Visions of Ecstasy DVD – Louise Downie, Elisha Scott 

Visions of Ecstasy, a short, experimental art film made in 1989, is the only film ever to have been banned outright in the UK solely on the grounds of blasphemy. Further its depiction and interpretation of the erotic imaginings of the 16th Century Carmelite nun, St. Teresa, were such that the films banning was upheld in an historic judgement at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in a case that took seven years to reach its conclusion. Now, due to the abolition of the UK’s blasphemy laws in 2008, Visions of Ecstasy is finally being released. Included with this historic film is also a 40 page, booklet written by the films director, Nigel Wingrove, in which he explains how the film came to be made, the effect its banning had on his life and future work, and how his continuing battles against film censorship led eventually to the resignation of the BBFC’s then director, JamesFerman, the legalisation of pornography and a general relaxations of film classification overall.Also included on this DVD are the director’s first erotic short film, Axel (1986) and his nunsploitation feature, Sacred Flesh (2000), in which a Mother Superior struggles with her sexual desires in a series of imagined dialogues with Mary Magdalene will her mind torments her with images of sexual perversion, lesbianism and sadomasochism.