Borderline (1930) is a lost classic of the British avant-garde, an experimental film depicting the inner states of characters involved in an interracial love triangle.

Groundbreaking for its treatment of race and sexuality, the film was directed by Kenneth Macpherson (1903–71), editor of the film journal Close Up (1927–33), the first British journal dedicated to film as a Modernist art form.

Borderline stars the poet HD (Hilda Doolittle) and Macpherson’s wife, writer Winifred Bryher. The militant black American singer Paul Robeson and his wife Eslanda play the leading roles in the film, which attempts to recreate the logic of dreams, while denying the viewer a traditional narrative. The present is indistinguishable from the past, and the imagined blurs into the real.

World-renowned jazz saxophonist Courtney Pine has been commissioned to write a new score for Borderline through Necessary Journeys, an Arts Council England funded initiative.

Pine’s soundtrack re-casts Borderline in a new light with an alternative set of meanings. Pine is an acclaimed British jazz musician, known primarily for his saxophone playing, but he also plays the flute, clarinet and keyboards. His recent music has attempted to integrate modern British music like drum and bass, and garage with contemporary jazz styles. In 2000 Pine was awarded an OBE for services to jazz.

Restored print courtesy of the British Film Institute