All Films

A Cowhand's Song

1981 • 28 min • United States of America

This evocative documentary examines the plight of the ranchers of Nevada and California, who find their grazing areas increasingly threatened by many groups (even environmentalists) competing for use of the same public lands on which these ranchers depend. With its graceful images and emphasis on community and continuity, A Cowhand's Song makes a strong case for the preservation of a traditional way of life.

Commuter

1981 • 5 min • United States of America

This animated short film portrays a man's commute into the city. Director Michael Patterson employs a combination of pencils and rotoscoping, similar to his work in the music video "Take On Me."

Casual Shopper

1981 • 28 min

Informed by conventions of Hollywood film and television commercials, Judith Barry’s Casual Shopper (1980-81) presents a female protagonist wandering through a seemingly endless array of product displays. The woman both follows and is followed by a male figure, who appears to exist somewhere between reality and fantasy, within a carefully structured and intoxicating elevator-music-filled department store. The piece conflates romantic desire with consumer desire, as both figures perpetually search.

Tent City

1981 • 31 min • United States of America, Cuba

The story of a group of Cubans who arrived in Miami during the Mariel Boatlift and were housed in an improvised camp in the heart of the city. Everyone lived together —men and women, homosexuals and heterosexuals, separated only by cloth curtains that hung from ropes suspended between the beds, like floating walls.

Forced to Submit

1981 • 12 min

A silent softcore bondage loop. Released as part of Something Weird Video's collection Bizarro Sex Loops Volume 24.

Clean Board

1981 • 28 min • Soviet Union

Short story about small lovers.

Wir sind stark und zärtlich - Bericht aus einer Mädchengruppe

1981 • 31 min • Germany

An insight into a girls' group in a mining community in the Ruhr region.

Five Year Diary, Reel 1: The Beginning Thanksgiving (November 3–December 13, 1981)

1981 • 27 min • United States of America

Vegetarianism, bingeing, Thanksgiving with parents. (ACR)

39/81 Which Way to CA?

1981 • 3 min

Kren on his way from Vermont to California. Kren says that his various cars are the thread which runs through the story. (Hans Scheugl)

Rainbow Goblins Story / Live at Budokan

1981 • 53 min

A historic 1981 performance in Budokan of Takanaka's entire Rainbow Goblins album. Based upon THE RAINBOW GOBLINS by Ul de Rico.

The Trough

1981 • 2 min • Poland

We can see a trough and dirty pigs around it. Another pig (clean and polite) approaches the trough. Other pigs react with aggression and do not want it at the trough. The animal decides to get dirty. Then, the pig is greeted with a smile and accepted at the trough.

Colour Work

1981 • 15 min • United Kingdom

Colour Work attempts to present a subjective journey and to produce a translation of the perceptual experience of the look. Built around a cyclic and repetitive structure the film has a musical effect through its pace and rhythm.

Journey for Survival

1981 • 15 min • United States of America

Drought, desert, famine. Half the world's population must daily take a thirsty journey in search of water for survival, a search made even more difficult because the water they do find will almost certainly be contaminated.

A Certification Trademark

1981 • 10 min • Soviet Union

A cartoon about high-quality glass, or how faith in omens can change a life!

Silverfish

1981 • 3 min

Dana Plays leverages inversion techniques and optically printed compositing to recast footage of children playing into an ominous siren song of impending doom. A characteristically prominent soundtrack of reversed chatter and focused tableaus of metal keys and chains creates an incantatory air and pushes SILVERFISH into psychedelic territory. - Jackson Scarlett

Meow!

1981 • 8 min • Brazil

A stray cat runs out of milk and suffers effects after being persuaded to take a certain soft drink, making it an unlikely victim of globalization.

R... Doesn't Answer Anymore

1981 • 52 min

For three months, the Dardenne brothers investigated independent local radio stations in Belgium, France, Italy and Switzerland. The result is a fascinating picture of the arrival of independent radio in Europe as a subversive alternative to the official media (public broadcasters and commercial mass media). To do this, the filmmakers spoke with pioneers. They also took an interest in the installations, such as hidden transmitters. One of them is a radio which broadcasts in the Alsatian dialect in order to protect a minority language. R… ne répond plus is a virtuoso work in which the Dardennes experiment with sound, only logical since the subject concerns radio stations. The film ends in an almost deafening cacophony of voices, static and other sounds that fill the airwaves.

Lykantropia

1981 • 6 min • Poland

Wolves reveal they are really humans in wolf costumes and proceed to eat each other.

Vadi-Samvadi

1981 • 7 min • Argentina

Aspiraciones is the beginning of a series in which Vadi-Samvadi is the second film. The grammar of Indian music suggests a micro-interval in a cinematic space-time.

Winged Master

1981 • 8 min • Soviet Union

Puppet cartoon about a wonderful master and an evil ruler. The ruler wished that the master would work only for her, and imprisoned him. But it turned out that her power was powerless!

Mr. Daff Is Shooting a Film

1981 • 3 min • East Germany

The camera is ready for the perfect shot! The bus driver pays special attention when he notices the camera. But the cameraman is actually waiting for the bus to depart, so he can film the wonderful scenery behind the bus.

The Wolf and the Lamb

1981 • 10 min • Soviet Union

A lamb is chased by a wolf.

Postcards I; Potter's Bull

1981 • 16 min • East Germany

Potter's Bull is the first part of the "Over-Paintings" Trilogy (Uebermalungen) by painter and director STRAWALDE (Juergen Boettcher). Paulus Potter's simple postcard scene entitled "The Young Bull" ("den jungen Stier") is artistically alienated in an imposing fashion. By using assorted means of "painting over" and/or front projections, the figure of the bull in the center of the card is placed in a state of constant flux. A viewer may also choose to follow the shifting background behind the bull, which continues to recontextualize the bull in shifting worlds. Accompanied by a sound collage.

Synapses

1981 • 5 min • France

Réne Manzor's debut short, a surreal story about a tramp trying to build a road through the desert.