All Films

Richard Simmons: Dance Your Pants Off!

1996 • 60 min • United States of America

Get ready to dance your way to a healthier body with Richard Simmons: Dance Your Pants Off!

The Teddy Boys of the Edwardian Drape Society

1996 • 4 min • United States of America

In the mid-to-late fifties the word “Rock-A-Billy” found its way into the vocabulary of America’s youth. Bill Haley and His Comets were the leaders of this short-lived musical movement. By 1962 Rock-A-Billy was all but gone. But in present day London the fashions, attitudes, tattoos and music of the Rock-A-Billy era are alive and well; if you know where to find it. In venues like The Tennessee Rock and Roll Club, Teddy Boy society still perpetuates the mores of Rock-A-Billy culture. Visually arresting in its approach, The Teddy Boys of the Edwardian Drape Society offers a glimpse into this little known world of late night London.

William Shakespeare: A Life of Drama

1996 • 45 min

William Shakespeare's life produced an unmatched legacy of drama and poetry. But the Bard's own story remains mostly a mystery. Track clues to Shakespeare's identity, from his youth in Stratford-on-Avon and his marriage to an older woman to the night of carousing that led to his death at age 52. Film clips, dramatic readings and other footage provide a glimpse into Shakespeare's life and his astonishing 20-year career as a playwright and actor.

Charlie Harper, 20 Years of Chaos

1996 • 13 min

This documentary is more than anything a film about punk ideology told by punk survivors. The characters have been faithful to the 70's riot, and have developed their aggression into reflective thoughts and opinions. In making our film we have discovered the extremes within this community and how, after more than twenty years, the music is still as popular today.

Abbado: The Silence that Follows the Music

1996 • 59 min • Germany

Shot over a two-year period observing Abbado: a) Rossini, Overture to 'll Barbiere di Siviglia' b) Schubert, Symphony no. 2 B-Major, D. 125 c) Arnold Schonberg, Kammersinfonie no. 1 E-Major op. 9 (Filmed in Venice, Gran Teatro La Fenice, in February 1995, Chamber Orchestra of Europe). a) Richard Strauss, Elektra (Deborah Polaski, Karita Mattila, Marjana Lipovsek, Ferrucio Furlanetto) b) Beethoven, Symphony no 6 F-Major, op. 68, 'Pastorale' (Filmed in the Festspielhaus Salzburg on the occasion of the Easter Festival, April 1995, Berlin Philharmonic). a) Beethoven, Concerto for piano and orchestra no. 3 C-MINOR, OP. 37 (Maria Joao Pires) b) Bruckner, Symphony no. 9 D-Minor (Filmed in Paris, Cite de la Musique, in August 1995, Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra).

The Butterfly Over Sky-Brain

1996 • 15 min • Brazil

This short was one of the first directions / scripts made by director Petter Baiestorf. In the short, EB Toniolli plays a desperate young man who attempts the longest suicide ever shot in the history of cinema. It was recorded in 1992, but edited in 1996.

Ernst & the Light

1996 • 12 min • Denmark

The businessman Ernst has just landed in the airport and is on his way home to his wife. Its raining heavy outside and therefore he takes a hitchhiker with him. They start a conversation about the value of life and soon it becomes evident to the spectators that the hitchhiker is Jesus Christ, but Ernst is in too much of a rush to go back to his wife to notice.

Do-inran!! Jukuzuma kurabu 'Aan, tamannai...'

1996 • 58 min

The Garden

1996 • 7 min • Israel

A guy walking down the street sees a man being kidnapped into a public garden in broad daylight. There is no trace of the man, but a few blood drops leading to a manhole cover in the ground. When the guy comes back at night to investigate, a surprise is waiting for him.

Dear Daughter

1996 • 55 min • Ireland

Dear Daughter was the first televised exposure of the horrific abuse of hundreds of children in Ireland’s industrial schools. Christine Buckley bravely recounts the extent of the atrocities she experienced as a child in Dublin’s Goldenbridge orphanage in this drama-documentary. Born in Dublin, she was the daughter of a married Irish woman and a Nigerian medical student. At the age of three weeks old she was given up to be fostered. Dear Daughter delves into her traumatic childhood at the orphanage and her persistent determination to find her parents.

Godzilla vs. the Netherlands

1996 • 6 min • Netherlands

In the middle of the computer era, Holland receives a visit from an old-fashioned Japanese film monster. A devastating tourist visit.

Pregnant, or Lesbian?

1996 • 5 min • France

A teenager comes out to her parents by asking them to guess whether she is pregnant or a lesbian.

Arne Anka - An Evening at Zekes

1996 • 57 min • Sweden

Arne Anka had been declared dead as a comic strip character since a few months back. However, by this time Charlie Christensen's (a.k.a. Alexander Barks) creation had reached status as quite a cult phenomenon, so the play must have been received with much anticipation and enthusiasm, so much so that it was filmed and subsequently released on video-tape.

Shin rei bideo II: Kyôfu taikendan-shuu

1996 • 44 min • Japan

Documentary directed by Norio Tsuruta.

Fred MacMurray: The Guy Next Door

1996 • 50 min • United States of America

Amiable and unassuming, Fred MacMurray went from small-town boy to one of Hollywood and television's most enduring stars.

The Georgetown Loop

1996 • 11 min • United States of America

First screened as part of Jacobs' "Nervous System" film performance, The Georgetown Loop is based on an archival film from 1903, which Jacobs pairs with its mirror double to produce a kaleidoscopic two-screen projection. The original film depicts a journey shot from the cab of a train passing through the Colorado Rockies, and, in this hypnotic new form, comes to suggest the movement of consciousness itself.

Groper Train: Finger Bullying

1996 • 60 min • Japan

Ryoko is a high school girl who attends a prestigious private high school in Tokyo. However, her grades are steadily declining. Her day begins with an encounter on the train to school. It is not just the man that keeps Ryoko from studying. Ryoko's sister and her husband, Shunichi, are impotent, which makes her sister Misako sexually frustrated, and the consequences of this fall on Ryoko. The only thing that helps her relieve such stress is the man's fingers on the train to school.

Two Melons and a Stinking Fish

1996 • 48 min

Intimate portrait of artist Sarah Lucas, whose witty and provocative work explores questions of identity and sexuality. With contributions from Angus Fairhurst and Damien Hirst.

Bronwen & Yaffa (Moving Towards Tolerance)

1996 • 27 min • Canada

This documentary presents two young women from Halifax who are organizing rock concerts to raise money for the group Eastcoast Against Racism. Bronwen and Yaffa believe that the universal language of music will help unite the community. At the same time, they struggle to renew their friendship with Scott, a former Ku Klux Klan member. This moving film is set against a vibrant soundtrack of punk and rap music.

Soft Like Me

1996 • 26 min • Canada

On a secluded prairie farm, adolescent boys labor in wheat fields for a sexually predatory warden and his farmhands, who threaten to feed them to a voracious beast if they ever disobey. The newly arrived Linus instantly catches the warden's eye, and begins to receive secret visitations from a mysterious girl. The other boys tell Linus the legend of a special boy who fled the farm and became a glorious angel that will one day return to free them all. When Linus asks the girl if she is the angel, her answer is enigmatic. After the warden's favorite boy dies, Linus is poised to become the next victim. The girl reappears and promises to help him escape, but with hope comes punishment.

Hustlers, Hoaxsters, Pranksters, Jokesters and Ricky Jay

1996 • 50 min • United Kingdom

A documentary about the life and work of sleight-of-hand artist Ricky Jay, with appearances by Ricky Jay, David Mamet and Steve Martin.

Venimos llenos de tierra

1996 • 3 min • Argentina

A family tells what they had to do to get to the fifth floor of their home

The Lover

1996 • 26 min • Belgium

A bereft filmmaker asks a series of women to pose nude for his camera in this striking and moody short film by Belgium's Olivier Smolders. The silent encounters act as counterpoint to a contemplative internal monologue musing on love, loss and the subtle power-plays of aversion and desire underway in an atmosphere pervaded by an irresistible erotic gloom. Filmed in a lustrous black and white, the themes explored find their perfect compliment in the stark, fascinated, all-embracing gaze of the camera. - Robert Avila

Pistol Pete

1996 • 23 min

TV pilot created by Simpsons writer John Swartzwelder set in the Old West.