All Films

The Awful Fate of Melpomenus Jones

1983 • 8 min • Canada

This amusing short animation tells of a polite and timid young minister with a major shortcoming: he just cannot bring himself to say goodbye, and this causes him great grief and considerable consternation. On the first day of his vacation to visit friends, Melpomenus somehow stays and stays until, on the last day of his holiday, he finally departs in an unexpected way. Based on the Stephen Leacock short story, the film is set to toe-tapping ragtime music.

Amazing Stories

1983 • 8 min

Second in this series of lost and in-completed amateur Super8 films is "Amazing Stories", a 1983 vignette piece of short sketches. Based on the early pulp magazine. (pre-dates Spielberg's Amazing Stories)

Hansel and Gretel

1983 • 48 min • United States of America

Abandoned by their parents, a young brother and sister try to find their way home. On the way, they find themselves trapped in the plot of a nasty witch.

A Personal History of the Australian Surf

1983 • 57 min • Australia

An autobiographical documentary written and directed by Michael Blakemore in 1981 in which he plays his own father. The film was made on 16mm and first screened in the UK at London's National Film Theatre.

Jack and the Beanstalk

1983 • 52 min • United States of America

Imaginative and creative Jack seeks adventure while trying to provide for himself and his mother. Will he ever solve the mystery of how his father died?

Classic Creatures: Return of the Jedi

1983 • 49 min • United States of America

Go behind the scenes — and into the costumes — as production footage from Return of the Jedi is interspersed with vintage monster movie clips in this in-depth exploration of the painstaking techniques utilized by George Lucas to create the classic creatures and characters seen in the film.

Where the Toys Come From

1983 • 58 min

Two curious toys, Peepers and Zoom, wonder about how they become toys. Aided by Robin, their equally curious owner, Zoom and Peepers visit a toy museum - "Home for Old Toys" to discover their existence.

Sherlock Holmes and a Study in Scarlet

1983 • 50 min • Australia

Holmes & Watson have one baffling clue to help them track down the crime of an American visitor in London.

The Horror of It All

1983 • 58 min • United States of America

A collection of film clips from horror movies and interviews with the actors and directors who made them.

The Last Owls and the First Peacocks

1983 • 58 min • Yugoslavia

During the final battles of liberation in 1945, the three generations of a bourgeoisie family gather in their villa. Their children, who recognized the momentum of “new age”, are in touch with the communists. The arrival of their escaped sibling brings the tension into family crisis.

Rocky Mountain Holiday with John Denver and the Muppets

1983 • 47 min • United States of America

Rocky Mountain Holiday is a one-hour musical variety special featuring John Denver and the Muppets, which aired on ABC on May 12, 1983. In the special, John and the Muppets go on a summer camping trip to the Rocky Mountains.

Return to Lisca Bianca Island

1983 • 8 min • Italy

Twenty-three years after L'Avventura (1960), Michelangelo Antonioni returns to Lisca Bianca Island. The rarefied atmosphere of Anna's (Lea Massari's) disappearance is recalled by some audio excerpts from the original movie.

Goodbye 42nd Street

1983 • 5 min • United States of America

Shots of walking down 42nd Street showing storefronts including everything from Texas Fried Chicken to 25¢ porn arcades.

The Magic of Herself the Elf

1983 • 22 min • Canada, United States of America

Herself must stop an evil king from upsetting the balance of nature in this animated adventure.

Verzeihung, sehen Sie Fußball?

1983 • 59 min • Germany, East Germany

A high-rise building in the center of Berlin in the GDR on July 11, 1982. The final match of the soccer World Cup is being broadcast on television. Five episodes revolve around this event: Soccer fanatic Kneutzsch is torn between the exciting match and the rather irritated woman by the unexpected visit of a lady to whom he has written a marriage announcement ... Dr. Kobermann - on painkillers - has mistaken the bathroom door for the corridor door and locked herself out. Her husband is sitting in front of the TV with headphones on and doesn't hear her ringing, so she seeks refuge in her nightgown with a neighbor, a flautist. After his ex-love Carmen leaves him and wants to return home, the exiled Andrés follows the game - in the knowledge that his father, thousands of kilometers away, is also watching...

The Moonstone Gem

1983 • 48 min

Deep in the heavily guarded vault of jovial King Gunther lies the most cherished and wonderful of all national treasures - the Moonstone Gem. The good king's troubles begin when the evil baron manages to steal the priceless jewel.

Sherlock Holmes and the Valley of Fear

1983 • 50 min • United States of America

Holmes & Watson receive a letter from an informant who known by the pseudonym Fred Porlock. Porlock is a man well connected with criminals. The letter is written in code, and Holmes determines that the code comes from the words in a book. They decipher the code by page and column and find that John Douglas of Birlstone House is in danger.

Snow Business

1983 • 30 min

Interview and profile of experimental filmmaker Michael Snow from 1983. Includes extracts from 'Back and Forth', 'Wavelength', 'La Region Central', 'So Is This' and gallery piece 'Two Sides To Every Story'. Made for Channel 4 'Visions' and broadcast 19 January 1983.

Albert Bridge Presents Olympics

1983 • 5 min

Schoolchildren animate a series of Olympic events.

Visions Cinema: Film in the Philippines - A Report by Tony Rayns

1983 • 37 min • United Kingdom

Film critic Tony Rayns interviews Lino Brocka and other prominent Filipino filmmakers.

Strawberry Shortcake: Housewarming Surprise

1983 • 25 min

When Strawberry Shortcake moves into her new house, all her friends in Strawberryland throw her a surprise housewarming party, and they even invite several new friends that she had recentlly met on a trip around the world; Mint Tulip from the Netherlands, Cafe Ole from Mexico, Crepe Suzette from France, Almond Tea from China, and the British twins, Lem and Ada. They all bring their pets and favorite recipes, too. The party is going great until the sinister Peculiar Purple Pieman from Porcupine Peak sneaks in and steals all the food, along with Lem & Ada, who are hiding in the box they brought containing the recipes. To get them and her new recipe box back, Strawberry Shortcake and all her friends must work together to outwit the Pieman and Sour Grapes.

The Pit, the Pendulum and Hope

1983 • 15 min • Czechoslovakia

Animated short film based on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum" and Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam's "A Torture by Hope".

Secret of the Waterfall

1983 • 29 min • United States of America

The confluence of words and movement propels this multi-layered collaboration by Atlas, choreographer Douglas Dunn, and poets Anne Waldman and Reed Bye. Dunn's athletic choreography is performed to the rhythms, cadences, and associative meanings of the poets' "cascade of words," which function as music. Atlas introduces narrative references, ironically staging the dance in unexpected locations, including domestic interiors and vehicles. In a self-referential deconstruction that punctures the theatrical illusion, the poets are seen reading their texts and interacting as self-conscious performers within the dance. Atlas and his collaborators intersect the language of words with the language of the body.

Margaret Tait: Film Maker

1983 • 30 min • United Kingdom

A documentary about the life and works of Margaret Tait.