All Films

Leonard Bernstein: Reflections

1978 • 51 min

Leonard Bernstein discusses his Boston childhood, his musical growth at Harvard and the Curtis Institute and the influence of great masters like Reiner, Mitropoulos and Koussevitzky. He shares his feelings on the primacy of tonal music and speculates on the nature of the creative process. From Carnegie Hall, scene of his début, to the living room of his home and his private studio overlooking New York's Central Park, Reflections explores the artist's varied and colourful career.

Acting and Reacting

1978 • 21 min

An early Josh Becker short starting Bruce Campbell with appearances by Ted Raimi, Sam Raimi and Scott Spiegel.

Numbers Quarrel

1978 • 8 min • Soviet Union

As numbers quarrel after disagreeing which number is the strongest, two children realize the true meaning of strength in numbers.

Kasper's Last Stand

1978 • 30 min

A TV play by Graeme McCaig set amongst Blackpool's beach entertainers and starring Roy Kinnear

Monsieur Saint-Saëns

1978 • 26 min • France

The imaginary adventures of musician Sans-Saëns.

Deal

1978 • 4 min • Poland

The earth falls off the titan's arms and breaks into two parts. Those parts turn into two tanks and later into two bombs with smoldering fuses. The elderly gentlemen who travel on the bombs warn each other of an imminent outbreak of the war. Just like leaders of the empires during the Cold War.

Alice Cooper and Friends

1978 • 52 min

A TV concert special showcasing performances by Alice Cooper and support acts Sha Na Na, The Tubes and Nazareth. Filmed June 19, 1977 at Anaheim Stadium, Anaheim, CA, this special was broadcast in September 1977 on US television.

Laurel and Hardy Laughtoons

1978 • 24 min • United States of America

A compilation of some of Laurel and Hardy's best gags, including scenes from "Angora Love" (1929)," "You're Darn Tootin'" (1928), "Liberty" (1929), "The Battle Of The Century" (1927), with updated scores and sound effects.

Instrumentos da Música Popular Brasileira - A Cuíca

1978 • 10 min • Brazil

Testimony by instrumentalist Osvaldinho da Cuíca with historical explanation of the presence of cuíca in several countries around the world and its popularization in Brazil based on samba. Osvaldinho gives tips on how to extract the sound from the instrument and makes a presentation at the Casa Verde Samba School Mocidade Alegre.

Gertrude & Alice in Passing

1978 • 7 min • Canada

This experiment in point of view, narrative structure, and time attempts to reproduce cinematically Gertude Stein's notion of a "continuous present." In four rhyming shots/scenes, it suggests the development of a relationship over many years. Based on biographical details from the lives of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, with improvised performances by Jackie Burroughs and Anne Anglin.

Untitled

1978 • 7 min

Made from the same footage as Epilogue but in a different order: 1. pan, 2. dissolve-crossfade, 3.freeze.... as opposed topan, freeze, crossfade-dissolve......very different in terms of filmic expectation, recognition, assumptions of anti-narrativity, all whilst watching these small fragments (each film only a few minutes long, each made from the (repeated) opticals of the same very short fragments of several seconds each....)....P.G.

Canada Vignettes: The Performer

1978 • 3 min • Canada

This short film from the Canada Vignettes series features tenor Roger Doucet singing the Canadian national anthem, O Canada, before a hockey game in the Montreal Forum.

Word of Honour

1978 • 10 min • Soviet Union

Based on Panteleyev’s tale about a boy who wouldn’t leave his post after he gave his word.

Jugend-Zeit

1978 • 18 min • East Germany

The documentary tells the story of Anke, Birgit and Katrin, who are training to become cattle breeders and graduate from high school. During this time, they live in a boarding school. The three girls talk about their everyday lives and reflect on their future.

Surf Sail

1978 • 20 min • New Zealand

A documentary following the attempt by three young people to be the first windsurfers to cross Cook Strait.

These Are the Weapons

1978 • 59 min • Mozambique

The agitprop film Estas são as armas by Murilo Salles was edited together from archival images and formed one of the first works to be produced by the newly founded film institute in Maputo.

Mysterious Castles of Clay

1978 • 57 min • United States of America

Mysterious Castles of Clay is a 1978 film about a termite colony; filmed in Kenya by film-makers Joan and Alan Root, and narrated by Orson Welles. (narration replaced by Derek Jacobi, in a later release titled "Castles of Clay")

Some Little Men

1978 • 10 min • Soviet Union

Two humorous stories about a man who cuts down a tree he is sitting on.

The Year Of Punk

1978 • 42 min • United Kingdom

The summer of the Jubilee in 1977 was mentally dominated by another national anthem - "God Save the Queen" by The Sex Pistols. That same summer was also the summer of punk. Janet Street Porter Reviews The Year Of Punk, Featuring Early Classic Footage Of The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Siouxsie And Others.

The Vampires of Poverty

1978 • 29 min • Colombia

Two filmmakers travel around impoverished sectors of the cities of Bogotá and Cali in search of the images of abjection needed to complete a documentary commissioned by German TV. Meanwhile, another camera captures these “vampire” filmmakers feeding off the misery of their marginal subjects.

Tut: The Boy King

1978 • 49 min • United States of America

Review the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb by Howard Carter in 1922 with archival photographs and reviews the highlights of the treasure trove with anecdotal stories and conjecture about the Boy King's life and death.

The Tale of Chugaystra

1978 • 20 min • Soviet Union

During the Great Patriotic War, in the occupied Hutsul village, a grandmother tells her grandchildren a fairy tale about the giant Chugaystra, the people's defender in ancient times. At night, a wounded partisan comes to their hut, and the children go to the forest to look for Chugaystra, deciding that only he can help the partisan and all Hutsuls...

O Construtor de Anjos

1978 • 40 min • Portugal

Gothic film in a monastery, where sensual monks murder the children they receive, with images of fantastic, painted from the author own painting and also from the Hammer films and the Saxon plastic tradition of romanticism.

The Two Soldiers

1978 • 25 min • Portugal

The film follows soldiers escape and wander, talk, and drift aimlessly.