All Films

The Trolls and the Christmas Express

1981 • 30 min • Canada

The Trolls and the Christmas Express is an animated classic about six roguish trolls who are determined to sabotage Christmas by infiltrating Santa's village disguised as elves. After a week of wreaking havoc but still not completely ruining Christmas, they are about to give up when they get a devilishly clever idea. On the day before Christmas Eve they get the reindeer dancing and singing songs all night long. The poor reindeer are so tired the next day that they cannot find the energy to pull Santa's sleigh. Christmas looks like it has finally been ruined - but everyone knows you can't stop Christmas! The elves quickly devise a plan to link the train from Santa's village with tracks that travel all over the world. Santa can deliver the toys using the Christmas Express.

One Village, One Villager...

1981 • 20 min • Greece

A documentary shown on Greek television in 1981, that describes the plight of Greek villages abandoned by their inhabitants. Some scenes from this film were rewritten into Voyage to Cythera.

Great Barrier Reef

1981 • 39 min • United States of America

Mysterious and only superficially explored by generations of the native Aborigines, Australia's Great Barrier Reef is one of the world's most extraordinary natural life systems. Twelve hundred miles long and made up of coral, it is the Earth's largest structure built by living things, in some places extending 120 miles into the sea. So many varieties of life call the reef home that more than a dozen species can be found within any square meter of its surface. This IMAX film brilliantly captures the visual splendor of this environment with splendid underwater photography typical of the format. Sharks, sea turtles, anemones, and the coral itself are the living subjects of the camera's probing eye. Overall, this documentary is a comprehensive look at this long-studied web of life that leaves a lasting impression of its depth and beauty.

Static

1981 • 5 min

Short film by John Sanborn

Coupla White Faggots Sitting Around Talking

1981 • 60 min • United States of America

Megalomedia

1981 • 29 min • Australia

A satirical enquiry into the origins of media, their distribution and their effects on the way we behave. Those familiar with cartoonist Bruce Petty’s award winning film Leisure will enjoy the same sharp wit brought to bear on another institution, the media. This three-part film is a satirical enquiry into the origins of media, their distribution and their effects on the way we behave. The first part provides a brief history of print, radio, television and film. The second part proposes that a market-placed media produces the problem of monopolisation leading to mediocrity. Finally, Petty produces a caricature of the way ideas form in the mind from reading print, as distinct from passive looking and listening.

Frank Sinatra: The Man and His Music

1981 • 50 min • United States of America

Though it was taped 16 years after the first A Man And His Music special, this final installment continues to uphold the high standards of the series, thanks in no small part to the accompaniment of the legendary Count Basie and his orchestra.

Sync Touch

1981 • 10 min • United States of America

A lesbian/feminist aesthetic proposing the connection between touch and sight to be the basis for a new cinema. The film explores the tactile child nature within the adult woman filmmaker, the connection between sexuality and filmmaking, and the scientific analysis of the sense of touch.

Arequipa

1981 • 12 min • United States of America

“Shot in the Peruvian convent of Santa Catalina, AREQUIPA analogizes the building blocks of film (frames, color and black and white stocks, negative reversal, superimpositions) to the frames of architecture (doorways, windows, walls, corridors). The confinement of the frame, the convent, changed for Hammer as she realized there could be beauty and a self-willed delineation of activity within the ‘imprisoning’ frame.” – Kathleen Hulser, Centre Pompidou Brochure, 1985

Gunmen's Blues

1981 • 25 min

A mysterious, middle-aged man wearing a dark suit and black leather gloves is the only customer in a Hoboken...

Our Trip

1981 • 4 min • United States of America

Animation of photos and paper cut outs from a hike at Machu Pichu in Peru.

The Berenstain Bears' Easter Surprise

1981 • 24 min • United States of America

A very inquisitive Brother Bear is wondering why Spring is taking so long to arrive. With Easter approaching and a new arrival to the Bear family on the way, Brother looks for answers, and Mama teaches him the true meaning of Spring.

The Big Kids Party

1981 • 42 min • Sweden

A mom leaves her son at a birthday party and suddenly thinks about her party when she was seven years old.

The Orchard End Murder

1981 • 48 min • United Kingdom

Charthurst Green, Kent, 1966. Pauline Cox accompanies Mike Robins to a village cricket match in which he is playing, but becomes bored and wanders away. She fetches up at the local railway station, where she is first entertained to tea by the garrulous, hunchbacked station master, then upset by the intrusion of the latter's assistant Ewen, who proceeds to kill a rabbit in her presence. Making her way back to the match, Pauline is waylaid by the simple-minded Ewen as she crosses an apple orchard; when his advances become violent, she tries to fight him off and he strangles her. The station master helps in covering up the murder, burying the corpse in the orchard.

Springtime in Greenland

1981 • 24 min • Canada

Springtime in Greenland uses '50s cinematic conventions and attitudes to tell a story about the sophomoric inhabitants of a fictional utopia.

Brasil

1981 • 13 min • Brazil

João Gilberto receives Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and Maria Bethânia during the recording of his album Brasil.

The Big Stuffed Dog

1981 • 48 min • United States of America

A large stuffed Snoopy toy goes astray at an airport baggage area, and gets involved with various travelers.

The Pee-wee Herman Show

1981 • 58 min • United States of America

An adult-oriented version of what would eventually become an award-winning children's classic. This version of the show features Pee-wee's playhouse and many of the characters of the later series, but with adult and sexual overtones and jokes including "mirror shoes" and others.

The Dog in Boots

1981 • 20 min • Soviet Union

The story about an enamored singing dog who isn't thoroughbred - that's a minus, but honorable - that's a plus.

The Making of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'

1981 • 60 min • United States of America

One of the first 'Making of...' movies to become a hit in its own right.

Flesh on Glass

1981 • 41 min

Kate's love for her brother's wife and the ensuing feelings of guilt lead her to an obsession with the supernatural.

Khalif the Stork

1981 • 20 min • Soviet Union

A rich caliph is leading a careless life. One day an evil wizard sells him a magic potion that can turn human into any animal he wants. The only condition: one mustn't laugh.

The Raccoons on Ice

1981 • 24 min • Canada

The Raccoons on Ice is the second of four specials leading up to the television series The Raccoons. It initially aired on CBC and in syndication on December 20, 1981.

Vernon, Florida

1981 • 55 min • Germany, United States of America

Early Errol Morris documentary intersplices random chatter he captured on film of the genuinely eccentric residents of Vernon, Florida. A few examples? The preacher giving a sermon on the definition of the word "Therefore," and the obsessive turkey hunter who speaks reverentially of the "gobblers" he likes to track down and kill.