All Films

Vigilar es defender

1978 • 10 min • Argentina

Animated short released during the 1970s, when tension escalated between neighboring countries Argentina and Chile which almost led to a war. The film was produced by the Argentinian military dictatorship at the time. It informs about the dangers of having an undefended border.

Live!

1978 • 11 min • East Germany

This short film traces the story of a man from birth to old age. The magical dreams of his youth appear from time to time, but daily routine quickly takes over. His striving for material wealth – including a Trabant car, a shelving unit, a boat – leads him to betray his youthful ideals, and he ultimately becomes a slave to his possessions. In the final frames of the film, “LIVE” – written in large white letters – ironically reminds viewers not to forget to follow their dreams.

Pictures of the Lost

1978 • 23 min

Composed in twenty-two movements that coalesce into a haunting psychic journey, the enigmatic Pictures of the Lost evokes states of heightened consciousness, symbolic and ritual gesture, and spiritual transformations. Buckner's dreamlike, rhythmic visions, rendered in saturated hues, create a perceptual tension between abstraction and recognition. Elusive images unfold like silent apparitions. -EAI

Your Daughter Is Sleeping

1978 • 7 min

"I picked up the telephone one day and somehow got cross-connected into a conversation between a couple talking about the simple experiences of their day which included the line 'Your daughter is sleeping'. I felt as a voyeur, hearing and seeing things I was not meant to see and hear. Somehow that became a metaphor for voyeuristic filmmaking, as troubling and imperfect as that experience can be." –RM

El servicio

1978 • 45 min • Mexico

Mexican feature film

The Flashettes

1978 • 20 min

When a man returns home to Bedford-Stuyvescent, NYC, he finds the young girls there dealing with growing problems of alcoholism, drug use, and teenage pregnancy. He decides to counteract the negative forces operating in the girls' lives by starting a track team for them which provides valuable discipline, gives them pride and confidence, and becomes a second family for many. The film follows the team through a city-wide competition held on Randall's island.

Nor Was This All By Any Means

1978 • 24 min

In this densely layered work, Ramos explores his cultural and personal heritage through a collage of recorded and appropriated footage. Juxtaposing African and American landscapes, personal and media imagery, he traces a spiritual and physical journey that moves from from Harlem to Goree Island, Cape Verde and Tanzania. In a forceful portrait of cultural disenfranchisement that refers to the African diaspora and the bitter harvest sown by slavery, he challenges the veracity of mass cultural images of African-Americans.

Wind in the Web

1978 • 5 min

A 16mm film by Abbott Meader, made as a visual response to the poem "Standing Here," by Karen Andersen Woodard.

Snake Dance Teacher Dance

1978 • 18 min

"Snake Dance was shown in United States Embassies in Africa in the late 1970s and early 1980s to show the American culture was not all Jim Crow and race riots. Arthur Hall came to Maine as a movement specialist for the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Maine Arts Commission was so impressed they called in filmmakers. We looked in on a Wednesday and filmed all day the next Friday, using all the film we had - color and both negative and reversal black and white." —Bruce Williams

Liana

1978 • 28 min

A short documentary directed by Toufik Senoussi.

Nimbus

1978 • 5 min

"Nimbus was Robert Creeley's first choice to show in conjunction with a lecture at Rocky Mountain Film Center in 1978. This film owes much to Creeley's poetry and Edward Hopper's paintings, although no conscious consideration structured the working process - Hopper in the sense that Brian O'Doherty writes of the paintings as displaying 'an observed, an observer and a witness.'" –G.D.

Hinterland Who's Who: The Raccoon

1978 • 1 min • Canada

This very short documentary from the Hinterland Who’s Who series introduces viewers to the raccoon.

Theatre Girls

1978 • 56 min • United Kingdom

In her final piece at film school, Longinotto and her partner take us into the "Theatre Girls Club" in Soho, London–a hostel for elderly and destitute women and the only shelter in London that would take in any woman at any time. The filmmakers lived in the hostel for more than two months, establishing an extraordinary level of trust with their “cast” —from the home’s feisty cook to an elderly resident who was a terminal alcoholic. In what will later be recognized as a signature style, Longinotto films without judgement and finds the humor and humanity in situations and characters that might otherwise be seen as tragic. This stunning film debut earned awards at several European festivals and screened to acclaim in the US and Asia.

Sha-Dada

1978 • 5 min • France

Sha-Dada is an "expanded" film on two screens which presents itself as a confrontation between two imperialisms.

A Song for Freedom

1978 • 21 min • Brazil

An image of a boat going down a river, a voice of impostation declaiming direct verses that warn us: we, the poor, have value only in the face of the rich's need. A documentary about the celebration of the Ticumbi festivities in Conceição da Barra, north of Espírito Santo - Brazil.

Travel Log

1978 • 9 min • Canada

This short, experimental road movie is a study in mystery and atmosphere. Juxtaposing photographs on the screen with a woman's words, the film tells the story of a couple who drifts apart, of a journey with no return. Introspective and haunting, this mood piece is a travel album about intimacy and dispossession.

Restez mince vivez jeune

1978 • 9 min • France

A film projected on two screens.

Visible Inventory 6: Motel Dissolve

1978 • 15 min • United States of America

The sixth in a group of eight “Visible Inventories” in various media (2 films, 2 photo grids, 1 videotape, and 2 natural light installations) which list or catalogue my personal fascinations with natural phenomena. (1974-9) A space filled with moving…a series of panning shots of motel rooms in which the film-maker stayed during semi-annual transcontinental auto trips – homogenous accommodations lacking locational cues. Superimposed over the screen image are the names of the towns in which the rooms are located and the car’s odometer reading at each location. The sound track consists of two Gertrude Stein texts: “America I Came and Here I Am” and “American Food and American Houses” both from 1935. The film counterpoints printed word, spoken text, and photographs giving the viewer the alternate options of reading, viewing, and listening. Funded in part by a grant from the Ohio Arts Council. – J.C.L.

Tripletime

1978 • 5 min

Amor de Perdição - Episódio Zero

1978 • 33 min • Portugal

A short TV documentary made to prepare the audience at the time to the premiere of Manoel de Oliveira's "Doomed Love" (TV version). Called "Episode Zero" the documentary revolves around the ideas and challenges on adapting Camilo Castelo Branco's novel, and it also includes interviews with the actors and director.

Néroïcal

1978 • 40 min • France

Women, multiple images, ironic metamorphoses of sea, land and air - bodies that flow, crumble, evaporate...

L’Espai - Temps

1978 • 10 min • Spain

A thriller of frenetic homosexual tension that broke the rules of space and time during the Barcelona of the Transition.

Permanent Wave

1978 • 3 min • United States of America

“Anita Thacher's film was ignored by critics of avant-garde cinema because its lively deconstruction of pornography did not fit into any of the dominant critical categories of the time. »Lauren Rabinovitz

Hors d’oeuvres

1978 • 4 min • United States of America

A sampling of abstract styles - black and white patterns, colorful flicker, and dancing line formations, interspersed with a strangely unnerving combination of organic and computer-generated sound effects.