All Films - Short Movie Database

Transfinite Loops

1996 • 10 min

Transfinite Loops is a reflection on the mind's tendency to create metaphysical order in the face of chaos. The piece is both a model and a metaphor for that process. Nighttime images of carnival rides appear, mesh and then dissolve into blackness, accompanied only by the sound of wind. The work unfolds like a series of thoughts, as time and space are unraveled and woven back together into intricate knots. "As gorgeous as any fireworks display, Van McElwee’s Transfinite Loops invents dazzling astral patterns." -Stephen Holden, The New York Times "Vivid video origami erupts into a blizzard…leading out of time & space" -TL Reid, Afterimage "Transfinite Loops is infectious, life-affirming and beautiful. It makes you feel good." -David Bonetti, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The Difficulties of Being Female in Iran

1996 • 14 min

A frank and intimate portrayal of women and Islam in this controversial and defiant land. Iranian women worshippers still kiss the holy shrine where Ayatollah Khomeini is buried but in private many more are not so enthusiastic about the Islamic laws women here must suffer.

Undead March

1996 • 25 min

Can the immortal soul live in the body of immortality? The existence of the soul and its immutability can be equal to the body and soul. Various themes are followed by a metaphor called a movie.

10 Crunchy Carrots

1996 • 30 min • Canada

Go looking for a Sasquatch (Big Foot), make the perfect Pizza (no anchovies, please!), go deep sea diving with an Octopus, and ride your favourite horse on the magical Carousel. Filmed around beautiful Vancouver, B.C. Canada, 10 Crunchy Carrots is guaranteed to be fun for all the family with “Four Hugs a Day” and “I Wanna Be a Dog.” Charlotte also shares her love of nature with “Spider’s Web” and her love of languages with “May There Always Be Sunshine.”

How to Curate Your Own Group Exhibition

1996 • 3 min

Commissioned for Hans-Ulrich Obrist's "Museum-in-Progress" series Do It, Smith's "How to Curate Your Own Group Exhibition" is a deadpan infomercial explaining exactly what the beginning curator needs to know. Television professionals shot and edited the piece, yielding a flashy "spot" in which Smith plays a corporate talking head, concerned with a 21st-century "transferral of curatorial responsibilities into the hands of the artists, as well as an artist who simply wants to get into more group shows. [Overview courtesy of Electronic Arts Intermix]

Housefly

1996 • 18 min • Georgia

The film shows comic and tragic episodes of human life seen through the eyes of a fly. In the end, the fly becomes a victim of children playing in the sand.

Psyber Dream

1996 • 42 min

A Fluid Interdimensional Psychedelic Dreamscape In CyperSpace!

Far From You

1996 • 27 min

Experimental documentary that explores the aura of Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum through her mediated image, its degeneration through analog copying, and the possibilities of borrowed nostalgia.

Money

1996 • 3 min • United States of America

By Coleen Fitzgibbon and Cara Perlman; Hi8 to digital, sound, looped every 3 min.

Murradweg – 365 km Flussabwärts

1996 • 5 min

Promotional Video for the Murradweg.

Supernova - Last in Space

1996 • 25 min • United States of America

What is Supernova? 3 really large kids from a planet called Cynot 3. When the Smarmies (sick creatures bent on smothering the world with good will & love) blew up Cynot 3 in a supernova, Art, Jo, & Dave escape only to crash land on a strange world called Earth. With supercomputer/babysitter Pal 4000 at the helm of the spacevan, the guys learn valuable lessons about the Heimlich maneuver, lip sync-ing and making sure their spacevan is powered with plenty of rock & roll. Of course the smarmies are never far behind, as they won't rest until every last Cynotian has been loved to death.

We Always Danced

1996 • 10 min

Anna is trying to come to terms with the loss of her best friend to AIDS. The contradictions between her traditional Latin upbringing and her identity as a lesbian leave her conflicted on how to handle her grief. This short film movingly explores the bonds of friendship and love between gay women and men and the AIDS.

El Milagro de la Sangre

1996 • 7 min • Argentina

In an abandoned chapel, where it seems even God has left, a man prays with faith to what remains of a Virgin. His prayers are answered, and a miracle occurs.

Related Rhythm

1996 • 27 min

Two-channel installation. Cameras were attached to both ends of a seesaw in a playground, capturing the blurred scenic views with ambient sound coming from the opposite ends in a continuous cyclical motion of ups and downs. One video captures a perspective facing the sun, while the other has its back to it; 30 minutes footage were recorded between 4pm and 5pm on a sunny, breezy afternoon.

Unknown Pleasure (I)

1996 • 30 min

Four-channel installation. Videos show forceful and repeated scratching of body parts in close-up views, including shoulder, waist, back, leg, neck, foot, and arm.

Eve-olve

1996 • 6 min • Canada

A claymation animated short created by Sandra Law

Histoires d'adoption

1996 • 14 min • Belgium

Three siblings set off to find the place where their adoptive parents met. This journey, subject to improvisation, questions the notion of family. A joyful, playful film that highlights the importance of transmission and learning.