All Films

Look Back at Grunwick

1980 • 24 min

A RECORD OF THE STRIKE AT GRUNWICK IN 1977. The story of the continuing struggle at Grunwick’s by mainly Indian workers, from July 11th, 1977 until the struggle was lost. It shows the Special Patrol Group attack on the November 7th day of action, how the leadership of the struggle was taken out of the hands of the strike committee, how some of the strike leaders were disciplined by their own union for going on hunger strike outside the TUC in protest at the TUC’s inactivity, and how the post office workers were forced by their union to end their blacking of Grunwick mail. It also shows the beginnings of the similar struggle by immigrant workers at Garner’s Steak Houses in London.

TOPS for Industry

1980 • 13 min • United Kingdom

A British Transport internal training film. Training for Overhead Power Supply (TOPS).

Ne..No..

1980 • 4 min • Italy

Vocal polyphony, visual polyphony. A sound image that is created and destroyed in real time.

Great Western Road

1980 • 15 min • United Kingdom

Take a virtual stroll down the streets of Glasgow’s iconic Great Western Road.

Fish Guldor

1980 • 10 min • Soviet Union

Based on the Tajik folk tale about the fish Guldor, a young man and a cruel padishah.

Tomas Tranströmer

1980 • 28 min

Conversation with the poet out on the island of Runmarö.

Martisor the Fest of Spring

1980 • 10 min • Soviet Union

Animation short.

Emergency First Aid Series: Burns

1980 • 11 min • United States of America

Discusses the seriousness of burns, categorizing them into three degrees based on depth and severity. First-degree burns affect only the surface layer of skin, while second-degree burns penetrate deeper and are more painful. Third-degree burns are the most severe, damaging skin, muscles, and nerves. First aid varies by burn severity, emphasizing the importance of cooling the burn, avoiding ointments, and seeking medical help for serious cases. Chemical burns require immediate washing with water, and specific procedures for eye exposure are outlined. Quick medical attention is crucial to prevent complications such as infection and shock.

Seasons: Autumn

1980 • 10 min

As summer fades into the golden days of autumn, chattering streams of children converge again on neglected schools to renew friendships and share the adventures of vacations. Leaves flame into scarlet, and beneath the dull warmth of October's sunshine, the morning air takes on a sharp cool edge. Animals stir to prepare for winter. Footballs fill the air. Fat pumpkins are transformed into leering monsters as unearthly little demons waft through the darkness of Halloween. Leaves curl into brittle shells and float to earth to the be raked into burial mounds. Homes are filled with the intoxicating smells of turkey and cranberries and pumpkin pie. We digitized and uploaded this film from the A/V Geeks 16mm Archive. Email us at [email protected] if you have questions about the footage and are interested in using it in your project.

Shoots

1980 • 19 min • Soviet Union

Industrial practice of pupils of grades 9-10 in labor and recreation camps of the Partizansky district of Primorsky Krai.

The Trial of Nine Hundred Million People

1980 • 18 min • China

Newsreel of the trail for gang of four.

Girl Assault

1980 • 60 min • Japan

Pink film distributed by Toei Central Film.

Even a Horse Must Laugh

1980 • 16 min • Soviet Union

A musical cartoon based on folk jokes about stupid and greedy rich people.

We

1980 • 9 min

A slow procession on May 9th, 1980. ”Victory Day”. A military parade is marching, a forest of red flags, veterans in suits covered with medals are laying flowers at the foot of the Soviet monuments. The usual Soviet propagandist spectacle. Barysas’s response to the system – and the film that got him suspended for a year from the Society of amateur filmmakers for transgressing the rules on amoral, lewd content.

Manos arriba!! Esto es un atraco

1980 • 2 min • Venezuela

Experimental Super-8 film by Carlos Castillo.

Karma II

1980 • 6 min

A toked-out drifter lands aboard a concrete planet to compete in the greatest skateboarding competition in the galaxy. Appears at the end of Skateboard Madness (1980).

The Black and the Gold

1980 • 50 min • United Kingdom

The Brent Delta is but one of 40 platforms between the Shetlands and Norway which reap this black liquid harvest. It is a strange and eerie world: the night sky glows bright orange; men work on deck sweltering in tropical warmth, but surrounded by a sub-Arctic sea; 300 miles from any city, commuters shuttle daily to and from their work on flying buses. Yet every activity of every one of the thousands of men confined to this unreal and dreamlike world is directed to one end alone: profit.

Us

1980 • 9 min

US is an ironic look at the Victory Day Communist parade on the main street of Vilnius.

MAGI Synthavision 1980 Demo Reel

1980 • 7 min

Early (1970s through 1980) demo reel from MAGI/Synthavision, who would later go on to provide many of the CGI effects for the feature film Tron. Mostly television advertising and effects in the early years

Refugees

1980 • 29 min • Soviet Union

Sketches from the life of an unnamed Middle Eastern country. The film features poems by Palestinian poet Muin Bseiso (1930–1984).

7'21"

1980 • 6 min

8mm film work from 1980 by the Film Studies Department of Bunkyō University. One sunny and gentle day, as I was dozing off by the riverside, I saw a strange dream in which everything in the world began to flow backwards. No that’s not right. This isn’t a dream at all! I have to find the cause behind this! And then I realized: it is I myself, sleeping now by the riverbank, who is creating this distorted world! The title “7’21”” seems to represent the actual running time of the film. (In reality, it is a little shorter.) It was intentionally created as a silent work, effectively using the absence of sound, appealing solely to visual perception, and thereby leading the viewer into a mysterious and extraordinary world they could never experience in everyday life.

History of the World in Three Minutes Flat

1980 • 4 min • Canada

A history of life on Earth compressed into three minutes.

Living Dolls

1980 • 9 min • United States of America

Melvin is a henpecked worker in a Bridal shop. To get way from the nagging women, he retreats to a storage room filled with mannequins where he vents his frustration. The only problem is, the mannequins upstairs offer something more horrifying than Melvin expected.

Zufalls-Horizonte

1980 • 47 min

Out of over 4,000 ordinance survey maps (scale 1:25,000) charting all of West Germany, 88 maps were selected by random generator. Then random intersections of two coordinates were determined. Between March 1979 and February 1980 I visited the places at these coordinates, going from south to north. If the random place was determined by with the help of the survey map in the landscape, then I set up the camera at eye-level and pointed it northwards. This first shot was followed by 23 other shots, with the camera turning 15 degrees to the right for each next shot. The length of the shots follows a simple pattern: in the beginning, the shots are 6-5-4-3-4-5-6-5...and so seconds long. Towards the middle of the film they become progressively shorter, reaching ¼ of a second before becoming longer again at the end of the film.