Starting in the early 1990s, Ian has completed over 150 self-funded, experimental films exploring various themes and methods, including sound visualization, hand painting, abstraction, animation, video feedback, found footage, collage and documentary. Particularly concerned with fusing his own specially composed electronic music with video and film, all of his shorts feature experimental sound. His film Holes, made from found hole punched 8mm, has been in production for over 25 years and is intended as a continuing lifetime project, being updated whenever new footage is found.
A selection of films is available to watch on the Ian Helliwell Film Channels. Helli-youtube and Helli-vimeo
All of Ian’s shorts are available to hire; please make contact directly to arrange a screening of any of his films listed below.
Means of Transport (2024, 3`35)
Tape Loop Making (2024, 4`10)
NYC 63 (2024, 3`55)
Eltons Bins (2024, 3`25)
Illumination Variation (2023, 3`15)
Blackpool Night Lights (2023, 3`20)
Driving Into Decay (2023, 4`20)
Picture Invasion (2023, 5`25)
Chapel Moderne (2023, 2`15)
Hellibot 2 Activation (2023, 1`50)
Hellikinetic Video (2023, 4`45)
Spots Before The Eyes (2023, 5`10)
Bicycle Development (2023, 3`30)
Cellular Feedback (2022, 5`30)
Marriage Risk Assessment (2022, 2`40)
Water Ski Tenacity (2022, 2`30)
Bed Racing (2022, 3`30)
Flower Arrangement (2022, 2`00)
Structural Time Lens (2022, 3`45)
High As Kites (2022, 2`45)
Cine Box + Still Marilyn (2022, 3`15)
Showers of Light (2022, 3`00)
People Moving (2022, 4`00)
To Prevent That Very Thing (2022, 8`40)
Hellicams In Action (2022, 5`25)
Multiform Feedback (2022, 5`00)
Dance Float (2022, 3`35)
Still Marilyn (2022, 2`50)
Moved By Stealth (2022, 3`00)
Traction Stations (2022, 2`40)
Getting Spliced (2021, 4`35)
Solar Energised (2021, 3`30)
150 Films (2021, 21`35)
Making Patterns Move (2021, 4`20)
The Giant Clams in Action (2021, 8`45)
Spatial Feedback (2021, 5` 20)
Stylophone Procession (2021, 5`55)
Goal Attack (2021, 4`15)
Twist of the Corkscrew (2021, 2`20)
Prague Cineskyline (2021, 2`30)
Belle Vue Aces High (2021, 4`15)
Wind Surfaces (2020, 3`10)
Passport to Expo 67 (2020, 12`45)
Tensile Structures (2020, 3`00)
Oscillaforms (2020, 8`20)
The Movement of Tape Rewind (2020, 4`50)
Train Times (2020, 3`25)
Locomotive Tracks (2020, 7`30)
Lift Off Apollo Pavilion (2020, 5`45)
Jaws 8 (2020, 1`30)
Play the Game With You (2020, 4`25)
Ground to Air (2019, 2`35)
Retrieve the Light (2019, 3`10)
The Road To Walk (2019, 3`15)
Corroding Royals (2019, 2`55)
Ink Running Out (2019, 4`35)
Spy Box video (2019, 1`25)
Focus Push (2019, 2`25)
Elasticity (2019, 2`35)
Spinning Across Space (2019, 3`40)
Watchers and Watched (2019, 4`00)
Fast Forward Frames (2018, 2`45)
Dark Parallel (2018, 3`15)
5p A Ride (2018, 4`15)
Visible Light Radiation (2018, 2`35)
Dancing In the Lounge Light (2018, 3`55)
Green For Go-Go (2018, 3`20)
Jump, Skip (2018, 4`10)
Symbiosis Video (2018, 7`30)
Polymers (2018, 1`55)
Direction Finder (2018, 4`00)
Hovercraft Advance (2017, 3`30)
Letrasteps (2017, 2`55)
Beneath the Watercolour (2017, 3`20)
Scoring the Magic Kingdom (2017, 3`15)
Following the Lines (2017, 3`35)
Pye 4 – Graphic (2017, 3`45)
Pye 3 – Metallic (2017, 32`15)
Seaham Coal Trains (2017, 10`00)
Dual Leader (2017, 2`35)
Megatherm Leader ( 2017, 2`30)
The Megatherm (2017, 4`10)
Pye 1 – Kinetic (2017, 8`45)
Pye 2 – Geometric (2017, 4`00)
Protean Feedback (2016, 5`20)
Carrier Waves (2016, 3`00)
Creek (2016, 3`50)
Man and His World 1970 (2016, 5`45)
That Which Glitters (2016, 1`40)
As the Legend Has It (2016, 7`10)
Space Time Feedback (2016, 6`40)
Plessey Circuits (2015, 2`45)
Gyrations (2015, 4`50)
Hellidisc Video (2015, 2`10)
T-Junction (2015, 6`45)
Spectrum Analysis (2015, 4`00)
Elegy for a Power Station (2015, 9`45)
Escape the Light (2014, 3`50)
3 Way Splitting (2014, 3`45)
King Size Frame (2014, 2`25)
A Storm Is Brewing (2014, 4`20)
A Contrast In Sound (2014, 4`40)
Black Channel Forest (2014, 4`25)
JFK Puppet Assassination (2014, 8`05)
Molecular Feedback (2013, 3`10)
Travelling Waveforms (2013, 4`05)
Water Gardens (2013, 4`50)
Kennedy Johnson (2013, 3`25)
Trios Performance (2013, 12`45)
Double and Split (2013, 7`15)
Bubbling Under (2013, 4`20)
Interpretations Trailer (2013, 1`25)
The Movement of Tape (2013, 6`30)
Crash Testing (2012, 4`05)
Hellicam Feedback (2012, 5`00)
Felt This Way (2012, 2`00)
Practical Exhibition (2012, 6`10)
Practical Electronica (2011, 60`00)
Swallow Flies East (2011, 7`00)
At the Glitterball (2011, 3`20)
Drill Bits (2011, 4`45)
Four Poster (2011, 3`30)
Letraglide (2011, 3`15)
Light Activation Feedback (2010, 2`40)
Light Support Systems (2010, 6`10)
Time To Readjust (2010, 3`45)
Expo 67 – An Audiovisual Collage (2010, 21`35)
Rayday Exhibition Film (2010, 1`20)
Slip-Slide (2010, 4`10)
The Motion Controllers (2009, 5`30)
Letratone Leader (2009, 3`35)
Colour Supply (2009, 2`15)
Mobile Home (2009, 3`45)
Through The Miniscope (2009, 2`55)
Lines And Pulses (2008, 4`15)
EMS 8 (2008, 2`45)
Scintillation (2008, 1`40)
Street Lights (2008, 3`55)
Accident & Design (2008, 7`20)
Music, Movies & Machines (2008, 6`00)
The Atomium Age (2007, 2`25)
Playing Up (2007, 3`45)
Grid (2007, 2`20)
Signal Tracing (2007, 3`20)
Dash Dot (2006, 0`55)
Rust To Dust (2006, 2`25)
Sun Tower 70 (2006, 3`05)
Get Set (2005, 3`20)
Striations (2005, 4`10)
Deflection Currents (2005, 3`15)
Optical Action (2004, 3`50)
Interpenetration (2004, 3`10)
Compound Eye (2004, 3`10)
Filmosounds (2001-04, 5`05)
Angel Recovered (2003, 3`15)
Beyond the Light (2003, 3`35)
Cycles Per Second (2003, 3`20)
Crosshatch (2003, 7`15)
Origami (2003, 0`50)
Particle Acceleration (2002, 4`45)
Colour Stream (2002, 4`40)
Orbiting the Atom (2002, 4`50)
Headache (2002, 0`45)
Coloured Light District (2002, 2`10)
Chromaburst (2001, 4`55)
Linear Phases (2001, 1`55)
Return to the Light (2001, 1`55)
Patterns of Interference (2000, 3`05)
The Firing Line (2000, 5`00)
Art Flies Free (2000, 3`05)
Rectangular Motion (2000, 4`15)
Megatherm Leader (2000, 3`00, instrument version)
Red/Blue Electron Guns (1999, 2`50)
Into the Light (1998, 4`55)
Disc Break (1998, 3`25)
All In A Day’s Work (1998, 3`00)
Catalyst (1997, 1`25)
Crystallization (1997-2000, 3`45)
Crossing the Equator (1997, 2`20)
Our Honeymoon (1997, 1`00)
Chromatic Leader (1996, 3`40)
The Burning of a Billion Words (1996, 5`15)
Ta Baby (1996, 3`20)
Rubble Man (1995, 2`55)
Holes (1992-2023, 13`00)
Protection Leader (1992-95, 2`40)
Danger of Death (1991-94, 6`00)