Random Acts

How one brave mother fled domestic abuse, found her voice and rose up to fight for justice. A story of survival, strength and never giving up.

Random Acts showcases the world's best creative films, from established names and new artistic talent, and from avant-garde visual art to music video, spoken word and eye-popping animation. In Random Acts: We're All Unwanted Somewhere, after getting a scary text, @Pervers3cowgirls go to a clinic to get checked out. Sat waiting in a dull, clinical waiting room, their anxieties, preconceived judgements, and general loathing of life become reflected in the world around them.

An exploration of British-Asian stories and experiences in modern Britain. This episode follows one woman's journey from an arranged marriage in 1987 in India to her life on a London council estate raising three children.

Short drama set amid the 1980s, during the job market crisis of the Thatcher era when HIV/AIDS was widespread. Nicholas, a disabled, unemployed mechanic, is unfairly denied the chance of applying for the job he's best suited for, due to his disability. Frustrated, his imagination takes flight on a musical journey of singing and dancing, through disco and ballroom, giving a voice to his silenced, job-seeking peers, and calling for access and change.

Established artists and amateurs showcase their three-minute films, chosen for bold and original expressions of creativity.

Established artists and amateurs showcase their three-minute films, chosen for bold and original expressions of creativity.

Established artists and amateurs showcase their three-minute films, chosen for bold and original expressions of creativity.

Established artists and amateurs showcase their three-minute films, chosen for bold and original expressions of creativity.

The strand returns with a collection of new films from black film-makers, beginning with Anne Fearon's Motherhood.

Vacant Base by Isaac Tomiczek, exploring the influence of clubbing on modern British multiculturalism.

A collection of exciting new films from cutting-edge black filmmakers, this time featuring Rikki Henry's short film Venus/Mars.

The short film strand dedicated to works by cutting-edge black film-makers continues with Enough, by Abdou Cisse, which aims to burst stereotypes around black male youth culture.

Denis Alder brings West African art alive in Mablo Micasso, a surreal and beautiful journey through culture and myth. Showing as part of C4's programming for Black History Month.

A sitcom with Asa Butterfield and Adam Buxton turns into a bloodbath, an artist gets a Botox injection in the throat, and a pair of frisky fingers find love

In this episode, a VHS stand-up routine becomes an existential nightmare, a pensioner tries to overcome her past in Newcastle, and some tiny tea cups help a relationship blossom.

A trip to the dentist becomes a unique and startling experience, there's a split-screen dance with a selfie twist, and Neil Maskell stars in a heart-breaking drama

A champagne cork is weaponised in an acute observation of modern relationships. Adham Faramawy gives make-up tutorials an unnerving update. A dance piece syncs up with sunlight.

Adjoa Andoh narrates Arctic poetry, and Geoffrey McGivern becomes a new Big Brother. Plus: the ultimate heavy metal knitting circle.

Channel 4's nightly short-form arts strand, showcasing specially commissioned three-minute films chosen for their bold and original expressions of creativity.

This episode conjures up internet cats like you've never seen them before, a jazz ensemble made entirely of bird puppets, a Peckham auntie who reclaims the streets on horseback, and opera reimagined as a partially-nude fantasia. Plus: the menstrual underworld awaits in an animated music video for Swedish punk ShitKid.

A visual artist lights up a ghost town, west African folklore meets fashion film, an insta-perfect life is a waking nightmare, and Noel Fielding plays a dying angel. Plus: Maki Yokishura's family-friendly doggy delights, and an inclusive dance group animated in powerful stop motion.

This episode features painterly animation and the first dance filmed in Antarctica. Social media gives an animator the blues, bodies collide in new configurations in an elegant movement piece, and there's a vivid reflection of a fractured mind. Plus: cut-out animation of a gender-neutral plant.

In the episode, a collaboration between ballet dancer Sophie Rebecca and poet Ash Palmisciano. Plus: teenage anxiety creates a glitch in the system, Botis Seva explores parenthood through dance, a teenager confronts her doppelgangers, an impactful artwork examines gun violence, and Bernard Cribbins narrates a visual deep-dive into woodland nostalgia.

Zawe Ashton presents more music, animation, dance, visual art and uncategorisable creative brilliance, from brand new talent and from more established names. This episode includes a short film by Debbie Tucker Green made to the sounds of a little-known Cocteau Twins B-side. A magical tapestry comes to life, Brooklyn-based animator Qieer Wang provides a champagne bath for our emotions, a young filmmaker smashes the state with a capitalist parable, and the daily grind becomes a Welsh-language poem with Osian Rhys Jones.

A swimming pool receives some uninvited guests at night. Plus: a romantic dance-off, a surreal animated creature feature, pink balloons in hot pursuit of a young woman, and more.

This week: Bafta-winning actor Monica Dolan battles a killer houseplant, poet Simon Armitage shares his final words, and Alex Bag leaves a big surprise in your adult diaper. Plus award-winning dance from Antoine Marc.

This week: young people's laureate Caleb Femi smashes preconceptions, dancing meets architecture at the Barbican, there's a disturbing kids-only dystopia in Aaron Dunleavy's Strays, and trees fight back in a trippy animation.

In this episode, musician Laura Marling catches comedian Tim Key's eye, a performance poet has a stern word with her pelvis pal in Ode to a Fuckboi, and the #TeamIndus Indian space mission inspires dance from celebrated choreographer Hemabharathy Palani. Plus: find out exactly how to be rad.

In this episode, Misfits charmer Robert Sheehan is down and out in LA, Bafta Award-winner Duncan Cowles flogs stock footage for cold hard cash, and we're feeling thirsty in an animated post-apocalypse. And, in a single-take experiment, a Chelsea supporter enters frame left.

The first episode in the new series features balloon art battles on the Yorkshire Moors, a kinky oil slick in a pristine art gallery, and pole dancing reinvented. Plus new work from acclaimed visual artist Hannah Perry.

Including voyeurism in Kiev, funky modern soul from musician Kwaye and animation about two friends experiencing life differently due to the shade of their skin. Plus: a fashion film by... Zawe Ashton.

Goldie makes his directorial debut. The city's dark corners come to life. A nibble on forbidden fruit unlocks the dawning of consciousness. Plus: supermarket awkwardness from cartoonist Babak Ganjei.

Zawe Ashton hosts the third series of Channel 4's late-night, post-pub home for the world's craziest and most creative short films, from brand new talent and more established names, and from music to animation, dance, visual art, spoken word and uncategorisable creative brilliance. A panda does unspeakable things to our brains, a pair of swimming champs are seriously in sync, and life flashes before our eyes in Vienna. Plus: a new Jarman Award shortlisted film from Welsh visual artist Bedwyr Williams.

Zawe Ashton hosts the third series of Channel 4's late-night, post-pub home for the world's craziest and most creative short films, from brand new talent and from more established names, and from music to animation, dance, visual art, spoken word and uncategorisable creative brilliance. This episode features crashing toga parties. Plus: reimagining Shakespeare with Selma's David Oyelowo, submerging random objects in the deep blue sea, and a cheeky Blade Runner riff in Like Teardrops in the Rain.

Zawe Ashton hosts the third series of Channel 4's late-night, post-pub home for the world's craziest and most creative short films, from brand new talent and from more established names, and from music to animation, dance, visual art, spoken word and uncategorisable creative brilliance. This episode features rabbit assassins, the underground world of gangster dentistry in a Miami housing project, a nightmare direct from an artist's dream journal, and an anthropomorphic vagina.

Random Acts returns with a new host and a new series of the best creative short films on television. Presented by Jordan Stephens, the new series of six, 30-minute episodes showcases this generation's most exciting film-making talent: from music to animation, dance to spoken word and anything visually random in between. This episode features a modern day Romeo and Juliette story shot entirely by drones, and the world premiere of Roadkill, a gripping drama written.

Jordan Stephens presents more of the best creative short films on television, from music to animation, from dance to spoken word and anything visually random in between. Hot Chip side-project New Build's hilarious music video Luminous Freedom quickly becomes an addictive word game. Blackest Day is a moving dance piece inspired by accounts of shell-shocked soldiers who fought at the Somme. Again and Again and Again is a supersaturated satire on the future of data storage by artist Rachel McLean. Springing is a pastel-hued film by fast-emerging filmmaker Sophie Littman about a boy overcoming his nerves at a trampoline club. In Leo Leigh's deliciously noir comedy Sometimes Chinese, a downtrodden husband has an epiphany when he orders takeaway. Finally, Recode, one of Jordan's favourite films of the series, is a monochrome dance and spoken word performance about the experience of living with dyslexia by Birmingham's Man Made Youth Company.

Jordan Stephens presents more of the best creative short films on television, from music to animation, dance, spoken word and anything visually random in between. Shot at night in an almost completely unpopulated Basildon town centre, this episode opens with an extraordinary music video directed by Kim Laughton for Danny L Harle's track Without You, inspired by the morning after a night before. Plus: a paranormal dark comedy from Fred Rowson, inspired by an American woman who believed her toaster was haunted in 1984. Jessica Bishopp's beautiful quasi-documentary ponders the issue of life extension and what it might be like to live well into a second century, by speaking to scientists, anthropologists and members of the public. Magical, minimal animated short All in the Mind explores humans' impact on nature and was created by Eden Koetting and her father Andrew. And Danni Spooner's dance piece Fag! challenges preconceptions around gender identity.

Jordan Stephens presents more of the best creative short films on television, from music to animation, dance, spoken word and anything visually random in between. George Wu's delightful animation explores the delicate dance of an office romance and an elephant in the room. Filmed in Berlin, visual art piece Mirrored by Ill-Studio explores architecture and our experience of it. In Saeed Taji Farouky's spectacular period piece They Live in Forests, They Are Extremely Shy, an indigenous Australian man comes face to face with a horrifying spectacle in an exhibition in Victorian London. A musical performance by 88 cymbals is shot from above in Florian Habicht's piece, Boredoms, which is a collaboration with the Japanese band of the same name.

Jordan Stephens presents more of the best creative short films on television. Noah Harris and Andy Biddle's stop-motion animation Salvation repurposes an eclectic array of charity shop finds to explore the nature of evolution. Set in an old people's home, Edwin Mingard's dreamy aerial dance piece Flying/Falling features octogenarian dancers conquering time and space. Jack Scott's super-8 film Jam! takes the concept of food porn to a beyond-logical conclusion. Plus: Riz Ahmed's video for the track Zayn Malik, performed by Riz's rap group side project Swet Shop Boys. The Game, a machine-gun dialogue penned by and starring Random Acts' very own Jordan Stephens and directed by Michael Middleton-Downer, questions the idea that to win at life we should treat it as a game. Finally, in a wonderful animation by Nicolas Menard, one man's quest to find God becomes entangled with an unexpected romance.

Writer, filmmaker and cult comedian Eric Wareheim showcases the world's best creative short films, from avant garde visual art to music video, eye-popping animation, contemporary dance and spoken word. A pulsating music video for Battles opens this episode. Filmmakers Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard discuss their John Milton-inspired short film, Paradise Lost. Aerial photography exploring the boundaries of art, science and technology features in the latest short from documentary director Jim Demuth. Plus: a striking creative short by Ryan Hopkinson that captures the beauty of the human body.

Writer, filmmaker and cult comedian Eric Wareheim showcases the world's best creative short films from the channel's Random Acts strand. The shorts cover avant garde visual art, music video, eye-popping animation, contemporary dance, spoken word and all points inbetween and Eric guides us through them in a slightly unhinged mode pitched somewhere between The Late Show and Garry Shandling. In the final episode of the series Eric Wareheim showcases a music video premiere for James Righton's new project, Shock Machine, directed by Simon Amstell. Artist, David Blandy takes us on a techno-trip through his ideas via an Apple-Mac taskbar. We have a new art film for Frieze by Xavier Cha and Charlie Lyne is in the studio to present his homage to classic movies in a dark masterpiece.