The 16mm films on this DVD reflect Hamlyn's early formation in painting and drawing, where intense observation was central to the effort to realise images of a visible world that is anything but straightforwardly apprehensible. All the work stems from the way the film medium lends itself to a particular way of structuring temporal images. In the case of film, as opposed to video, the characteristics and constraints of the technology push one towards a way of working with the frame as the basic spatio-temporal unit of construction.

Maia Conran's split screen work Term, mirrors a series of still and tracking video shots of the interior spaces of a disused school with its animated monochrome copy, that mimicks scene for scene the original video footage. Throughout the work Conran invites us to consider what is more real, the video of the school or its animated reconstruction, leading to a progressive condensation of reality, as the animated version slowly invades the authentic space of the video.

Let Me Feel Your Finger First's Ontologically Anxious Organism, narrates the experience of an animated character, who nervous about the very concept of character itself, disquises himself as a boulder. The three episodes follow the boulders progress through a series of reconstituted cartoon scenes whilst he grapples with existence, meets his maker and finally slips outside of the space of the picture plane to seek the ultimate reference.

Using 16mm cameras, artist Ben Rivers documents the solitary existence of Jake, a man who lives in isolation in the middle of the forest in a remote part of Scotland. The film follows his unconventional life, capturing moments of profound beauty. Jake is seen in all seasons, surviving frugally, passing the time with strange projects, living the radical dream he had as a younger man, a dream he spent two years working at sea to realise.

Gracefully constructed, Two Years at Sea creates an intimate connection with an individual who would otherwise be a complete outsider to us.