director: Chris Collier

Year: 2025

Told in Graham Humphreys' own words and through a series of intimate conversations, this film explores the life and legacy of the UK's most iconic horror illustrator. From a childhood marked by a haunting Ladybird skeleton to the gouache-drenched goth era of EVIL DEAD and NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, Humphreys reflects on a career that has defined horror for generations. Featuring discussions with Reece Shearsmith, Andy Nyman, Madeline Smith, Alan Jones, and more, the film charts a vivid timeline through banned video sleeves, goth clubs, iconic posters, and the rediscovery of a lost original.

Director: Chris Collier

Year: 2023

Title (Year) Director. Place is a documentary in the celebratory style of Free Cinema, displaying an intimate portrait of Alan Goble, an obsessed octogenarian with many interests but one passion: to detail, every film ever made anywhere in the world from the earliest days of cinema to the present. Now a widower, he reflects on his effortful accomplishment, which has been awarded a Guinness Record as the world's largest film-related database. We also observe him in a moment of relaxation, watching over his garden, rewilded more than forty years ago, where, every evening, generations of badgers snuffle for food, and fox cubs play in the long grass. And, through his own movies, we can observe his progress, from a Saturday morning cinema-going childhood through work and marriage to his solitary existence in a book-lined home, where he continues to find solace in his archival activities. It offers the story of his and our time through a close-up view of an unusual, extraordinary, and individual life.

Director: Angela Clarke

Year: 2026

Imagine hearing your own body: eyes scratching, blood rushing, bones creaking, your heartbeat pounding endlessly. For most, it’s unthinkable. For Dave, it’s daily life. Since 2000, he has lived with Superior Semicircular Canal Dehiscence Syndrome (SCDS), a rare disorder that turns his body into an echo chamber. This immersive short documentary draws viewers into Dave’s sonic reality through raw narration, stark black-and-white imagery, and an unsettling soundscape. As he recounts years of misdiagnosis and disbelief, the film explores resilience and isolation, ultimately asking why we doubt invisible pain and how empathy begins by truly listening to what we cannot see.