The Substance: Albert Hofmann's LSD

The Substance: Albert Hofmann's LSD (2011) is a documentary you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Martin Witz. On April 19, 1943, Sandoz chemist Albert Hofmann cycled home through Basel and realised something was wrong — a trace of LSD-25 he had synthesised had reached his bloodstream.

Witz follows the molecule across eight decades: the psychiatric experiments of the 1950s, the countercultural surge of the 1960s, the crackdowns that followed, and the quiet scientific revival of the 2000s. Hofmann, who lived to 102, appears on camera and calls LSD a sacred gift — one he believed humanity had squandered. It's a claim worth arguing with, and the film knows it. Stream The Substance online on iFILM.