The Times BFI 51st London Film Festival's (17 October – 1 November) programme takes in 184 features and 133 shorts, among them a host of artists' film and video work. This year’s festival also features a programme of interviews, special screenings and audience events taking place at venues across the capital.

The Experimenta programme incorporates a selection of cutting edge artists' film and video and avant-garde cinema from around the world including a number of FLAMIN supported works by Jayne Parker, Patrick Beveridge and Emily Wardill.

On Saturday 27 October (4pm, NFT3) Jayne Parker’s 2005 LAFVA-funded Catalogue of Birds: Book 3 will be screening as part of Past Imperfect alongside five other short form works which revisit and re-imagine varying histories.

Following World War II, Messiaen's fascination with birdsong inspired many compositions, and dominates the monumental 'Catalogue d'Oiseaux' of 1959. In Catalogue of Birds… Jayne Parker has created a visual interpretation of the third movement - 'The Tawny Owl and The Woodlark' - which evokes the habitat and symbolism of these nocturnal birds.

On Sunday 28 October (2pm, NFT3) Patrick Beveridge’s LAFVA-funded The Ivalo River Delta will accompany Peter Hutton’s breathtaking new film At Sea, which follows the life cycle of merchant ships.

Shot within the Arctic Circle in northern Lapland, The Ivalo River Delta documents the landscape and lively night sky of an icy wilderness. The Aurora Borealis and other extraordinary phenomena are captured through long exposures and stunning time-lapse photography.

Peter Hutton’s feature length At Sea follows the birth, life and death of large merchant ships, from the construction of vessels in South Korea, the passage of a massive container ship across the North Atlantic and finally shipbreaking in Bangladesh.

Also screening under the Experimenta programme is Emily Wardill’s latest film, Sick Serena and Dregs and Wreck and Wreck*, which will be being screened as part of The Anagogic Chamber on Sunday 28 October (9pm, NFT3).

Sick Serena…, which was produced during Wardill’s FLAMIN supported Bristol Mean Time residency, takes audiences into dark allegorical scenes depicting religious iconography, outmoded superstition and slapstick comedy.

The work employs imagery from British ecclesiastic stained glass to create a visually and conceptually rich, dense and multi-layered film. The scenes that unfold invoke both a sense of unease and amusement operating in a space between faith and flippancy.

Other artist film highlights at this year’s LFF include James Benning’s Casting a Glance, a 30-year history of Robert Smithson's monumental Spiral Jetty and Seven Easy Pieces by Marina Abramovic.


To view the full festival programme and book tickets visit the LFF website.

* Emily Wardill’s Sick Serena and Dregs and Wreck and Wreck will also be showing at Picture This in Bristol from 31 October until 1 December.