All Films

Ritual

1975 • 18 min

It's a staging of The Maids, which, set in the 1930s, tells the story of two sisters working in the house of an abusive woman. Genet's film begins with a ritual: the lighting of candles. It's a black and white film with complex lighting design.

Perspectrum

1975 • 6 min • Canada

In this animated short, simple geometric forms as thin and flat as playing cards constantly form and re-form to the sound of the koto, a 13-stringed Japanese instrument.

Reeds

1975 • 44 min • Turkey

Hayriye is afraid of the future. Every day, while waiting for his beloved Ali to return from fishing on the long wooden pier, she disappears one day; it is Ali' turn to wait.

Holiday

1975 • 10 min • Poland

Film unfolds in five sequences, each depicting a facet of Barbórka celebrations—from the miners’ orchestra wake-up call and the medal-awarding academy through evening feasting and dancing. Folk traditions mingle with party-state rituals as speeches for the PZPR Congress intercut candlelit toasts. In the opening mining-orchestra segment, dynamic editing syncs shot length to the music’s tempo, while grotesque staging casts engineers as conductors and workers’ movements as instrumental solos.

200

1975 • 3 min • United States of America

A psychedelic animated short celebrating America's bicentennial. The film " provides a short, impressionistic history of the U.S. through famous American symbols, including the Statue of Liberty; the Woodstock logo; the Liberty Bell; and Mt. Rushmore. The symbols are layered on top of each other, as can be seen from a bald eagle hatching from a red, white, and blue egg and flying past the American Gothic farmers, the U.S. Capitol building, the Golden Gate Bridge, Abraham Lincoln’s cabin, and an American bison. The film was directed by Vince Collins" (US National Archives).

A Very Easy Death

1975 • 8 min

A Very Easy Death is a profoundly moving end-of-life account of Stephen's mother passing away in a hospital. Taking inspiration from Simone de Beauvoir's masterpiece, Stephen's finely nuanced portrait of bereavement, takes the viewers metaphorically through songs and images.

Puberty - Part 1

1975 • 14 min • Canada

An intimate portrait of Marie Leo, a Sto:lo woman who was adopted into a Líl̓wat family as a baby. Marie’s gentle narrative of her remarkable early childhood demonstrates a deep connection to culture, land and family that continues to endure. This short is part of the L’il’wata series. In the early 1970s, at the outset of her documentary career, Alanis Obomsawin visited the Líl̓wat Nation, an Interior Salish First Nation in British Columbia, and created a series of shorts that provide personal narratives about Líl̓wat culture, histories and knowledge.

The City at Sunrise

1975 • 48 min

A documentary look into life in Saigon, very soon after April 30, 1975.

Caprice

1975 • 4 min • Poland

Hookers

1975 • 25 min • United States of America

A short documentary profiling several COYOTE members and their founder Margo St. James as they argue for legalizing and decriminalizing prostitution.

Cuartico Azul

1975 • 24 min

A couple of peasants just married comes to the town searching for work and a better life.

Event Logical

1975 • 12 min • South Korea

A mem­ber of the AG (Avant-gar­de Group) as well as lea­der of the group Space & Time (S.T.) 1969 – 1980, Lee Kun-yong hel­ped to open the hori­zon for con­tem­po­ra­ry art in Korea through his expe­ri­men­tal appro­ach to con­cep­tu­al art, per­for­man­ce and instal­la­ti­on. When Lee atten­ded the 8th Paris Biennale in 1973, the expe­rien­ce dee­ply chan­ged his thin­king, and he began to con­si­der the body as an artis­tic medi­um in itself. He focu­sed on per­for­man­ces rela­ted to spa­ce, situ­a­ti­on, site and the body, giving it the name ​‘event’; dra­wing a line bet­ween ​‘hap­pe­nings’ and his own prac­ti­ce. From 1975 to 1979, Lee pre­sen­ted about 50 ​‘events’ in dif­fe­rent loca­ti­ons and exhi­bi­ti­ons, and alt­hough docu­men­ta­ti­on of Lee’s per­for­man­ces is extre­me­ly rare, Event Logical shows one of the­se events. (Art Cinema OFFoff)

Avsesh

1975 • 20 min

Avsesh was made in 1975 by Girish Kasaravalli when he was a student in FTII. The film was declared the Best Student Film of the year and also went on to win the National Award for Best Experimental Short Film.

She Is Away

1975 • 13 min • Canada

"evokes absence through elliptical continuity and loneliness through the repetition of ... archetypal images" Ian Birnie

Gilberto Gil - Refazenda

1975 • 4 min • Brazil

In 1975 Gilberto Gil was releasing his album 'Refazenda', and talk a little about it in this interview.

Seed Reel #1

1975 • 2 min • United States of America

Squiggling white lines playfully morph and morph again into sexual imagery and suggestive flora, conveying the sensuousness of the natural world.

Bridge High

1975 • 10 min • United States of America

Passage across a suspension bridge, moving from the country to the city, a half minute trip ­expanded. Choreographed cables, girders and arches.

Puberty - Part 2

1975 • 17 min

Elder Marie Leo recounts her experiences going through puberty. Growing up on the Líl̓wat Nation near Mount Currie, B.C., Marie details the important process of preparing for womanhood. The various tasks and duties she undertakes demonstrate a complex, beautiful journey a young Líl̓wat person undergoes as they welcome adulthood and increased responsibilities. This short is part of the L’il’wata series. In the early 1970s, at the outset of her documentary career, Alanis Obomsawin visited the Líl̓wat Nation, an Interior Salish First Nation in British Columbia, and created a series of shorts that provide personal narratives about Líl̓wat culture, histories and knowledge.

Last Stop, Kreuzberg

1975 • 22 min • Germany, Greece

The Kreuzberg district of West Berlin is home to foreign workers - Greeks and Turks who are struggling for a better future, while trying to maintain their national identity. The lives, problems and collective political action of the Gastarbeiters are explored in this great documentary by Giorgos Karypidis, who for a while had also lived and worked as a director in Berlin for the public television SFB.

James Is Our Brother

1975 • 30 min

Documentary following James Thompson, a teenager with Down's Syndrome, as he attempts to adopt to independent life, and how his family supports him.

Probes in Space

1975 • 23 min • United States of America

Probes in Space is a 1975 American short documentary film produced by George Casey. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man

1975 • 40 min

In 1972 a coal-waste dam owned by the Pittston Company collapsed at the head of a crowded hollow in southern West Virginia. A wall of sludge, debris, and water tore through the valley below, leaving in its wake 125 dead and 4,000 homeless. Interviews with survivors, representatives of union and citizen’s groups, and officials of the Pittston Company are juxtaposed with actual footage of the flood and scenes of the ensuing devastation. As reasons for the disaster are sought out and examined, evidence mounts that company officials knew of the hazard in advance of the flood, and that the dam was in violation of state and federal regulations. The Pittston Company, however, continued to deny any wrongdoing, maintaining that the disaster was an “act of God.”

A Historical Sketch of Indian Women

1975 • 20 min • India

A documentary on the role of women in India.

Keep Busy

1975 • 44 min

The protagonists’ astounding verbal gymnastics and often incomprehensible interactions tend to descend into nonsense, and with the syncopated rhythm of its action and dialogue, this film is reminiscent of the playful and parodying elements of the Beat fantasy Pull My Daisy. The interweaving of documentary and fiction with the syncopated rhythm of its action and dialogue presents an absurd buzz of activity reminiscent of Beckett’s abstract comic grotesque.