All Films

Joker

1983 • 3 min

1983 short by Tessa Hughes-Freeland

The Occult Philosophy

1983 • 2 min • Germany

An attempt to visualize a secret knowledge about the nature of man —a philo-clip—, through the use of structures of dissociated geometry and laser beams, with direct references to the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci and the work of Agrippa von Nettesheim.

Angels of War

1983 • 52 min

ANGELS OF WAR captures the experiences of villagers who lived through the Papua New Guinea campaign. Caught up in a war they could not understand or influence, they had no choice but to obey whoever held the gun. Their homes were bombed. They starved as refugees in the bush. They were conscripted as carriers. They fought as infantrymen and guerillas. In Japanese-held areas, they were forced to collaborate or risk execution; some were later hanged for treason by the Australians.

In My Pocket

1983 • 8 min • Soviet Union

A variety of animals go on a musical adventure though the countryside.

Honeymoon in Reno

1983 • 4 min

I was hoping to strike it rich on our honeymoon in Reno. In a way I did, seeing that the camera was filled with very rich imagery in recording this visual journal of our brief visit. The soundtrack is a creation of Katie Steinorth who translated the Buddhist chant of “Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum” into the words “Oh, Money Bring Me A Home.” —Canyon Cinema

Avant Coureur / Raster Relief

1983 • 17 min

Two video art pieces reflect the artist's concern with the relationships between "electronic imaging, vision and hearing, language/text/music/sound, abstract cognition and perception under the investigation of the maker/observer and observers." "Avant coureur" utilizes the video screen to project and display highly contrasted images that cut quickly from frame-to-frame, thereby creating a room-size flicker/environmental box. The music throughout is by Kraftwerk. "Raster relief," a work in two parts, provides a conceptual literalization of the terms raster (video) and relief (sculptural and difference from the ongoing). The look of this work is dedicated to the "isms" of modern painting and sculpture and the respective pioneers of abstraction.

Mirage

1983 • 6 min • Canada

Mirage offers a thoughtful and disturbing meditation on a wide variety of cinematic problems - the portrayal of women in film, the ability of a reassuring male commentary (“Dreams come true in Blue Hawaii”) to direct our gaze and our conventions of fantasy/dreamland. The film tests ones ability to pay attention. We keep seeing essentially the same image and hearing the same phrase yet we have a difficulty grasping what this film is about. The film has a mystery or haunting feeling to it that perhaps surfaces well after one has seen it, and is the basis of thought on the subject of the sexual portrayal of women on film. Mirage could be seen many times; perhaps the tail could be spliced to the head resulting in a continuous loop - as there is no clear beginning, middle, or end to the film – somewhat like the nature of our own existence. – Martin Rumsby, The Invisible Cinema

Spärlich gelungener Wurf mit bösem Löffel

1983 • 2 min • Germany

Insultan

1983 • 24 min

A rude awakening for a man who battles the world on his way to a permanent deep sleep. (3/4 in. video; color)

The Delusion of Rodamus Querk

1983 • 10 min • Soviet Union

The blacksmith's apprentice makes a contract with the devil and exchanges his soul for respect from the most famous people of the city. However, he realises soon that true respect can only be won by hard work. Based on short story by Arkadiy Bukhov.

Rabies Advice

1983 • 1 min

British Public Information Film detailing what to do when one has been exposed to rabies.

Note to Poli

1983 • 3 min • United States of America

NOTE TO POLI is, in the words of his student and fellow experimental filmmaker Marjorie Keller, "a note to the filmmaker Poli Marichal 'about' penetration." P. Adams Sitney observed that the film revealed "the visionary power of sexuality for the filmmaker" and it is indeed one of his most sexually visceral. Levine contrasts the startling frankness of the sexual activity that opens the film with the calm of a young person at rest with a cup of coffee and the serenity of post-coital cigarette smoke hanging in the air.

Ch'an

1983 • 6 min • United States of America

1941 was Francis Lee's first film; CH'AN his last. In between, he became an expert Sumi-e watercolorist and here he combines eloquent ink paintings with masterful animation methods. This film moves through mysterious shapes, takes the viewer on an explosive meditative journey across the imaginary landscapes of his creations.

The Story of the Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem

1983 • 60 min

Documentary / Music/Musical - At the forefront of the folk revival movement since the 1950's, the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem are a highly influential group of Irishmen. Popularizing the traditional music of their homeland, the Brothers brought Celtic music into America, and remain some of its most avid performers.

A Tale Within a Tale

1983 • 15 min • Soviet Union

About how, despite the machinations of the witch and the evil spirit Davy, the old man managed to tell the children a fairy tale with a happy ending.

Attack of the Galactic Monsters

1983 • 55 min • Japan

A bizarre edited movie that contains footage from the Japanese sci-fi film "War in Space" and Godzilla scenes from the TV series "Zone Fighter." Reported to be made for Hawaiian TV.

Family Crypt – A Love Poem to My Mother

1983 • 11 min • Germany

A portrait of Maria Lang's mother, which is also a family portrait of the filmmaker. The film shows an excerpt from the Lang family's everyday life. It follows the parents as they go about their daily chores and small rituals.

The Water of the Seine

1983 • 11 min • France

Teo Hernandez films the water of the Seine and its reflections for a film at once material and luminous.

Początek

1983 • 5 min • Poland

Etude of women's work in one of the textile factories in Łódź. The protagonist of the film, after finishing his shift, goes home, where a small child is waiting for her.

(Voici), Eis

1983 • 1 min • Brazil

Fragility, transience of the image here is between its appearing-disappearing.

En voilà 2

1983 • 15 min • France

Second part of the Jacques Toumoy trilogy.

At the Door of Darkness

1983 • 8 min • United States of America

Short film by Jay Woelfel (Beyond Dream's Door)

Journey Through Time: The Human Story

1983 • 11 min • Canada

Where do we come from? In a dazzling sprint through twenty million years, this animated short evokes the great episodes that led to the birth of man.

Great Mother (YUMIKO)

1983 • 25 min • Japan

The second part of a trilogy, Great Mother (YUMIKO) is a domestic melodrama that examines the cultural and familial role of Japanese women by tracing the psychology of a turbulent mother-daughter relationship. Yumiko, a rebellious young woman from an affluent family, encounters resistance from her mother, a successful career woman, when she becomes pregnant and marries. The mother is an icy, assured presence, seen only on a television screen as a superego who monitors Yumiko's behavior. The television becomes a powerful metaphorical device, underlining the disunity of the familial structure and acting as a psychological presence. As Yumiko's marriage deteriorates, her pain is juxtaposed with the banal rituals of her mother's life (instructing her subordinates at work, scrubbing the floor at home), an irony ultimately heightened by the viewer's awareness of the reflexivity of this drama-within-a-drama.