All Films

Exquisite Western

1989 • 13 min • Germany

Short film by SCHMELZDAHIN

Here There Be Tygers

1989 • 10 min • Soviet Union

Set in the future, a rocket ship from Earth travels to a far universe and touches down on an unknown planet with a mission to exploit its natural resources. However, this is planet is like no other, it seems to be alive.

Electric Blue: The Best of Electric Blue 13

1989 • 37 min

The Best of Electric Blue, volume 13

The Flamethrowers

1989 • 8 min • Germany, United States of America

Matthias Müller’s films are always about both the eternal and the volatile qualities of cinema. They exaggerate the unreality and clinical perfection of the Hollywood studio films of the 1950s, quoting its sets and colours (Home Stories, 1990; Pensão Globo, 1997) or even reconstructing them in minute detail (Alpsee, 1994). But, at the same time, these attributes, known in film jargon as the production values, are exposed to decay – a decay which on closer inspection proves to include wilful acts of creation. As his own lab technician, Müller is responsible not only for subsequent wear and tear, but also for the initial developing of his own film material.

När kriget kom

1989 • 38 min • Sweden

Short film by the Swedish Psychological Defence Agency showing what would happen if Sweden got into a war.

Physical Sculpture

1989 • 4 min • France

A sculptor models a face with boxing gloves.

A Parrot

1989 • 10 min • Soviet Union

Merab Saralidze short.

Francis: The Knight of Assisi

1989 • 30 min

It was the age of knights and kings, when honor belonged to the heroes and glory was found in the battle field. There lived a brave young man named Francis, who wish was to become a mighty warrior and conquer a magnificent castle. One day Francis felt a calling to greater glory. God had vested upon him a very special mission that would require a supreme act of courage. For the love of God, his King, Francis gave up all that he had and joyfully embarked upon the most exciting and unexpected adventure. FRANCIS: THE KNIGHT OF ASSISI is the remarkable story of the founder of the Order of Minor Friars and inspiration of three Franciscan orders.

The Red One

1989 • 10 min • Soviet Union

Autumn Waltz

1989 • 9 min • Soviet Union

A cheerful bear, who tries to see the positive aspects in all that happens, wants to persuade a little frog that it should smile more often. The bear accidentally falls and can not get home on his own, so the frog stays with him and takes care of the sick. Now they switch roles and the frog encourages him.

A Preponderance of Evidence

1989 • 47 min • United States of America

The stories of three women intertwine in voiceover to Sandra Davis' collage of contradictory images: a Florida swamp, mermaids, the majestic medieval architecture of Europe, Anita Hill before Congress and abstract color and light, interspersed with bits of 1950s educational films. These are shocking testimonies about the burden of female identity: illegal abortions performed in the '50s without anesthesia; the dynamics of the relationship between husbands and wives; the inability to participate in the enjoyment of sex. A mixture of documentary and narrative filmmaking, Davis' powerful film is a personal female journey to deconstruct the burden of inherited identity. - Stela Jelincic

Machete Gillette... Mama

1989 • 42 min • Dominican Republic, United States of America

"With characteristic wit and rigor, experimental filmmaker Larry Gottheim here applies his impressionistic editing style to footage collected during his travels in the Dominican Republic. Gottheim’s formal emphasis on repetition and fissures between sound and image resonates here as a mode of sociological reflection (with the fragmentary montage mirroring elements of ritual while also destabilizing the ethnographic gaze). A largely overlooked antecedent to the contemporary blending of avant-garde and ethnographic filmmaking, MACHETTE GILLETTE… MAMA still poses a potent challenge to documentary convention." - Max Goldberg

50 ans

1989 • 3 min • Canada

A series of very brief clips celebrates the 50th anniversary of the National Film Board of Canada.

The Iconographic Journey: The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian

1989 • 52 min • Belgium

A personal travel notebook. A travel through Europe in search of thirty paintings of the iconic Christian martyr. The film is conceived as a voyage of initiation, an imaginary reportage... imaginary because without an original image of the Saint, all representations were possible.

The Pen Holder

1989 • 9 min • France

During the course of drawing, in a classroom, a little boy gets carried away by his imagination.

Holy Batmania

1989 • 37 min • United States of America

Using behind-the-scenes footage, home movies and rare TV commercials and network promos, this video profiles Batman through the years from its beginnings as a comic book to the successful 1960s TV series.

Betwixt

1989 • 8 min • United States of America

A silver alien entity explores a primordial wasteland, searching for a dancing elf.

Monster Make-Up

1989 • 37 min • United States of America

Let Dick Smith, the creator of the magical special effects for ALTERED STATES, THE EXORCIST, THE HUNGER and AMADEUS, show you how it's done. You'll never have to worry about searching for a Halloween costume again! Using easily available materials, you can transform yourself into any kind of creature that you wish to become.

Exit

1989 • 32 min • Japan

This film depicts from the inside the murderous intent of a street thug who attacks a passing pregnant woman. One day, after cutting a maggot to death, the man's previously dormant madness overflows like a dam and floods him with the next carnage. A maggot, a cockroach, a small dog and a pregnant woman. The film uses black-and-white and colour to depict the mental state of the protagonist as he slowly builds up to the murder. In the last scene, the inner world of the man is symbolically expressed, and the urgency with which he searches for an answer is overwhelming. This is a highly accomplished film, both visually and thematically.

The Genesis

1989 • 25 min

The first part of an incomplete animated adaptation of the Bible.

Movie Showman

1989 • 29 min • Canada

This short film portrays the NFB's itinerant projectionists during the '40s and early '50s who travelled throughout Canada, bringing films and discussions to rural communities. The film uses a mix of dramatic re-enactments with archival footage and interviews with veterans of the movie circuit to shed light on an important period in Canadian film history.

Presently,

1989 • 5 min

1989 short film

W

1989 • 8 min • Japan

When we try to change the miscellaneous world that surrounds us into a truly simple form, what will we find? Working in mass media, Mukahira constantly sets various experimental challenges towards the film medium. This super 8 piece is one of his earlier works. Wrapping the living consciousness with gloves and tracing the things around us as triangular, lozenge, circular figures, the world turns out to be a very unexpected collection of inorganic symbols. If such is the case, would the person who is the so-called "symbol" of this country be coded indifferently as well?

And the Line Doesn't End

1989 • 28 min • Soviet Union

The film is dedicated to the development of culture in Russia. The musical basis of the film is Alexander Gradsky's suite "Nostalgia", written on poems by Vladimir Nabokov.