All Films

Man with a Watch

1981 • 13 min • Yugoslavia

Short film about a Bosnian miner.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: An Interview

1981 • 35 min

On this program we see a rare interview with the mercurial painter, Jean-Michel Basquiat, conducted in 1981 in his studio on Crosby Street, in SOHO. Basquiat, an internationally renowed as well as the enfant terrible of the 1980's art scene, died tragically in 1988 at the age of 28. Both during his brief life and since his untimely death, stories and legends abound which chronicle his metoric rise to art world stardom. In 1996, Basquiat's life was fictionalized in the film entitled BASQUIAT, directed by fellow artist Julian Schnabel. On this ART/new york program, the 21 year old Basquiat is interviews by art historian - curator Marc. H Miller, PhD. Already a well known art world figure, Basquiat's fondness for high jinks as well as his exuberant spirit are captured as he describes his working process and comments upon his art world persona.

Stone Faces of the Past

1981 • 9 min • Soviet Union

The film focuses on the statues, patterns of stone in the city of Saratov.

How the Elephant Fell Into the Pit

1981 • 10 min • Soviet Union

About how the Woodpecker and the Finch punished the elephant stubbornly and taught him kindness.

Ciudad vs. Arte

1981 • 12 min • Venezuela

Experimental video by Carlos Castillo.

Rendezvous With a Decibel

1981 • 9 min • Soviet Union

A film by G. Skvarnavičius about noise pollution.

Blood on the Snow

1981 • 10 min

A horde of monsters killing poor travelers in a snowy landscape.

Under The Eye Of Qomolangma

1981 • 49 min • France

The French High Mountain Military Group (G.M.H.M.) expedition to Everest in 1981, led by General Pierre Astorg, took place on the north face of the mountain. Fifteen military climbers participated in this expedition, which lasted approximately ninety days. Their goal was to reach the summit by following a siege approach, but despite their efforts, the expedition failed to reach the summit. The French military, engaged since the beginning of March on the north face of Everest (8,848 meters), gave up less than 300 meters from the summit. The climbers, Jean-Claude Mosca, Hervé Sachetat, and Hubert Giot, gave up on setting up Camp 7, the last planned intermediate camp, at 8,600 meters. Poor weather conditions and the physical condition of the expedition members were the reasons for the failure of this meticulously prepared expedition...

So wie uns geht es tausend anderen

1981 • 43 min

Documentary directed by Dietrich Schubert.

Night Conversation With a Despised Person

1981 • 47 min • Germany

A writer persecuted in a totalitarian state talks to his executioner, and contrary to expectations, the conversation unfolds, and the executioner shares his experiences with him. Based on Friedrich Dürrenmatt's radio play.

The Brady Bunch

1981 • 10 min

A breaking news update.

A Dwarf in the Garden

1981 • 13 min • Argentina

The title Un enano en el jardin is an allusion to the Super 8 format and the setting where the actions that comprise the film unfold. A catalogue of extreme experiments with the mobility of the camera coordinated with brief improvisations by the Brazilian dancer Alice Bloch. It was mostly filmed with an Instamatic m22 camera (possibly the simplest and lightest Super 8 camera, with a fixed lens and manual diaphragm), so resistant that it functioned in conditions that would be unthinkable with a more complex camera, rotating at high speed around the optical axis or tied to a 35mm reel rewinder.

The End

1981 • 2 min • Netherlands

The Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, presented as a game. In front of the nervous citizens the leaders of the world powers play 'Olleke Bolleke' on the globe. The earth apparently cannot withstand this violence and the consequences are left to the imagination.

And Then?

1981 • 3 min

1981 German super 8 short work

1857 (Fool's Gold)

1981 • 25 min • Canada

This film is an act of celebration ... He produces -- with light and colour, sound, stillness and movement -- the ineluctable rhythm and energy of the natural world.

Glimpses

1981 • 9 min • France

The concept of "things half seen" determined the meaning of this film. Hidden scenes, barely revealed, follow one another as living and significant views affecting our wish to see and understand what we see only as glimpses, but might see in its totality. Made as a video-short principally through a succession of quick sequences, "Glimpses" shows the maintenance of mystery between two "masked" people in a world where the curtains remain closed.

Birth (Gunpowder Works)

1981 • 3 min • Cuba

Depicts a female form crafted from mud, whose centre (her womb) erupts into smoke which eventually leaves behind a scarred mark in the earth body.

When a Film Was Being Shot

1981 • 59 min • Albania

A film is being shot and the cast is mostly comprised of children. Little Genti is stressed because his parents are getting divorced.

Gong

1981 • 39 min • France

A gong will never abolish chance? If chance is travesty of desire, and desire movement without measure, cinema is vibration of this desire in fugue.

L'Arlésienne

1981 • 13 min • France

Sara/Teo

1981 • 15 min • France

Birago Diop, Storyteller

1981 • 28 min • Senegal

Birago Diop appears as the pioneer of African letters. He knew the long journey of poets of blackness from the 30s. But, while young writers Antillean and African chose poetry to express the search for their identity, Birago Diop was located from the beginning of his work at the heart of the African literary world, adopting as a mode of expression the tale and the novel. Birago Diop evokes his memories: coming from the old Saint-Louisian bourgeoisie, he made his classes at Faidherbe high school, the first high school of West Africa, before coming to France to study veterinary medicine, an opportunity for him to participate in the first one. core of African Presence. His works are now on the curriculum of high schools in Senegal.

From the Old Earth

1981 • 50 min

As William Jones digs in the garden of his council house he finds a strange looking stone head. During the night his wife has horrible dreams, forcing William to move the head out of the house. In turn, he takes the head to an archaeologist at Bangor University who is an expert on Celtic artefacts and trying to dig up the remains of the Celts elsewhere. In order to try and understand the head, he goes home with her but things start to go wrong at night there as well, bringing the horrors of a half-human half-animal creature to the housewives. One by one the archaeologist's family is horrified leading to death and another sacrifice to the ancient gods of the Celts.

Sunshine Porcupine

1981 • 22 min

Eggwood, the Easter egg capital of the world, scrambles for a way to get all of the eggs ready for Easter after the Uglyunks invade the town and waste all of Eggwood's electricity! Without electricity, the rabbits of Eggwood are helpless! Sunny the porcupine invents a plan that will get Easter egg production hopping again... but will the town believe him?