Join Violet Hour in the shadowy, flickering realm of dream logic and subconscious desires with If Dreams Are Mirrors, a selection of classic experimental shorts exploring the surreal terrain of the unconscious mind.

From the liquid poetry of Man Ray’s L’Étoile de mer (1928) to Maya Deren’s iconic Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), these films distort time, space and identity, evoking the illogical beauty of dreams. Patrick Bokanwoski’s La Femme qui se poudre (1972) plunges us into a haunting masquerade of shifting faces and fractured realities, while Peter Tscherkassky’s Dream Work (2001) transforms archival film fragments into a dissonant erotic nightmare.

The screening will be followed by a pre-recorded Q&A with Mary Wild, a prominent figure in the field of film studies, and the creator of the Projections lecture series at Freud Museum London. She applies psychoanalysis to film interpretation, and posts exclusive content on Patreon.

About Violet Hour

Violet Hour showcases dark, transgressive and unconventional films in London. Exploring the darker aspects of the psyche through cinema, we screen and discuss works that unsettle, undo us and challenge our perceptions