Joy Street

A nightmare of a woman depressed by the concrete world she lives in, and her journey from suicidal despair to personal renewal with the help of an unlikely spirit guide.

El Doctor

In a crumbling 1920s Mexican hospital, patients with bizarre afflictions are in constant need of medical attention, but the miserable doctor in charge prefers to drink. However, an encounter with the Saint of Holes will rearrange the doctor's fate, sending him on a journey of altered perspective.

Crocus

A woman's nightly domestic rituals—from putting her baby to bed to making love—unspool in a playful parade of surreal, straight-from-the-id images. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

Visitation

In an outer-world night, creatures that live beneath human consciousness emerge and take hold of the narrator, dissecting his spirit and dismembering his thoughts. He beholds a mythical eternity filled with shadowy industrial scenes and monochrome textures—a heavenly hell of unending life and death.

Jefferson Circus Songs

In a fantasy world, life-size cardboard animations interact with children clad in clown wigs, monkey masks, and princess costumes. Together, they host a carnival of surreal goings-on.

Pinball

As George Antheil's avant-garde composition "Ballet Mecanique (1952 revision)" plays, a dizzying array of abstract paintings are captured in close-up, spun around, and rapidly edited together. Grotesque and frightening creatures start to emerge through the flickering shapes and patterns.