All Films

The Tiller

1981 • 7 min • Poland

At sunrise, a peasant begins plowing. This iconographic motif becomes a caricature in the animation. The problem is that the peasant gropes, he plows through the legs of a resting peasant woman, railway tracks, a dining carriage, double bedrooms, office corridors, palace interiors, and meetings of diplomats. His march through the country is shown on TV. The peasant is really surprised to see a TV set in the rump of a horse. He crosses a crowded beach and disappears in the depths of the water together with the setting sun.

Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Delights

1981 • 34 min • France

Filmed by Jean Eustache for the television program, Les Enthousiastes, Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Delights presents a series of unstructured observations, free associations, and interpretations on the third panel of Bosch's well-known oil on wood triptych.

Chervona Ruta. Ten Years Later

1981 • 29 min • Soviet Union

In 1971, at the Ukrtelefilm studio, director Roman Oleksiv made the musical film Chervona Ruta in the town of Yaremche (Carpathians). 10 years later, a follow-up film was released with the same performers.

Moving

1981 • 5 min

Elam records several men moving boxes and furniture as they track across her backyard.

Vincent Gallo as Flying Christ

1981 • 1 min • United States of America

Hopper's Silence

1981 • 46 min

Documentary about painter Edward Hopper and his wife.

Wales Stone Circles

1981 • 15 min

Part of a pair of Super 8 landscape studies with an ancient British style, the camera explores the countryside under striking cloudscapes.

Golden Chick

1981 • 10 min • Soviet Union

A fairy tale based on the novel by V. Orlov. This is the story of how a couple of swindlers - Fox and Wolf - stole Chicken Ryaba so that she would lay them golden eggs. But the wolverine Wolf lost his prey, and he had to ... hatch the egg himself.

Stonebridge Park

1981 • 21 min • United Kingdom

A film in two parts. In the first part, the narrator describes the events that led to his impulsive decision to rob his former employer. The camera meanwhile walks about above the nearby road junction, surveying the distracted environment. In the second part, he recounts the anatomy of his panic following the crime, while the walking camera reconstructs his escape route. A final caption reports what happened after that.

Accordion

1981 • 5 min

“A man, an accordion, a ladder, and a video camera. It’s as simple as that.” - Andrew Lampert

Bridge Film

1981 • 2 min • United States of America

The filmmaker intersects the flow of traffic on narrow streets and on the canals of a European city.

Diplomafilm

1981 • 40 min

Diplomafilm is a short film that Béla Tarr made to graduate from Art School, in 1981. It is the predecessor of The Prefab People, with the same plot and the same actors, but with some changes in the plot.

Telly Savalas Looks at Birmingham

1981 • 25 min • United Kingdom

Telly Savalas narrates a travelogue of Birmingham in England, taking in such sights as New Street Station, the traffic control centre and dual carriageway.

Heroin

1981 • 5 min • United States of America

Unfinished David Wojnarowicz film that was salvaged by Marion Scemama from Fales Library.

From Harlem to Harvard

1981 • 30 min • United States of America

As the first pupil from his Harlem high school to attend Harvard University, a teenager faces both external and internal challenges during his freshman year.

Innere Sicherheit: Abraham Polonsky

1981 • 44 min • Germany

Documentary about American filmmaker Abraham Polonsky.

Ein Film über den dichter werdenden Nebel im deutschen Winterwald

1981 • 17 min • Germany

Film about the director's run-in with the law.

Orderly or Disorderly?

1981 • 17 min • Iran

A sense of order is the necessary basis of any good social organisation. To illustrate this axiom, Kiarostami presents a series of paired scenes in this educational short film in which the same action is first shown in an organised way and then in an anarchic one. The film crew, however, finds it difficult to organise disorder.

Peep Show

1981 • 7 min • Canada

A man uses an instant photo booth with bizarre results.

The George Burns (Early) Early, Early Christmas Special

1981 • 47 min • United States of America

George Burns hosts his first Christmas special. Special Guests: Bob Hope ; The Hawkins Family ; Ann-Margret

Castlerigg

1981 • 7 min • United Kingdom

Bruce Lacey wandering around and interacting with stones

The Journal of Bridget Hitler

1981 • 60 min • United Kingdom

An Irishwoman married to a German in pre-First World War Liverpool prepares to meet her brother-in-law – a young man named Adolf Hitler. Years later she is interviewed on television about her life. Part of the BBC2 Playhouse strand.

Little Love Story

1981 • 12 min • Soviet Union

A little love story can actually be huge even if you are only twelve years old...

She's Nobody's Baby: American Women in the 20th Century

1981 • 55 min • United States of America

This documentary goes back to the turn of the century to show how women shaped the nation’s history.