All Films

あまぎらふ

1979 • 26 min • Japan

A young man passes by a girl huddled on a bank. A mysterious world begins with a group of boys in the direction she points. In this world of life and death, the protagonist, whose emotions are controlled to the utmost extent, and the depiction of life as justice and death as evil, deny the superficial grasp of life. The film is a trace of the unparalleled encounter between living and making.

1979 Lovely Kids Venus

1979 • 10 min • Japan

A sunset scene with a fragment of the sun about to disappear at the edge of a mountain, children conveying a message against the background of a faintly coloured rainbow in the centre of the sky. The camera's point of view, which seems to be gazing at the scene, oscillates with a certain sense of rhythm, successfully expressing the flow of the filmmaker's mind.

Two-Zone Transfer

1979 • 24 min • United States of America

Director Ulysses Jenkins calls his film a "dreamscape in which the dreamer awakens to a visitation of three minstrels who tell the story of the development of African American stereotypes in the American entertainment industry."

Prairie Album

1979 • 15 min

A woman reminisces about her childhood on a Prairie farm during the Depression. Her memory album is a collection of watercolours by artist/filmmaker Blake James that describe a family's struggle to survive despite drought and poverty. The film is a historical account of the land and the times, simply told through paintings that are alive with warmth and colour.

Anna and the Fly

1979 • 16 min

A particular shot, made with a lens that breaks up the image field into fragments and reproduces the optics of a fly, explores a room where there is a girl with a guitar. The shot, back to normal, shows a container with the fly and a jar of honey. The girl than performs various actions: she plays the guitar, collects honey from the jar with a finger, reads a book while the buzzing becomes insistent. In this way, an ambiguous and unusual relationship with the insect arises.

Les acteurs de bonne foi

1979 • 51 min

Éraste, Madame Amelin's nephew, is about to marry Angélique. To thank his aunt for her consent, the young man asks his valet, Merlin, to orchestrate an entertaining comedy. In the midst of the rehearsal, the real feelings of the actors and the servants soon mingle with the comedy.

Elephant Boy

1979 • 41 min

From the beautiful jungles of Sri Lanka, this is the exciting story of a boy and his pet elephant and the lesson that it's easier to hide an elephant than it is to hide your sins from God.

Anna Letycia

1979 • 9 min

Documentary about the metallurgical artist

Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology

1979 • 20 min

Short educational film by Vladimir Kobrin.

La confesse

1979 • 20 min

A man jumps off a train and soon after arrives in a sort of dressing room where a mannered individual is copiously putting on make-up. Between the man and this stranger a dialogue is established, the first one telling a story that happened to him with a woman... or rather his quest for a woman, his hesitations, his feelings of hope, joy and anguish. In return, he will only get laconic and disillusioned, ironic, even aggressive answers until he is properly and simply chased away.

The Earth is Our Home

1979 • 29 min

This documentary about the early Indians of the Great Basin emphasizes the traditional culture of the last 5,000 years. The story unfolds through the words and skills of the older Piaute women of southeastern Oregon and northern Nevada. They tell us how they make cakes from berries, baskets from tulles, cord for nets…necessary daily tasks linked with an ancient heritage. The earth is ever present in the film, wildlife, rivers and marshes, sagebrush desert, all part of the story. The lifeways of the Northern Paiutes are followed through a seasonal cycle, from root-gathering in spring to building shelter in winter.

The Great Blue Heron

1979 • 44 min

This film documents the yearly cycle of the great blue heron, its migration from Central America and the West Indies to the St. Lawrence River in Québec, and the breeding and rearing of its young. Outstanding footage shot by the filmmaker perched high in a tree affords close-ups of the birds' intricate courtship rituals. A sensitive, beautifully photographed nature film with much to tell us of ecology and wildlife.

Para Virginia

1979 • 14 min • Argentina

A tribute to Virginia, a 23-year-old girl who apparently committed suicide in Ibiza. Excerpts from her letters to Narcisa, written on the walls, appear in the film as a leitmotif.

Filming

1979 • 2 min • Switzerland

8mm film by Swiss artist Roman Signer.

Ala - Dad

1979 • 5 min

An outdoor gathering.

Box 1

1979 • 2 min • Switzerland

8mm film by Swiss artist Roman Signer.

Bronx Baptism

1979 • 30 min

A pentacostal baptism service at a large church (former movie theater) in the South Bronx, shot 1977, edited 1979. Begun as a landscape film about the destruction of the Bronx in the 1970s. Camera: Richard Serra, DeeDee Halleck, and Babette Mangolte, Jane Warrenbrand, Stuart Math, and Ted Glass.

Box 2

1979 • 2 min • Switzerland

8mm film by Swiss artist Roman Signer.

Blood Lust

1979 • 15 min

A salacious (and unexpectedly stylizied) adaptation of Le Fanu's "Carmilla." Not shown in theatres, Blood List was produced for the 8mm home movie market, and sold direct to consumers via advertisements in adult magazines.

Sleeping

1979 • 2 min • Finland

The faceless rebel's declaration of war and "a rousing stab into the gunky eye of Finnish amateur cinema"

Instant Movie

1979 • 1 min • Sweden

The multinational company's main marketplace — the film consists of a synch leader with Coca Cola at the end. (Filmform)

The Olympics

1979 • 17 min • Poland

These striking observations of a skiing competition for children in Zakopane make, at the same time, a little treaty about growing up. Innocent play in snow soon changes into a true competition where only the best can win. Adults get involved in the rivalry between children forcing them to continue gruelling efforts. The sound of a ticking stopwatch is a perfect complement to the story. At the end of the film, one of the boys rebels and leaves the run. He is not interested in the world of adults yet.

Real Space / Virtual Space

1979 • 20 min • Italy

Among the protagonists of this film, made for the sixteenth Milan Triennial exhibition “Lo spazio audiovisivo”, were Gau Aulenti, Vittorio Gregotti, Andrea Branzi, Bruno Munari, Nanda Vigo, Virgilio Vercelloni, Enzo Mari, Gianfranco Bettetini, Aldo Grassi, Costantino Bardi, Alessandro Mendini, Pierluigi Nicolin, Gillo Dorfles, Davide Mosconi… interviewed by Ugo La Pietra, who then transferred their statements onto a large “diagram of objectives”.

The Undertaker

1979 • 9 min • Yugoslavia

A phantasmagoric story about an undertaker and his wife who live alone because everyone avoids them. The undertaker cannot break human prejudices and superstitions, and in desperation he invites his former customers, the dead, to be his guests and to banish loneliness from him and his wife.