All Films

Superbia – The Pride

1988 • 15 min • Germany

Pride is the first of the seven deadly sins. The introduction is made through early allegorical forms and figures (triumphal procession, dance of death, Baroque tragedy etc.) The triumphal procession of the giant haystack as a symbol of human vanities becomes a military parade of abrupt, functional and arrogant gestures. The most diverse musical fragments and rhythms intone the montage of details in the staged triumphal procession, juxtaposed with documentary images, including marches, ticker-tape parades and military review.

Great Noises That Fill the Air

1988 • 26 min • United Kingdom

Since 1983, Bow Gamelan Ensemble have inspired generations of artists with their radical practices and explosive performances. Charged with their individual virtuosity in performance art, avant-garde music and kinetic sculpture, their sound installations and performances are immersed in an orchestra of instruments made from scrap metal, electric motors, river barges and domestic objects including glass sheets, light bulbs and fireworks.

Sam Found Out: A Triple Play

1988 • 60 min

Liza Minnelli plays three separate women in three separate stories. There's a serious drama about a hooker and her pimp, a romance about a lonely dancer and a black prince, and a musical about a man and a woman having dog problems.

We Need a Staple Gun

1988 • 5 min

Documentary short shot at the Annual Fourth of July Yippie Smoke-in in 1988. Filmed by John Heyn and Seth Morris using borrowed equipment from the public access studio Jeff Krulik was running at the time.

No Frank in Lumberton

1988 • 59 min • Germany

A very surreal video shot behind the scenes during the production of Blue Velvet in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1985 by Peter Braatz.

The Hare Who Liked to Give Advice

1988 • 8 min • Soviet Union

Honky F U C K Woman

1988 • 60 min • Japan

Erotic drama distributed by Nikkatsu for home video.

The Turtle King

1988 • 10 min • Soviet Union

There was an island inhabited by turtles. Their king above all else loved all kinds of praise and flattery, so subjects always followed them trying to play along to him. One day he decided to climb very high, using a very unstable structure.

National Geographic: White Wolf

1988 • 50 min

In the harsh northern reaches of Canada's Ellesmere Island, elusive arctic wolves share their secrets with two patient observers. Shielded by their remote location and inhospitable climate, these wild animals have not yet learned to fear humans. This is the most intimate film about wolf behavior ever made.

A Little Monastery in Tuscany

1988 • 56 min • France

It is a brief documentary which records the life of five Augustinian monks in the little monastery of Castelnuovo dell'Abate, a Tuscan village, as well as the everyday life of people in the small town, from farmers to meat-hackers, from wine-makers to wild boar hunters.

Richard Lewis: I'm Exhausted

1988 • 57 min

The sun's too bright, the traffic's going to be bad, there's too many people out there... It's just easier to sit back on the couch and laugh with Richard Lewis.

Ingmar Bergman: The Magic Lantern

1988 • 60 min • United Kingdom

The first of two documentaries about Ingmar Bergman produced to mark his 70th birthday. Includes behind the scenes "home movies" from Bergman's personal archive, interviews with Bergman recorded over his 40 years in the film industry and passages from his autobiography read by Max von Sydow and Bergman himself.

The Little Shipowner

1988 • 55 min • Belgium

A film made for television, based on the book of the same name by Libera Carlier. A Flemish family decides to spend the summer holidays on de Schelde. Father Janssen buys a second-hand boat and together with his wife and two sons he sets sail. What follows is a sequence of pleasant moments and disappointments, watched by the sceptical mother Janssen.

Everyone Loves Someone...

1988 • 48 min • Soviet Union

According to the stories of I.Kasafutdinov. Grigory has been working as a diver in the Sea of Okhotsk for many years. He misses his six-year-old son Dimka very much and decides to return to his hometown to invite his ex-wife Katya to try to somehow establish a life together. When he arrives, he finds out that Katya has a new husband, and she is expecting a child from him. Grigory asks to give him his son in exchange for all the money earned in the north, and Katya, after a brief hesitation, agrees. Grigory takes Dimka away, but the police overtake them at the train station. At the police station, Grigory learns that his ex-wife has filed a complaint about the abduction of her son...

Das Singen im Dom zu Magdeburg

1988 • 20 min • East Germany, Germany

Jewish and Christian music merge in this film about one of the oldest choirs in Germany, the choir in Magdeburg Cathedral, which has been performing together with the head cantor of the Jewish community in West Berlin, Estrongo Nachama, since 1980. The choir already existed when Walther von der Vogelweide celebrated Christmas here; the cathedral has survived devastation and wars, most recently the bombing of Magdeburg in January 1945. The choir sings "Oh, how the city lies so desolate, which was full of people". The choir now rehearses and sings together with Estrongo Nachama.

The Deadly Rapeman 1: Hunting the Injury

1988 • 60 min • Japan

A dark executioner who settles grudges that the law cannot punish...

Francis Bacon

1985 • 55 min • United Kingdom

Francis Bacon revolutionised figurative painting in the 20th century. The English painter unmasked his subjects in a provocative and ruthless manner. Deformed bodies, grimacing faces and the materiality of colour make us aware of brutality and sexuality, existential abysses and the fears of existence. Author Melvyn Bragg accompanies the painter throughout his day. This begins in his London atelier, leads us on to his favourite pub and ends up in gambling club in Soho.

The Return of the Prodigal Parrot (Part 3)

1988 • 10 min • Soviet Union

The fat red Cat goes with his owners to their country house. Kesha complains that, unlike the others, he has to stay in the city because Vovka is sick. Not wanting to wait for his owner to recover, the parrot goes on vacation by himself.

Inspiration, Pleasure, and Sixth Sense

1988 • 60 min • Japan

Erotic-drama distributed by Nikkatsu for home video.

Letter from a Time of Exile

1988 • 51 min • France, Lebanon

Alaouié presents the stories of four exiles from Beirut. Their only connection is the voice of the narrator and their situation of living in exile in Europe. Told with a subtle humor, the film sketches four highly individual portraits of people, whose lives have taken unexpected turns due to the madness of the Civil War.

Embracing and Getting Wet

1988 • 55 min • Japan

Pink film distributed by Xces / Nikkatsu.

Dog Brain

1988 • 2 min • Canada

Dogs dream about taking naps.

On s'est tous défilé

1988 • 13 min • France

A rare short done in much of the same vein of “Puissance de la Parole”, where there is no shortage of cross-dissolve and rapid montage effects. Here, the sources are between fashion clips, street footage, and a number of paintings, to which Godard narrates the implications of what is being seen.

Songs from an Angel

1988 • 5 min

In this film, made two weeks prior to his death from AIDS, San Francisco performer Rodney Price sings and tap dances a darkly humorous song about his own death, "I've Got Less Time Than You." It is a heartening and powerful testament to the resilience of the human spirit.