All Films

The Cask of Amontillado

1978 • 18 min

The classic story of horror and revenge, involving a specially prepared chamber where prized amontillado is supposed to be stored, is told in pictures with narration.

Perry Como's Early American Christmas

1978 • 43 min

Perry Como celebrates an early American Christmas in Williamsburg VA with John Wayne and Diana Canova.

Harness the Wind

1978 • 12 min • Canada

The wind is one of the strongest natural forces around us. Because it is generated by temperature differences in air masses, wind power is, in fact, a form of solar energy. Harness the Wind traces the history of attempts to control and use wind energy, and projects into the future to visualize the potential of wind-power technology.

The Red Dress

1978 • 27 min • Canada

Kelly is a Métis man without treaty or hunting rights, struggling to sustain his traditional life. His daughter Theresa longs for a red dress from France that she believes will give her power and strength, as the bear claw once did for her great-grandfather Muskwa. When Theresa escapes an assault and Kelly turns his back on his daughter, he realizes that he must reconnect with his culture in order to make things right. Today, the red dress is a powerful symbol recognizing over 1000 missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada.

The Soviet Union: A New Look

1978 • 24 min • United States of America

This film discusses conditions in the Soviet Union, including party activity and influence, the shortage of consumer goods, the roles of children and women, the status of religion, and the purpose of Soviet realist art.

Peeping Times

1978 • 55 min • United States of America

Peeping Times is a comedy special that aired on NBC on January 25, 1978. Co-produced, written and directed by Rudy De Luca and Barry Levinson, the special featured an early broadcast network appearance of David Letterman. David Frost was co-executive producer. The show was a spoof of TV news magazine programs.

Christmas Snows, Christmas Winds

1978 • 28 min • United States of America

Memories of Christmas, especially those of childhood long past, can bring both joy and sorrow. This depiction of one person's bittersweet recollections, set in a small 1930s western farming community, echoes with the excitement of anticipation, the comfort of beloved family traditions, and the years of regret for a moment of childhood cruelty.

And What if It Works!

1978 • 10 min • Soviet Union

Parrot sets forth for a nest. But he foots. Appears he is afraid to fly, because he never tried.

Incision

1978 • 30 min

Ulay is fixed to a wall by a fixed rubber cord, while Marina stands at the limit of Ulay's expansion.

...something about the indians of the United States

1978 • 12 min

Documentary short made for Swedish public television (SVT) about the past and current situation for Native Americans in the US. The film was produced as an introduction to the American documentary Navajo Girl (Robert Young, 1973). Något om USA:s indianer [Something about the Indians in the USA] is another example of Nestler's method of combining still photos, drawings and moving images from different sources.

Mad Love

1978 • 42 min

Jeff Keen had a chance encounter with a collection of old 78 speed records at a Brighton flea market and used it as an opportunity to create a surrealist film (naming it after the poetry collection by André Breton). A requiem for B movies and the marginalised popular side of cinematic history.

Journey to the Valley of the Emu

1978 • 49 min • United States of America

A First Nations boy in the Australian outback adopts an injured dingo. The two of them set off on a quest to find an emu.

Roxette

1978 • 16 min • United Kingdom

Documentary profiling young Roxy Music fans. They talk about the band and the music, are seen out and about in Manchester, they prepare for a concert at the Opera House. Includes footage of a tribute band, who, due to a lack of musical instruments, use household appliances to make music.

The Mutants at Napa State

1978 • 22 min

On June 13, 1978, the soon-to-be legendary rock band the Cramps went to play Napa State, a psychiatric hospital in the small town of Napa in Northern California. Opening for them was the Mutants, an eclectic septet of art school punks from nearby San Francisco. Also in the van was seminal Bay Area art collective Target Video, there to capture the show using one of the first video cameras available to the public, democratizing a medium controlled by mainstream media outlets. Target Video's 22-minute ½” open reel recording of the Mutants' opening set, previously thought to be lost, was restored by Dino Everett at the Punk Media Research Collection, University of Southern California, HMH Foundation Moving Image Archive, and released on DVD in 2023 by Grasshopper Films.

O Milagre

1978 • 37 min • Portugal

Against his mother and the village's wish, Pedro decides do marry Raquel, an ill woman with cases of mental illness in her family.

The Johnny Cash Christmas Special 1978

1978 • 50 min

For his 1978 Christmas special, the third in as many years, Johnny Cash moved the taping of the Christmas Special to Los Angeles, and, predictably, the program takes on a Hollywood feel. Guests include Kris Kristofferson and singer Rita Coolidge, both friends of the Cash family who perform a heartfelt "Please Don't Tell Me How The Story Ends," and Steve Martin, one of America's hottest new comics at the time. June Carter Cash, as always, performs with her husband, and other family members make appearances in this special as well.

The Odd Man

1978 • 52 min

A documentary profile of three Scottish screenwriters: Edward Boyd, Gordon Williams and Alan Sharp.

Water Wrackets

1978 • 12 min • United Kingdom

Multifarious images of a lake are overlaid with water effects and a narrated history of the campaigns fought by the fictional water-wracket army.

Thot-Fal'N

1978 • 14 min • United States of America

This film describes a psychological state "kin to moonstruck, its images emblems (not quite symbols) of suspension-of-self within consciousness and then that feeling of falling away from conscious thought. The film can only be said to describe or be emblematic of this state because I cannot imagine symbolizing or otherwise representing an equivalent of thoughtlessness itself. Thus the actors in the film, Jane Brakhage, Tom and Gloria Bartek, Williams Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Peter Olovsky and Phillip Whalen are figments of this 'Thought-Fallen Process', as are their images in the film to find themselves being photographed."

Purity and After

1978 • 5 min • United States of America

Two short films, the first NOT about purity itself, whatever that might be, but rather an equivalent of the process of searching for purity in the mind ... the second film, then, thought's rebound from that.

Orson Welles at The Magic Castle

1978 • 60 min • United States of America

Our host (surreptitiously played by Abb Dickson in disguise) introduces us outside the castle and describes what - and who - are allowed in it, followed by the opening title. Orson enters the building where strange things are happening, and Abb Dickson (in fez) explains about, and demonstrates, the Indian rope trick. He then turns the program over to Abb who introduces a variety of guests.

Do You Remember Vietnam

1978 • 52 min • Vietnam

Three years after the fall of Saigon, Pilger returns to examine the new regime

Theodorico, o Imperador do Sertão

1978 • 50 min • Brazil

Theodoro Bezerra is a member of the Brazilian elite, a farmer and politician since the 1940s who has been elected as a state congressman by the state of Rio Grande do Norte. He concentrates on his own characteristics as a popular leader, despite being sexist and elitist, as well as using public funds for personal causes.

The Bay City Rollers Meet the Saturday Superstars

1978 • 60 min

Fall preview special highlighted by original comedy skits and musical performances by the Bay City Rollers and others.