All Films

Psychedelic Cinema

1969 • 60 min

Between 1967 and 1969, Ken Brown created short Super-8 films to be projected with the light show at the premiere rock club in Boston, Massachusetts, The Boston Tea Party. The resulting films, collected here as the "Psychedelic Cinema" program, stand today as an amazing window on another time. Swirling colors and lights, clip art animations, cinéma vérité images of '60s youth culture and fashions, flickering candle flames and flowers in bloom meld together in fluid, dream-like montage. The films originally illuminated the stage for Jimi Hendrix, The Velvet Underground, The Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa, Sly and the Family Stone, Neil Young, The Who, Pink Floyd and the Hallucinations (soon to become the J. Giles Band).

inter-vento

1969 • 2 min

16mm film by Marinella Pirelli.

Ülekanne 56:13

1969 • 10 min • Soviet Union

A philosophical reflection on the nature of cycling.

Rate Rebates

1969 • 1 min • United Kingdom

Zippy public information animation on how to keep up with the Joneses - by getting a rebate on rates.

Communities Depend On Each Other

1969 • 10 min • United States of America

Communities depend on each other for such things as food, clothing, appliances, magazines, automobiles, as well as for many services.

Two and Death

1969 • 48 min • Soviet Union

A wounded partisan took refuge in the mill, and the miller informed the second lieutenant of the government troops about this. Seeing the partisan, the second lieutenant recognizes him as a friend of his youth...

Soldiers in Blue Greatcoats

1969 • 60 min • Soviet Union

A story about the work of investigator Strepetov.

Time as Activity

1969 • 13 min

In Time as Activity - Düsseldorf (1969), David Lamelas visually reveals how the same moment can be experienced in different ways. The video is built on four sequences; in each one a fixed camera portrays the city of Düsseldorf from different locations during a lapse of four minutes. At the start of each sequence, a small cardboard sign appears to indicate the precise time when the four minutes were recorded; the frame remains still and encompasses a wide angle, in which objects or actions are out of focus. The activities that unfold before the camera and the way they pass are an account of the infinite ways in which the same four minutes may be experienced simultaneously.

Generations

1969 • 4 min • United States of America

[D]ynamic shapes emitting energy from the living forms created by subtle camera movements combined with compositional awareness.

Palestine Will Win

1969 • 28 min • France

“Palestine Vaincra (Palestine Will Win)" is regarded as the first French documentary film made in support of the Palestinian liberation movement. Shot in 1969 by Jean-Pierre OLIVIER de SARDAN in a student dorm, the film blends historical testimonies by Palestinians, photographs, stock footage, maps, and music. The documentary centers on the 1968 Battle of Karameh, while also tracing the complex story of the past five decades of Palestinian resistance against oppression and colonialism.

Antwerp, April 18 - May 7, 1969

1969 • 33 min • Belgium

This documentary includes an interview with Byars during his stay in Antwerp in 1969 in which the artist reflects on the objectives of some of his performances and the means employed in them. It also includes recordings of various performances like "Two in a Hat", "75 in a Hat", and "The Pink Silk Airplane".

First Americans (Part I): And Their Gods

1969 • 10 min

Colorful animation, based on pre-Columbian Indian designs, surveys the religious beliefs and practices of the Indians of Central America before the arrival of Columbus. Utilizing pointillist, abstract, and multiplanar split-image figures, Stapp describes Mayan and Aztec cultures, unfolding in codex-like form, accompanied by ethno-concrète music by Thomas Wagner & Arthur Burrows.

Dna

1969 • 10 min • Canada

The likeness of an offspring to its parents, whatever the species, has been traced to a unique molecule that controls the production of proteins and transmits characteristics. This genetic material, dioxyribonucleic acid, or DNA--the hereditary material of life--is described and illustrated in this film by colour animation. Mutations are also discussed.

A Woman, A Rose, A Goblin And Anger

1969 • 10 min • Czechoslovakia

They revived the world of long-forgotten toy figurines. Rubber doll, leprechaun, prince, cows and sheep...

Bello offresi...

1969 • 12 min • Italy

The phenomenon of male prostitution in Rome in the late 1960s.

Home Movie – A Day in the Bush

1969 • 4 min • Australia

A film of repeated movements toward the camera, away from the camera, and across the camera's field, punctuated by a 360-degree rotational movement of the camera itself. Aside from being a reference to the repetition characteristic of home movies, the film is an exploration of a specific space. By repeatedly traversing it, the two figures reinforce their sense of depth, beginning as distant blobs in the long shot and ending with the face of one of them filling the frame. Repetition has become an important strategy in many of our recent films, which often involve reshoots or reprints. (Arthur Cantrill & Corinne Cantrill)

Watch

1969 • 21 min • Soviet Union

Вахта (watch/observation, or a short working contract) was released in 1969. It received a diploma and the "Tulpar" prize for the best short documentary at the festival of Central Asia and Kazakhstan in Alma-Ata, as well as the prize of the First VKF films about the working class in Sverdlovsk in 1970.

The Portable Theatre

1969 • 24 min

An appealing portrait of the McCormick players, one of the last travelling theatre groups in Ireland in the late 1960s. Terence McDonald captures their variety show of songs, sketches and puppetry, along with interviews with the family members, most of whom were born into the business and have been on stage from as young as three years old. The audiences are diminishing due to the rise in television and showbands, but the family’s passion for the stage still burns brightly. RTÉ had scheduled this documentary for broadcast in 1967 but postponed transmission after the Apollo 1 explosion due to the unintended new context of one of Bert’s songs You’ll Never Reach the Moon. The film concludes with a song wishing the family goodbye with a final curtain call, with the family credited as Colm McCormick, Betty, Bert Patterson, Coral Patterson, Queenie White and Joe.

Frost Warning

1969 • 1 min

Frost Warning

Pelican Motorist

1969 • 1 min • United Kingdom

Pelican Motorist

Plum Pudding

1969 • 22 min

Collection of films created by students ages 11 - 18 at the Newton Arts Center in Newton, Massachusetts. Pixillation, clay, flip-card and paper mache animation.

Love Is Blue

1969 • 5 min • Yugoslavia

Short experimental 8mm film. Love letter #1.

Prague Spring

1969 • 11 min • Yugoslavia

Short avant-garde super 8mm film.

Three Who Returned

1969 • 19 min • Vietnam, United States of America

"This film deals with South Vietnam's "Open Arms" program, designed to encourage communist defectors. The film presents three defectors who tell how Chieu Hoi leaflets persuaded them to desert the North. Their stories offer a candid and telling testimonial against the Viet Cong. The film was produced and directed by William Bayer" (US National Archives).