All Films

Life Lessons

1989 • 40 min

Life Lessons is a captivating short film directed by Martin Scorsese, featured as part of the 1989 anthology New York Stories. The film dives into the turbulent relationship between a successful, yet emotionally volatile painter, Lionel Dobie, and his young assistant, Paulette. Set against the vibrant backdrop of New York City, the narrative explores the intersection of artistic obsession and personal turmoil. With Scorsese's signature intensity, Life Lessons offers a raw and poignant glimpse into the struggles of creativity and love, making it an essential watch for fans of the director and those intrigued by the complexities of the artistic mind.

My Mom is A Sorceress

1989 • 10 min • Soviet Union

For every child, mother is the best sorceress in the world.

Andy Warhol: Made in China

1989 • 30 min • United States of America

A look at the man behind the legend, capturing the real Andy Warhol, as an artist and as a person, as he travels through China, from Hong Kong's glitter to the mystique of Peking's Forbidden City. Set in the Far East, the story begins with the opening of the most elegant jet set watering hole in Asia, Hong Kong's “I Club,” whose owner, a young Chinese millionaire, decided to try an experiment: to transplant the most advanced, far-out Western culture to the Far East in a multimillion-dollar club that offers everything from restaurants and bars, to a health club and even an art gallery. Warhol is invited to attend the opening as a guest of honor showing his “Celebrity Portraits.” The result of this cultural experiment was varied. Emotions from the “I Club” and Warhol's work ranged from outrage to indifference to wonder.

The Childeater

1989 • 13 min

Eight-year old Betty is sent to stay with family on a remote Welsh farm, but her father has warned her that her uncle eats children who don't behave.

Installation Time

1989 • 6 min

“Mr. Tsuguö Yanaï makes paper objects. He installs these objects in a gallery in Tokyo. The camera was also installed in the gallery. It filmed all of the time of installation and its preparation…. Yet the film is not the documentary of an installation, but of installation time.” - Yo Ota

My Brother Is Afraid Of Just About Everything

1989 • 11 min

Martin couldn't understand his little brother's many fears until he, himself, was scared off by a large dog.

Toga Party Massacre

1989 • 36 min • United States of America

"Frankie" Robertson returns from the grave to wreak havoc on some partying teens in this SOV horror parody.

Sex, Drugs and Soft Toys - The Making of Meet the Feebles

1989 • 29 min • New Zealand

This documentary looks at how the strings were pulled on Peter Jackson's low-budget puppet movie Meet the Feebles. An old Wellington railway shed fizzes with energy and imagination as a team peppered with future Oscar-winners crafts the gleefully subversive Muppets parody.

The Gap in the Curtain

1989 • 4 min

Very short sequences of geometrically-shaped colourful film images file past ultra-fast fashion to produce an intense stroboscopic flickering effect. A study of visual perception based on the persistence of vision and a tribute to the work of American filmmaker Paul Sharits.

Scared to Death

1989 • 7 min • Japan

An image synthesized version of Mardi Gras festival in New Orleans, in which many colorized images flow slowly left to right as the parade of the floats goes by in front of the camera with the decorated messages. The title Scared to Death is one of them. The development of the images is somewhat similar to the old Japanese scrolled painting: Makie.

The Hill Farm

1989 • 18 min • United Kingdom

A country couple and their shepherd endure drought, flood, a monstrous bear, hunters and tourists during a somewhat odd few days in their normally quiet life.

World Industries - Rubbish Heap

1989 • 37 min

The first World Industries video, directed by Spike Jonze and featuring riders such as Vallely, Rocco, Mullen and Chris Pastras.

Yearning for Sodom

1989 • 45 min • Germany

Made during the last months of actor Kurt Raab, who died of AIDS in 1988. Raab, who had worked in both theatre and film, most notably with Fassbinder, was in the process of making a series of video sketches for a new production when he learned that he had AIDS. Despite his deteriorating health, and with the caring support of his friend Hans Hirshmuller, he carried on working. This tape is his last testimony. Awarded with the Adolf Grimme Award and Cinéma du Réel Award

Three from Pankivka

1989 • 10 min • Soviet Union

The animation tells the story about three dull, but funny brothers from the Pankivka village. They make a mess of all things. If there’s nothing to do, they can easily come up with something that will make them look stupid. They will cut a cock’s feathers instead of brother’s hair, and will make a fish broth in the lake, will choose the longest way of two paths, and will “help” their neighbors with all their hearts.

The Magical Eye

1989 • 47 min • Canada

Features clips from 21 documentary and animation film classics, interviews with NFB filmmakers past and present, and incisive commentary from film critics and historians on the role and influence of the NFB during its first half century of existence.

Land Bilong Islanders

1989 • 52 min

A significant historic record of proceedings in the Queensland Supreme Court regarding the Murray Islanders’ native title claim over their traditional lands.

People Power

1989 • 53 min • Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States of America

An exploration of non-violence as the means to achieving social reforms, focusing on the downfall of Pinochet in Chile, the Palestinian Intifada, and Cory Aquino's "people power" revolution in the Philippines.

Dov'è Meneghetti?

1989 • 12 min • Brazil

Sardina Sauvage

1989 • 6 min

A film centered on the graphic and pictorial works of the artist Paolo Sardina, whose images have been painted and scratched directly onto the film.

Axel

1989 • 8 min

The girl is assisted to her feet and has a bird's head placed on her. The girl is led to another figure who is wearing a horse's head. The bird's head is removed after the horse head and bird size each other up. The girl is the left by herself. She wanders into a fog bank and lands on the ground. She sees an angel. The angel frees her from her mortal bonds.

Volta Redonda – Memorial Da Greve

1989 • 39 min • Brazil

In the late 1970s, the labor movement began to gain strength. In 1988, the workers of the National Steel Company (CSN) in the city of Volta Redonda decreed a great strike. Military intervention is immediate; repression kills three young workers and injures dozens.

Safe For Life

1989 • 11 min • Denmark

"I am soon tired of hearing about safe sex. I'll not catch AIDS!," a young voice says at the beginning of this animation film which applies especially to young people aged 14-18 years. In a humorous way the film tells about safe sex when you use a condom, but also that safe sex can be practiced in many ways without a condom.

MA: Space/Time in the Garden of Ryoan-ji

1989 • 16 min • Japan, United States of America

The early sixteenth-century Japanese garden in the Zen temple of Ryoan-ji, in Kyoto, is considered a masterpiece of the karesansui or "dry landscape" style... In this film, the viewer is invited to experience the garden as an embodiment of ma, a Japanese concept that conveys both time and space... The aesthetic of the film is the message, it has the quality of an experimental film, a conceptual film-an artwork in itself. Good balance of music/visuals/titles. If not as compelling for some viewers as for others, still rated as very effective. Makes one want to visit the actual garden and experience its spiritual energy. – Art on Screen

Yerik

1989 • 10 min • Soviet Union

This is a story about a man who brings about the end of the world, which his compatriots greet with joy and merriment. Screen adaptation of Andrei Platonov's story, created by Kyivnaukfilm studio. The animation masterfully conveys the whimsicality of the writer's prose, which exposed the absurdity and horror of Soviet life above all.