Based on a lecture for the CHS Communications MA programme, this essay discusses 'liquid modernity' (Bauman) in the experimental cinema. It compares the literal use of liquidity (eg, direct work on the filmstrip, as by Len Lye) and the imaging of liquid motion (as in Jean Epstein). The theoretical context is taken from Hegel and Sartre on viscosity and movement. The essay concludes with some reflections on 'the watery substance of vision' in recent artist's film and video, instanced in images of flow, slowness and close-up, and their engagement with ambiguity and lack of fixity.