DEAD GOOD FILMS

Magic, Folklore & Liminal Thresholds

A Samhain Society Dead Good Festival Event

Wednesday 28th October
Doors: 5:30pm – 10:00pm
Margate Arts Club, 276 Northdown Road, Margate, CT9 2PT 

 £15

Our festival takes place across more than seven venues, each with its own layout, facilities, lighting, seating and environmental conditions. Please take a moment to read the following information before attending: Accessibility, Access & Inclusivity Statement

This venue has step free access for toilets. 

 As the nights draw in and the veil begins to thin, we’ve carefully selected a collection of Dead Good Films to accompany the Samhain season.

These films take us into the liminal places where the ordinary world gives way to something stranger: where magic, folklore, myth and mystery still linger.

From sacred sites and ancient stone circles to forgotten landscapes, ancestral echoes and the mythic shapeshifting creatures of folklore, these films explore the thresholds between worlds, between human and other-than-human, life and death, waking and dreaming.

 Folk magic, ancient traditions, strange encounters and otherworldly landscapes.

These are films  that capture the spirit of Samhain and its invitation to look beyond the veil. 

FEATURING Q&A's with the directors! 

18:00 Listen to the Past's Long Pulse and The Land Remains + Director's Q&A

19:00 Selkie + Director's Q&A

20:00  The Magic in The Mundane+ Director's Q&A 

A cinematic journey into the wild, weird and wonderful!

Come gather in the dark.. The old stories are still alive!

Our festival takes place across more than seven venues, each with its own layout, facilities, lighting, seating and environmental conditions. Please take a moment to read the following information before attending: Accessibility, Access & Inclusivity Statement

You can read our ticket terms and conditions here. 

THE FILMS

LISTEN TO THE PAST'S LONG PULSE

A film by Boris Thompson-Roylance

Filmed at the ancient standing stones of Avebury and Stanton Drew, this cross-cultural exchange brings Japanese and British folklore into dialogue through landscape, ritual, memory, stillness and movement.

THE LAND REMAINS

A film by Boris Thompson-Roylance

The Land Remains places Britain’s renewed interest in folklore and ritual in dialogue with the Bibby Stockholm asylum barge, exploring how land, migration, and belonging shape national identity today.

MEET THE DIRECTOR

Boris Thompson-Roylance

Boris  is a director and filmmaker known for concept-driven music films, concert visuals, commercials and thought-provoking documentaries exploring folklore, identity and ecology. His work spans major campaigns for Vinted and Red Bull, alongside music films and visuals for artists including Imogen Heap, Nick Mulvey and Franc Moody. His documentary The Land Remains explores Britain’s renewed relationship with folklore, land and ritual against a backdrop of contemporary social issues. Boris has also worked as an executive producer on projects including Swede Caroline and Matar.

SELKIE

A film by Adam Carr, starring Ephyra Ana

In Celtic and Norse mythology, selkies – meaning ‘seal-folk’ – are beings capable of therianthropy: changing from seal to human form by shedding their skin. Emerging when the time and tides are correct, seducing or being held captive by human lovers, they are similar to their cousins the ‘kelpies’ and ‘finfolk’. Our composite shape-shifting water siren emerges from her underwater world to ours, casting her spell of seductive and violent dance. Is it love and desire, or appetite and malice? Soon a fleeting wisp, she returns to the aquatic depths, leaving only our quickened pulse and vacant stare.

AWARD NOMINATIONS:

★★★★★ BEST SHORT FILM: Buenos Aires International Film Festival

★★★★★ BEST SHORT FILM: Hermetic International Film Festival

MEET THE DIRECTOR

ADAM CARR

Adam is a UK filmmaker and director with over 15 years’ experience creating short films, music promos, fashion films and art-driven moving image. His work explores mythology, folklore, identity and the strange spaces between the everyday and the otherworldly. He co-founded the cult Shoreditch video shop and production company TODAY IS BORING with his partner, Tree Carr. His films include the award-winning Into the Blue, This Is Not a Fashion Film, My Name Is Swan, pagan folk-horror The Forest Whispers, and Selkie, inspired by Celtic and Norse mythology.

THE MAGIC IN THE MUNDANE

A film by Leigh Brooks, starring Dennis McKenna, Dr. David Luke and more

What if the extraordinary has been hiding in plain sight all along? "Magic in the Mundane" is a cinematic journey into the overlooked miracles of everyday existence. Filmed across breathtaking landscapes and intimate spaces, this feature length documentary gathers philosophers, writers, psychedelic guides, death doulas, trauma workers, ritual keepers, pilgrims, pantheists, pagans, monotheists and thinkers to explore where wonder lives when we're not looking for it. The film ventures into the nature of consciousness itself, asking whether artificial minds might one day perceive the sacred and how psychedelics can dissolve the veil between the self and what lies beyond it. It sits with death not as an ending but as a threshold, examines how trauma fractures and forges spiritual sight, and follows ancient and modern pilgrims alike as they walk toward meaning. Through ceremony and ritual, it seeks what broken spiritual memory has forgotten, while pantheism and paganism offer frameworks where divinity breathes through every stone and stream. Through stunning on-location cinematography and an evocative original score, these voices converge without consensus. Nothing is definitive. Each topic remains an open door, an invitation to wonder. The documentary refuses easy answers, trusting the audience to step through ... or not. Who are we when no one is watching? The magic was never elsewhere. It was always here, waiting for us to notice.

AUDIENCE REVIEWS:

★★★★★ “Magic in the Mundane inspires reconnection”

★★★★★  “A beautiful film offering different perspectives into the magic that is this human journey”

★★★★★  “Challenges preconceptions and nurtures a deeper respect for the diversity of human experience”

★★★★★  “Not only does the magic exist, but it’s much easier to find than we think it is.”

★★★★★ “Moving, insightful human experience”

MEET THE DIRECTOR

LEIGH BROOKS

Leigh Brooks is an award-winning British film director, editor and content producer based in Margate, Kent. He is co-founder and director of Firebelly Films, where he works across film and video production. His directing credits include music documentaries and films exploring the stories behind artists and their work.

Selected filmography

Magic in the Mundane (2026) — Director, producer, writer and editor

Hate to Love: Nickelback (2023) — Director

The Sound of Scars (2022) — Director

Terrorvision: Wired Up and Scary (2017) — Director

Model Song (2014) — Music video director