Like Derek Ford, Legend of the Witches director Malcolm Leigh will be best remembered as a sexploitationeer. Directed by Derek Ford and staring High Priest Alex Sanders ( Legend of the Witches, 1970), Secret Rites, 1970, is a pseudo-documentary about a young girl being initiated into a witches’ circle.

Similarly, to other creation stories, it tells of how life on earth began with the smallest of fish and birds, to the creation of animals and man. It is a home for UK cinematic oddities, offering everything from exploitation documentaries to B-movies, countercultural curios and obscure classics, If it's weird, British and forgotten, then it's Flipside. Online since 2010 it is one of the fastest-growing and most respected music-related publications on the net. The investigation into a haunted house is about as persuasive as some hokey ghost-hunting TV show, but the black mass proved far more compelling, as did the segment showing scrying, where a coven member strives to glimpse into the future.

The biggest let down is the drafting in of actress Penny Beeching as the hairdresser with an interest in the Occult. However, there is no doubt in Leigh’s real intentions for making this film (he followed this with British Sex film, Games that Lovers Play, 1971 starring Joanna Lumney). Even so, stretches of it proved intriguing enough to make it a very worthwhile, though never totally bewitching, watch.

Casting beautiful model like, nude woman somewhat discredits this film as an educational documentary, endorsing a more voyeuristic motive by the director. The 39th release in the long standing BFI Flipside strand sees the release of two far out British films. Switch to Alex Sanders, a Notting Hill witch, ready to demystify the controversy surrounding witchcraft and break down some of the stereotypical images. Directed and written by Malcolm Leigh, this film, sold as a documentary, does seem to depict with some authenticity Wiccan rites and ceremonies. An evocative, esoteric exploration of witchcraft at the end of the 1960s – including night-time ritual, reflections on the history of Wicca and a black mass.

Other extras include an interview with ‘father of Wicca’ Gerald Gardner from TV documentary Out of Step, 1957 in which he attempts to dispel the blackened view of witchcraft with reluctance from its interviewer, journalist Dan Farson. Expecting a biased, blood thirsty and erotic account of an ancient religion condemned by the church, I was pleasantly surprised. This ritual includes a naked man having a blindfold put on him and his led through the dark having to trust the woman leading him. This influential counter-cultural documentary of pagan belief is austere and striking in this brand-new, digitally remastered edition.

It’s soundtracked by a hallucinogenic musical freak out by The Spindle and lit with lysergic lighting. Leigh never established a real career in mainstream cinema but his next movie, a sex farce named Games that Lovers Play (1971) did star future national treasure Joanna Lumley. The same goes to the wedding (or handfasting) conducted with the bride and groom both naked, although I have my doubts that there’s always someone dressed as a horned god in attendance. Ok, so the view of the old, wart covered hag are also perhaps a bit stereotypical, but I am certain that even with the newly released interest in witchcraft in the 1970s, not all witches were young beautiful maidens with flowing golden hair.It gives a little insight into modern witchcraft practises and a little background to pagan religion and its evolution through the ages. With no connection to Witchcraft, I can only imagine this was added to the set because of the Alex Sanders connection to Notting Hill. As she emerges from Notting Hill Gate Underground station, she looks like she could be on her way to a modelling assignment for Nova.