Three mid-1990s videotapes from Image 37 Productions, aka Damon Barr and Marie Anne Ferral, which affirm their position, hinted at with First Document and Archive Emetica, as the best current underground film-makers in Britain... maybe in the world.

Documents Obscura and Strange Movies are both collections of short works; the latter the more "commercial of the two, featuring a selection of potently effective body horror sex stories that range from the experimental Bodyshock (in which film footage of ritual scarification and mutilation is projected onto a torso, creating a bizarre, unreal vision of spontaneous blood eruptions) to the almost straight-forward erotica of SM 189/Cellar 23, where Barr and Ferral act out submissive and dominant dungeon fantasies in the most effective fetish short since Aryan Kaganof’s La Sequence Des Barres Paralleles.

In fact, Barr/Ferral and Kaganof seem to be working from the same mindset. Strange Movies opens with Test Film , where Barr uses cut-up found footage of childhood "training" that has the same dark atmosphere and suggestions of abuse that are found in parts of Kerkhof's Ten Monologues from the Lives of the Serial Killers, being shot around the same time.

Documents Obscura is much more experimental, retreading some of the themes found in earlier Barr/Ferral work; one film uses the unique concept of smearing various bodily fluids (menstrual blood, semen, urine, etc.) directly onto the film, with some startling and beautiful results. In many ways, the collection is a supplement to the earlier films, suggesting that the film-makers will be now moving their ideas into new areas.

Catharsis is a somewhat different film, and one that is difficult to watch: simply the recording of a "performance" by Rachel E., the film takes a harrowing and deeply upsetting look at rape through the eyes of a victim. Watching this film is almost like participating in the crime, as Barr's camera looks on coldly while Rachel has what amounts to a breakdown on screen. Therapeutic for the performer, and deeply uncomfortable for the viewer, who is made to share the pain and the guilt. In short, a far more effective message about the effects of rape than a thousand earnest TV dramas.

POSTSCRIPT: Barr and Ferral’s work developed a rapidly growing reputation during 1993 – 1995; uniquely among Britain’s underground filmmakers of the time, they moved from horror film festivals and fetish club into the world of Art Cinema with screenings at very respectable shows in Amsterdam and beyond, as well as having their work curated alongside the biggest names of avant-garde cinema. In 1995, Barr – but not Ferral – attended the Kino Short Film Festival in Manchester with his most recent film, Visitations. After this, the pair seemed to vanish without trace. If anyone out there knows the whereabouts of either of them, there are several people who would love to get back in touch….

DAVID FLINT