OffBeat is the UK’s only dedicated film club celebrating the folk and working culture of the British Isles. We regularly host screenings and events showing this country at its weirdest and most wonderful.
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Contemporary Folk Films
We want to share our love of heritage work and folk culture in Britain and the films that show that culture. This isn’t just documentaries from the 20th century. There are filmmakers today making work about the overlooked culture in this country. Here are links to some of our favourites.
If you have a film that you’d like to show us then please email hello@offbeat.film or submit it to the OffBeat Folk Film Festival.
Mist or Cloud (2023)
Willow Senior
This film is about
seagulls in Eastbourne and the charity that helps rehabilitate over 200 each year. Seagulls are an essential part of any British seaside story, so it’s surprising to learn that over the past 55 years their population has declined by over 75%, making them one of the fastest declining bird species in the UK.
Fortune is Our Family Name (2024)
Marcos Shephard.
This film is about the last traditional smokehouses in the country in Whitby, North Yorkshire where, for nearly 140 years, they have been using the same traditional techniques to smoke herring, mackerel and bacon. She Sells Shellfish (2024)
Lily Tiger
She Sells Shellfish is a collage of two Welsh women’s lives with those of the distant past. Archival footage meets contemporary black and white super 8, in a curious exploration of the female cockle gatherers of South Wales and the surprising secrets shellfish and seaweed hold for our oceans’ health.Stonehenge Instrumental (2024)
Charlie Usher
“This film wasn’t exactly planned. It was my first time going to a solstice at Stonehenge. I put my camera in my bag not really expecting to film that much, but as I got there I saw hordes of people striding through the darkness towards the stones and I couldn’t resist the impulse to shoot it all”