All Films

Keep Watching the Skies

1975 • 21 min

Inspired by the American Horror films from the late 1950s, in a remote American lake a fisherman dislodges a canister which has been jettisoned from a flying saucer. A teenager and his girlfriend manage to convince the police of the existence of an all-consuming creature that has emerged from the canister, but it’s not long before all hell breaks loose and the creature from space consumes everything in its path.

Organism

1975 • 19 min • United States of America

Academy Award winning film maker Hilary Harris’ epic vision of New York City shot over 15 years [1959-74] during which time Mr. Harris pioneered and contemporized time-lapse film making techniques to achieve this unique experiential view of the world we inhabit: chaos and confusion seem to multiply in every corner of the Big Apple. Yet there seems to be some order in all that chaotic and relentless system and things seem to work just fine. The same can be said about the human body. Director Hilary Harris proves with this short documentary that cities and organisms are all-alike.

A Ballet Shoe

1975 • 1 min • United States of America

16mm film close-up of a ballet shoe being untied.

Homage to Magritte

1975 • 10 min • United States of America

This film opens with the sense of juxtaposition and absurdity that are the basis of Magritte's paintings, and succeeds in contributing to the surrealist tradition through subtle and powerful manipulations of the filmed image.

A Mão do Povo

1975 • 12 min • Brazil

Puffin Season

1975 • 45 min

This film is about the traditional puffin catch in the Westman Islands and shows the fowlers in action, often performing breathtaking feats in the soaring cliffs to accomplish their goal. Ancient hunting techniques are shown, and the extreme dangers that men faced to secure their livelihood. These techniques have passed on basically unchanged from generation to generation.

L'école est finie

1975 • 7 min • France

Short film by Jules Celma

Family Astrology

1975 • 34 min

A look at hippie family life at its fullest through a lens of astrology. Life with chickens, music and much more.

Hansel and Gretel

1975 • 10 min

Adapted from the Brothers Grimm fairytale.

The Little Mole the Watchmaker

1975 • 9 min • Czechoslovakia

An episode of the children's series about a little Mole. This story tells how the little Mole chased a cuckoo living in a wooden clock booth.

Don't

1975 • 19 min • United States of America

The lyric passage of a Monarch butterfly, beginning with its birth, through its delicate metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly and on its journey from country to city. From the first frame, the audience experiences the tension of this perilous flight as numerous adversaries, threaten the butterfly's freedom. A lively sound track, with music composed by Frederic Chopin, allows us to live for a few moments in this fleeting world.

The Fox and the Bear

1975 • 9 min • Soviet Union

Based on a Russian folk tale, a deceitful wandering fox abuses naive bear's hospitality to stay at his home and secretly eat the food he had collected for the winter.

Whistling Smith

1975 • 27 min • Canada

This film is a revealing portrait of a tough cop with a big heart. Sergeant Bernie "Whistling" Smith walks the beat on Vancouver's Eastside, the hangout of petty criminals, down-and-outs and a variety of characters. His policing is unorthodox. To many drug users, petty thieves and prostitutes in this economically depressed area he is more than the iron hand of the law, he is also a counsellor and a friend.

A Creator of the Imaginary: Patrick Bokanowski - Hieroglyphs

1975 • 14 min

In his film studio, Patrick BOKANOWSKI talks about his research (audiovisual and animation techniques) for his new project ("L'Ange" which will be released in 1982). Filming scenes, and excerpts from his short film "Lunch in the morning," punctuate the interview. On a film set, Patrick BOKANOWSKI describes some scenes of his project, notably "the attack of the castle of the egg"; it evokes the influence of the painter Henri DIMIER, of which he was the apprentice, his research on photographic printing, optical systems of shooting, and objectives. - He comments on a sketch of preparation explaining the image sought, and the means implemented. - Images of the shooting of scenes of characters in the darkness and light beams, accompanied by music, punctuate the interview.

And There Was Morning... and There Was Night. Seventh Day

1975 • 8 min • Yugoslavia

Experimental short touching the subject of class, representation and sexuality.

The Story About One Score

1975 • 9 min • Soviet Union

The Barabanov student is a real dirty guy who is so used to bad grades in school that the resulting unit did not bother him at all. Not wanting to learn more material on subjects and prepare homework, he went for a walk in the yard. That unit did not retreat, but followed the boy around.

Delight

1975 • 4 min • United States of America

"The title is a play on words about light and the pleasures of light phenomena. Images of reflections and shadows punctuated periodically by real objects or people." –Sheila Pinkel

Shade

1975 • 9 min

"'Shade' is a near exhaustion of the possibilities between camera (aperture, focus) and nature (sun, wind). It is a beautiful study-poem on the undying presence that renders the world perceptually. In this minimal area, the variations are pursued with quiet doggedness, each frame revealing the secret of the next." —Mike Reynolds

Blanc

1975 • 5 min

Farming

1975 • 2 min • Canada

The farming practices of residents of the Líl̓wat Nation near Mount Currie, B.C., are presented in a series of snapshots that illustrate the fertility of their territory and the people’s deep connection to their land. 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.

Dance 7

1975 • 7 min

A videotape-to-film transfer based on the solo dancing of Marnee Morris, of the New York City Ballet. Once again, Doris Chase has not merely documented the performance but transformed it into what she describes as a "moving painting." Through special color video effects of feedback, de-beaming and superimposition, she creates an evocative visual interpretation of the dance. We see the dancer from different points of view simultaneously overlapped, most often contrasting close-up and full figure shots.

Celluloid Illuminations

1975 • 32 min

The film is in three sections each dealing with a different manifestation of the relationships between colors and shapes and their effect on our perception of movement through light.

Autumn Thoughts

1975 • 2 min

Rough cut by Maria Lassnig. Color correction and final cut completed posthumously by Mara Mattuschka and Hans Werner Poschauko in accordance with Lassnig’s notes from her notebook on film, “Yom Kippur, 1970s.” Soundtrack: Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 105 from the artist’s own music collection.

Mr Nixon's Secret Legacy

1975 • 27 min

American defence policy under Gerald Ford, successor to a disgraced president, is the subject of Mr Nixon’s Secret Legacy. John Pilger says that military thinkers in Washington are for the first time “thinking the unthinkable” and Strategic Arms Limitation Talks with the Soviet Union announced by Ford and Henry Kissinger are “no more than a sham”. Before resigning over Watergate, President Richard Nixon had given Pentagon generals a flexible strategy that would blur the distinction between conventional and nuclear warfare.