Amanda Feilding's "Heartbeat in the Brain" (Rarely-Screened 1970 Documentary)

Amanda Feilding is a British scientist best known for her work in the practise of trepanation, an ancient medical proceedure in which a small hole is cut out of the skull to eleviate a variety of ailments, or even to achieve a higher state of consciousness (as Feilding would later try to prove herself).

In 1970, believeing that trepanation would increase cerebral circulation, by allowing the hearbeat to fully express itself (leading to a higher state of consciousness), Feidling, (then 27), performed the proceedure on herself, recording the entire event. The film, which she titled Heartbeat in the Brain (which consisted of interspliced scenes of the operation, and motion studies of Feilding's pet pidgeon, Birdie, respectively), was first publicly screened in 1978, at the Suydam Gallery in New York. During the climax of the film, in which Feilding successfully removes a section of her own skull, many audience members were said to have fainted.

The film was long thought by many to be lost, due to it's incredibly limited amount of screenings, until it was once again puclibly shown in April of 2011 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. The entire film has never surfaced online, although several snippets can be seen in Eli Kabillio's 1998 documentary A Hole in the Head.