All Films

A distinctly Chicago tale of marital infidelity made by Central Cinematographers, a Chicago cine-club made up of “advanced amateurs” who met once a week to produce short narrative films. Chuck and Mary Ann, both married, are having an affair. Chuck gives Mary Ann a fancy necklace, giving her a key and telling her that he will put the necklace in the corresponding locker in Union Station. Mary Ann is to give the key to her husband claiming she found it, and he will presumably get the necklace and give it to her. She does this, but her husband brings her back the box with a cheap pocket watch in it instead. Mary Ann blames Chuck and calls him angrily, claiming she knows his game—meanwhile, Mary Ann’s husband has given the necklace to a woman he’s having an affair with, along with the key to fool her husband. Locations include establishing shots of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Marina Towers, as well as one short scene shot presumably in Union Station.

Preparing for an evening out, the sexual tension between Armande and Benny turns sour, Benny's ulterior motives for their union subtley apparent.

The film's story is about a school that is expecting the arrival of an inspector, and everyone is anxious about the inspector’s visit. This film is a loose adaptation of The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol.

The city belongs to men, especially at night: between false courtesy and aggression, there is room only for parallel solitudes.

Not to be confused with the longform video of the same name first released in 1981, this earlier film was filmed as a prototype for that later piece and features DEVO in greyish-blue janitor uniforms. It includes songs such as Huboon Stomp, The Words Get Stuck In My Throat and Too Much Paranoias.

"Petit Mal is a kind of double-portrait: both Bromberg and her subject insisting on moving freely, to open up space in an environment that would prefer to constrain and define”. – Vera Brunner-Sung, Millennium Film Journal Vol. No. 67 “Petit Mal is a raw, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink movie: choppy street scenes, a girl clowning, subway sequences enlivened by artless overexposures and split screens. What holds it together is the strong and unobtrusive audio track, a mélange of confessional rapping, nondescript mood music and slyly gratuitous sound effects.” – J. Hoberman, Art Forum

An educational piece produced for the Forest Industry Employers’ Union shows the working conditions and future prospects of the foresters and machine drivers.

Rossellini explores the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel during a concert by the chorus of the Cappella Musicale Pontificia conducted by Monsignor Domenico Bartolucci.

In effect, it turns the spectator loose in a problematic textual system which includes both narrative and non-narrative clues; the puzzle cannot be resolved because its terms are systematically ambiguous. The actual filmic material related closely to that used by Gidal in previous films: hand-held shooting in domestic interiors, with tight framing, frequent zooms and re-focusing, aspires to a kind of 'pre-predicative' flux, in which full representation is held in abeyance. However, this material is now fragmented by the regular interruption of black leader, so that it appears as a series of discrete segments which are not, in any syntactic sense, shots - single takes clearly extend across more than one segment.

In a futuristic, antiseptic food factory, workers select healthy chicks, while the rejects are carried along a conveyor belt until they are crushed by a mallet and drop into a garbage bin. A single black chick appears among the yellow and is shoved toward the garbage bin. Before the mallet strikes, the gasping chick rebels.

An old man who took in and nursed a wounded crane is visited by a young, beautifully dressed woman.

On a layover at a hotel, a young stewardess meets a handsome man. Though they do not speak a common language, they share a brief yet intense romantic relationship. Included in the omnibus film The New Monsters (I nuovi mostri).

About a tiny bird that lived at the airport and understood very well everything that was connected with the territory and the work of the place. One day this sparrow met a dog that broke away from his masters. Together, they walk around and watch the planes, visit buffet and fully immerse themselves in the hectic life of arrivals and departures.

While a group of workers demolish a building in the Providencia district, the director of the documentary talks with a stucco worker, accompanying him to his house. The dialogue, which begins with an inquiry into his trade, reveals the frustration of the worker, whose meager salary prevents him from paying the money required to obtain the title deeds to his own house.

Documentary by Hans-Dieter Grabe.

After the sun disappears behind a cloud, a little mouse decides to use a balloon as a replacement.

In the island of Paquetá, professor investigates the genital vocation of vegetables and fruits, maintaining sexual relations with a watermelon. In his experiences, he counts on the interlocution of an attentive student.

A performance of Joseph Haydn's Hour Symphony is interrupted several times within half an hour.

"A curiosity, Movie Show looks backward to the era of structural films, particularly Ken Jacobs’s Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son. The clip of film used in this performance is taken from my Articulation of Boolean Algebra for Film Opticals, the work with which I closed out my interest in combinatorial and logical structures." —Tony Conrad

Based on Victor Hugo’s masterpiece, Arnold Burovs tells us Cosette’s story. The young girl works harder every day and does not have time for any fun.

The PCP Story is a general overview of an emerging drug problem -the abuse of phencyclidine. The film is journalistic in approach as users and various authorities define the growth, effects, and dangers of the drug. Renowned researchers, R. Stanley Burns, M. D. and Steven E. Lerner, M.S., collaborated closely in the production to assure the accuracy of the film's content. Some of the characteristic signs of the low dose state of intoxication - the blank stare, ataxia, stuttering, incomplete verbal responses, and mystagmus upon testing - are graphically demonstrated by users.

A disoriented woman searches for a man who haunts her reality through iconic Los Angeles locations in the 1920’s. Lost in her dreams, she marries her obsession, arriving at her wedding dressed as Nefertiti. At the ceremony, the man surprises his gullible new bride with a celebration of betrayal and humiliation, assisted by his recent lovers and his guests.

A rare interview of Clarice Lispector, from 1977, to Julio Lerner, TV Cultura reporter. After its recording, Clarice asked for the interview to be aired only after her passing. It went on air ten months later. Clarice died in December 1977, aged 57. "Uma rara entrevista de Clarice Lispector, concedida em 1977, ao repórter Júlio Lerner, da TV Cultura. Depois de gravada, Clarice pediu que a entrevista só fosse divulgada após sua morte. Foi ao ar dez meses depois. Clarice morreu em dezembro de 1977, aos 57 anos."

An animated historical short film about Trajan's Dacian Wars.