All Films

The Triumph of Man

1983 • 4 min

Experimental short film by Dean Snider.

Just for the Fun of It

1983 • 1 min

Experimental short film by Dean Snider.

Fauvrite

1983 • 9 min

Subatomic Babies

1983 • 8 min

Densely colorized images of a couple making love and a close-up of a child's face dissolve into a nuclear mushroom cloud at the beginning of Subatomic Babies, one of Gorewitz's most highly charged works. Through a dramatic use of image-processing and an ominous, intensified soundtrack, Gorewitz links sex, life and death in an apocalyptic resolution that he calls "ecstasy near the abyss." Human figures — a man shadowboxing, his fists jabbing against the screen — are virtually swallowed up in threatening maelstroms of form and color. Shot in Jamaica and the South Bronx, this work conflates images that resonate with sexual and political meaning, reflecting Gorewitz's concern for the children "born under the atom."

The Popes and Their Art

1983 • 50 min • United Kingdom

A visit of the art collections of the Vatican Museums with British actor James Mason.

Sabangan

1983 • 29 min • Philippines

Recalling how the Pantabangan Dam had disrupted the lives of kinsmen in the southern part of Sierra Madre, the Remontados in Tanay, Rizal, stand their ground in opposition to the proposed Kaliwa-Kanan Dam, a project of the Marcoses funded by the World Bank.

Latah: A Culture-Specific Elaboration of the Startle Reflex

1983 • 38 min

A classic short documentary within medical anthropology.

Shawa Bahmad

1983 • 11 min • Egypt

A day in the life of a rural family.

Headline Today: Guatemala

1983 • 58 min

Headline Today: Guatemala is a war documentary. Two American journalists: Allan Nairn and Jean-Marie Simon explore the internal armed conflict in Guatemala in 1982. After General Efraín Ríos Montt comes to power the few news about Guatemala that appear in the United States' media are apparently positive. The major American media advertises the image of Ríos Montt as a “born again Christian” with a mission to pacify Guatemala. Nothing is further from reality. The Reagan Republican administration hides from Americans the war aid that his administration continues to provide to the Guatemalan army, despite the explicit congressional ban. The international media remains silent about the dimensions of the war in Guatemala while Ríos Montt, with the approval of the local oligarchy, leads for 18 months the largest number of atrocities and human rights violations against the civilian population.

Ahluvyalike

1983 • 6 min

A poetic dramatization of certain emotional spaces manifested by intense love relationships. This work is considered by some historians to be the first piece produced in the poetry video genre.

Morphology

1983 • 5 min • Japan

O Coração do Cinema

1983 • 18 min • Brazil

Free adaptation of the script by Vladimir Maiakovski. Jomard Muniz de Brito and Pernambuco's cinema.

Patt

1983 • 7 min • Germany

Short film by Dagmar Knöpfel.

Petite Mort

1983 • 6 min • France

"As a reminder for the younger generations, in 1983 there were only 3 television channels in France. Special effects production with graphic palette was at its beginning in editing rooms. Canal+ was born in 1984, the 5th and 6th channels in 1986. Marshall MacLuhan and Paul Virilio provided input for my reflections regarding the impact of technologies on our five senses and our spatio-temporal perception"

Keltie's Beard: A Woman's Story

1983 • 9 min • Canada

Before Keltie came along, the women in her family removed their facial hair and told no one. Keltie is proud of her beard and tells her story to us in this single-take film.

AC/DC Joe Louis Arena Detroit USA November 18 1983

1983 • 46 min

AC/DC's Flick Of The Switch promotional concert footage recorded at the Joe Louis Arena Detroit USA on November 18 1983.

Self-Portrait

1983 • 4 min

A short, silent, oblique self-portrait from 1983. Filmed on 16mm Kodachrome 40 and some black-and-white stock (the superimpositions were made in-camera) and reworked on the optical printer at the LFMC.

Fear of Poetry

1983 • 40 min

An improvisatory 40-minute foray into a fervent, formative period in the lives of poets such as Dennis Cooper, Benjamin Weissman, Amy Gerstler, and Bob Flanagan, who took part in Cooper’s famed Wednesday Night Poetry readings. Drawing on archival footage from those gatherings, including interviews and readings, Fear of Poetry presents a snapshot of Venice in the 1980s: a chorus of punks, poets, artists, and performers co-existing in a place where, according to Flanagan, “love is still possible.”

Z-Grass

1983 • 3 min

Experiemental video using Datamax graphics software. This piece is a very early example of the use of computer animation in video art. ZGrass refers to the programming language used to create the images.

Bosun's Chair

1983 • 8 min • United Kingdom

A soundscape of the comings and goings in a home precedes a description by a young boy of a bosun's chair, a device suspended on ropes for crossing stretches of water. A film in three scenes captured on Betamax video shot in 1983, the material of the image floats and ripples on the screen. Distributed by LUX, London.

Image Con Text: One

1983 • 43 min • United Kingdom

"Leggett's early experiment was with film, though his exploration of video started in the '70s with CCTV and performance ... and re-contextualising the video image as film, to questioning the electronic technology and its 'ambiguities'. Leggett has moved fluidly between shifting moving-image technologies, film, video and digital, and engages the audience directly with the associated and variable discourses." - J.Hatfield.

Paokhum Ama

1983 • 54 min

The film explores the different life styles of modern India. In urban society corruption is rife, careers advanced by bribes and influence. But there is an alternative: life in the hills, where the people face life silently and accept nature's gifts. In this ultimately optimistic film, a Manipuri youth lives through personal pain and disappointment to face with new hope and energy the struggle of his family for a different way of life.

8-man Never Sleeps

1983 • 15 min • Japan

鳥たちの棲むところ

1983 • 2 min • Japan