All Films

Front Line

1981 • 56 min • Australia

Frontline is a 1981 Australian documentary film directed by David Bradbury. It follows the career of Tasmanian-born combat cameraman Neil Davis, particularly his time in South Vietnam and Cambodia in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. [Note: as shown in the movie poster, the title is "Frontline", not "Front Line" as shown in the title field here at TMDB.]

Maid Servant

1981 • 25 min • India

The film depicts maidservants in Pune, who work ‘purdah style’ in the isolation of home. It looks at piece work home labour, with long hours and low wages, and how the women organise to fight for their rights.

Genesis

1981 • 3 min • United States of America

Deftly riding the membrane between bathos and transcendence, a beautiful video feedback and computer animation film by Ron Hays with an instant classic synth score by Ragnar Grippe.

Moto Perpetuo

1981 • 8 min • Hungary

Moto Perpetuo shows an absurd picture of our neverending changing culture and history.

Gamelan

1981 • 12 min • Argentina

The camera as the operator's satellite describes a circular path around it, making visible the forces that hold it in orbit. Radius and tangent signal the direction of vision. At times a stroboscopic illusion is created and the movement seems to be inverted.

The Legend of the Old Arba

1981 • 8 min • Soviet Union

An animated film for children about the revolutionary struggle of the working people of Uzbekistan. The old arba, symbolizing the past, is gradually turning into a wheelbarrow, rushing through the years and decades to the happy life of the Uzbek people.

To Hell with Everyone

1981 • 21 min • Soviet Union

How Baba Yaga and the devils tried to interfere with the happiness of Ivan and Marya.

Hungarian Tales: The Princess' Shoes

1981 • 6 min • Hungary

Voyage

1981 • 8 min

An NTSC space opera.

After Laughter

1981 • 8 min • United States of America

In After Laughter, VanDerBeek constructs a rapid-fire montage depicting the evolution of the human race and the haunting specter of its destruction.

Lerchenlieder

1981 • 33 min • East Germany, Germany

Documentary about the special friendship between the 72-year-old music machine collector Johann Bartisch and the 12-year-old farm boy Gerd from the village of Arnsgereuth. As a child, the Romanian Johann played "O sole mio" on the piano while his brother accompanied him on the violin. Even then, he was fascinated by the music machines that could be found at fairgrounds, in cinemas and on trains. As an adult, Johann began his passion for collecting in Bucharest, rescuing self-playing instruments from barns, cellars or even garbage dumps. With great attention to detail, Johann restores his found treasures in his 250-year-old schoolhouse in the village of Arnsgereuth.

El Cafetal

1981 • 38 min • France

On a coffee plantation near Havana in the early 19th century, a slave’s impossible love for the owner’s daughter.

Ikuska 10: Kontrasteak

1981 • 11 min • Spain

Documentary on the rural world and the city in the Basque Country.

AC/DC - Capital Center, Landover, MD, USA, December 1981

1981 • 35 min

AC/DC performing live at Capital Center, Landover, Maryland, USA and shot across December 20th and 21st of 1981 during the For Those About To Rock tour. 01) Put The Finger On You; 02) Back In Black; 03) Highway To Hell; 04) Let's Get It Up; 05) Let There Be Rock; 06) For Those About To Rock (We Salute You); 07) T.N.T.

Bal

1981 • 9 min • France

Bal is a pensive self-portrait by Dominique Willoughby and his most dazzling film. His face in extreme close-up is slightly anamorphosised. This is a tête-a-tête between Dominique Willoughby's face and his camera lens whose position the viewer assumes, and during which his eyes follow the movements of his own face. The movements of the face are short and sampled, multiplied and super-imposed filling the screen with a multitude of faces, with abrupt movements, turning, and yet nonetheless connected. But the jolting of the faces has a reflex brutality, as if they were activated by a mechanical force.

Dearest Dziodzio

1981 • 34 min • East Germany

"Dearest Dziodzio" was filmed using quotes from letters Rosa Luxemburg wrote to her lover, the revolutionary labor leader Leo Jogiches, during her stays in Poland, Germany, France and Switzerland in the years 1893-1905. With historical photo and film montages, mixed with newly shot material, the film tries to give an insight into the life problems, the thoughts and feelings of Rosa Luxemburg. The film is enriched by the recordings of the original letters, which are read out by the director, as well as by drawings, watercolors and herbaria by Rosa Luxemburg.

Laranjeiras... O Curso da Vida

1981 • 5 min • Brazil

In its narrow and winding streets, there are still churches, the old and rich houses in ruins and the houses of the poor, recalling the lavish past of the city of Laranjeiras, in Sergipe.

Meinung, A Town Cherishing Tradition

1981 • 25 min • Taiwan

The townspeople of Meinung inherited their Hakka ancestors' stamina, diligence and optimism. They continue treasured traditional practices, notably the production of oiled-paper umbrellas.

Mary of Mile 18

1981 • 12 min

An animated story about a farm girl whose father will not allow her to keep a stray puppy until an event occurs that makes him reverse his decision.

Is Peace Anti-Constitutional?

1981 • 59 min • Sweden

Rarely screened documentary on West-German anti-communism and the Deutsches Friedenunion [The German Peace Union]. Made in collaboration with Kristian Romare and produced by SVT (Swedish Public Television).

Hoy Conocí a Bolívar

1981 • 15 min

Intimate view around the life of the famous political leader, Simón Bolivar.

Bátima - Fruit Fair

1981 • 21 min • Brazil

Fruit Fair is the title of a parody, through a satirical redub, also known as Bátima Fruit Fair, in which an episode of the 1960s Batman series had its audio completely replaced by comical and vulgar dialogue.

You Little Wild Heart

1981 • 29 min • United States of America

A film set to the songs of Bruce Springsteen. Conceived and choreographed by Marta Renzi in 1981 for the WGBCH New Television Workshop.

Panasonic: Glider

1981 • 1 min • United States of America

A computer-animated paper airplane.