All Films

Time Clock Piece (One Year Performance 1980–1981)

1981 • 6 min • United States of America

For one year, Tehching Hsieh punched a worker’s time clock located in his studio, on the hour, every hour. Marking the occasion by taking a self-portrait on a single frame of 16mm film, the resulting reel documents a year in his life at approximately one second per day – a pace that is polar opposite of the enduring length of the original performance. The punch cards, witnessed by a third party for authenticity, and other ephemera, document Hsieh’s life restructured around this highly repetitive task.

William's Doll

1981 • 14 min • United States of America

Why does William want to play with dolls? He already has trucks and trains and dirt and football helmets, but now William wants a doll. Adapted from a novel by Charlotte Zolotow.

Flying Fur

1981 • 7 min

USA, 1981, colour, sound, 7 min.

The Treasure

1981 • 36 min • Albania

The money that people had collected to finance the war were entrusted to Kiço. After the liberation, nobody remembers the treasure, but Kiço reminds everyone, delivering the treasure without taking anything for himself.

Here Come the Puppets!

1981 • 60 min

Here Come the Puppets! is a special that was taped for PBS during the 1980 World Puppetry Festival. Co-hosted by Kermit the Frog and Jim Henson, it featured performances by Burr Tillstrom, Shari Lewis, Bil Baird and the Muppets. Other performers included Sergei Obraztsov, Manteo's Sicillian Marionettes (from NYC), Albrecht Roser, Bruce Schwartz, Martin Stevens, and Frank Ballard's (at the time, Puppet Arts head at University of Connecticut) "Ring of the Nibbelung."

Marasmus

1981 • 24 min • United States of America

“Although the title refers to a condition of acute malnutrition in which a child is unable to assimilate food, the film is a robust and sumptuous offering. This is no rough-edged, craft-resistant effort. Rather it is infused with a seductive glamour.” –Janis Crystal Lipzin, ARTWEEK

Joy Unspeakable

1981 • 59 min • United States of America

Joy Unspeakable is an ethnographic film that examines the question, what does it mean to be Pentecostal, through the documentation of three types of Oneness Pentecostal services in Southern Indiana: a gospel-rock concert, a regular Sunday service, and a camp meeting. Religious behavior, doctrine, and social values are discussed by several Oneness Pentecostal church members and ministers in interviews interspersed with footage of the various services.

The Saga of Osiris and Isis

1981 • 48 min • United States of America

Journey back to ancient Egypt as Uriel’s students relive past lives through psycho-drama. This incredible video program is a psychodrama that is lifting the veil from a reality previously unknown in the pages of history. Isis and Osiris were two highly advanced spiritual beings from another world who came to Earth 12,000 years ago to teach humankind the Science of Life and the reality of spiritual evolution.

I Talk About Me, I Am Africa

1981 • 54 min

On the culture and politics of radical black theatre work in South Africa under apartheid, featuring Ingoapele Madingoane, Matsemela Manaka, Gibson Kente and the women of Crossroads

Old Believers

1981 • 29 min • United States of America

Margaret Hixon's 1981 film documents a real-life wedding in the Old Believer settlements of Marion County, Oregon, in the years 1979 and 1980. The film briefly touches on a wealth of traditional arts (embroidery, clothing construction, weaving, vernacular architecture, folk song and foodways) and beautifully presents a whole series of rituals -- the "devichnik" (engagement party), "selling" the bride and her braid, the wedding feast, the bargaining over the dowry, and the ceremony of bestowing gifts and advice on the newlyweds. In English and Russian with subtitles or voice-over translations.

Don't Forget About Blood

1981 • 3 min • Yugoslavia

Short 8mm experimental film.

Girl Pack

1981 • 6 min

Recently restored, Lisa Baumgardner's punchy Girl Pack rewrites Jean-Luc Godard's famous axiom, proving that all you need to make a film is six girls and and a six-pack of beer.

Dead End, Dead End

1981 • 18 min • United States of America

"Untoward Ends, along with Dead End, Dead End and Endless are a kind of cross between diaries and structural films and span the main part of my career working in 16mm. These were not happy years for me and they are not happy films. They were all conceived as silent films and I was very consciously working out my ideas about visual rhythm and visual/musical form. When I had them transferred to digital I had the opportunity to see how they would work as sound films - How hard would it be to compose musical tracks for them that would complement their spirit without detracting from their purity as silent film compositions? I had lots of fun in the process and have learned a great deal from them about the interaction between the two modalities as kinds of musical expression. I will leave it to others to decide if they are successful or not." -DB

Brddr

1981 • 12 min • Germany

Documentary short.

Cum Foo

1981 • 11 min • United States of America

A punk spoof with music by Georg Deitl, lyrics by Robert Huot, performed by George A and The Super Connie featuring Bobby Beethoven. Plus electronic music by Brendt Conrad. Starring the beautiful Ama Zeena and sinister Dick Darth.

Ochún

1981 • 8 min

Mendietas last film was made off the coast of Florida, the silhouette points to Cuba, while the tropical waters undulate around the sandy earthwork.

Moi non ou l’argent de Patricia

1981 • 35 min • France

Portrait of a young woman through her relationship to money. The director films her friend for a whole month. The dynamic of the film is based on the bond between the director and Patricia, and on the reactions of this young woman to the financial difficulties, real or imaginary that she meets.

Die Straßen sind voll von großartigen Technikern, doch es fehlen die praktischen Träumer

1981 • 8 min • Germany

The film wants to highlight a dream visions through a special film technique composing the colour images (like a colour photocopier at work) through red, green and blu excepts. Some sequences have colours that only add up two primary colours. in other sequences I use masks.

Carla's Island

1981 • 5 min • United States of America

"Carla's Island" was a pioneering computer animation, possibly the first of its kind to depict fluid wave motion and realistic weather effects.

The Case of the Spiral Staircase

1981 • 3 min • Netherlands

A woman walks down a staircase of which the steps gradually become adrift, and change into triangular forms. Spatial and geometric illusions are created by the unusual camerawork and choreography.

Chutes de Marseille toujours

1981 • 3 min • France

Outtakes from "Marseille toujours".

A Camel

1981 • 14 min • Sudan

The short film Jamal (1981) by Ibrahim Shaddad is a report from the life of a camel, most of which plays out in a dreary, small room – a sesame mill.

Coupe-franche

1981 • 7 min • France

A series of variations of abstract forms taken by "cuts" from objects in my daily universe, is an attempt to abolish the subject in favor of cinematographic language.

Triolets

1981 • 12 min

The film’s frame is a collage of horizontally trisected frames in which three views can be seen. Each of these three sections of the image shows a separately recorded one-second-long camera pan shot in the artist’s studio. The camera pans were filmed with a 16 mm film camera equipped with three different types of lenses (wide-angle, normal and telephoto). The resulting footage was divided horizontally into three strips and rearranged into new collaged compositions, each lasting 32 seconds, which were mechanically printed together into a single 35mm film.