All Films

Short Fuse

1992 • 37 min • United States of America

Sonbert was also a noted opera critic, and he frequently theorized about the relationship of film to other art forms, in particular, music. He analogized the notes, chords, and tone clusters of music to the progression of shots in film. The shot was the building block upon which Sonbert created the musical rhythms of his films. Sonbert published excerpts from his feature-film screenplay adaptation of Strauss' Capriccio, his favorite opera, in 1986. Short Fuse, completed six years later, can be seen as a return to Capriccio's themes, including 'Nazism and eroticism, beauty and force, detail and structure.' (William Graves) Underscoring a question raised by Capriccio--whether in opera the music or the libretto takes priority--Short Fuse is replete with a soundtrack that counterpoints the film's visuals, prompting the viewer to ask whether the music or the imagery predominates. -- Jon Gartenberg

And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon

1992 • 49 min • Trinidad and Tobago

A documentary about the domination of Caribbean television by programs from the North, primarily the US. Proceeding from the observation that television in the Caribbean is overwhelmed by US and French programs, this film ambitiously weaves together interviews, indigenous poetry and music with clips from imported French and US television programs to show how Caribbean viewers receive a distorted view of the world that alienates them from their own cultural heritage. Also included is a glimpse of how Cuba has tackled the problem, featuring an interview with Cuban film director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, and the US response in the form of Radio and TV Marti. This is part of the Developing Stories Series on Environment and Development. Starweek Magazine called it "An astonishingly searing look at TV."

Oggun: An Eternal Presence

1992 • 52 min • Cuba

In Oggun, Gloria relates the patakin or mythical story of Oggun, the tireless warrior who, enamored of his mother, decided as punishment to imprison himself in the mountains: only Ochun, goddess of love, succeeded in captivating him when she let fall a few drops of honey on the lips of the god of metal, war, progress, and civilization.

Camel Trophy 1992 - Guyana

1992 • 57 min

Over its thirteen year history, Camel Trophy has become the world's greatest amateur adventure expedition, testing both man and machinery to their limits. From dense jungle tracks to flooded savannah plains, Camel Trophy '92 covered some of the most diverse and spectacular scenery in South America. Equipped with identically prepared Land Rover Discoverys, the sixteen amateur teams from four continents set off from Manaus, Brazil on their 1600km journey, covering some of the remotest and formidable territory in the world before reaching their destination of Georgetown, Guyana. Participants soon realise that no one man can hope to achieve this goal alone. Team work, patience and above all, a sense of humour play a vital role if the convoy is to reach its final destination.

H.B. 1829 (his bad blöOd)

1992 • 6 min • United Kingdom

Shot on the Island of Jura and in and around the French Pyrenees. The film is a foray into the notions of performance-travelogue-essay, it meanders hither and dither through the landscape. A DAT recorder catches fragments of the great out-of-doors which then becomes back drop to Heilco Van der Ploeug’s beautiful rendition of the folk song: ‘I wish I was a little birdy’.

Pickelporno

1992 • 12 min • Switzerland

In this visual evocation of sex and sexuality, a man and woman stage an elaborately choreographed courtship ritual, edited with Rist's usual attention to the syntax of mass media. As a driving bass sample plays, a surveillance camera makes low-flying journeys across the bodies of the actors, yielding images at once familiar and distancing, a strategy in keeping with Rist's desire "to propose images of sexuality rather than to analyze the pros and the cons of pornography."

For Better or for Worse: A Christmas Angel

1992 • 30 min

The Patterson family drives into the drive, and unloads the Christmas tree (and accidentally hitting the family dog, in the process). Once inside, John, Michael and Elizabeth, stand the tree up, only to find out that it is too tall.

Across the Field

1992 • 16 min • Poland

Kucia's most recent film, Across the Field (1992), is his longest and arguably his most complex film in terms of imagery. In it, he applies many of the various techniques he has developed for his films over the years, the result being a rich collage of drawing, photographic images, and live-action film footage whose individual frames he has manipulated. This complex technique exists, according to Kucia, only as a vehicle to evoke the mood and emotion he wishes the audience to experience. This Impressionist approach to filmmaking is no doubt what inspired Marcin Gizycki to dub Kucia the "Bresson of Polish animated film."

Imagining Indians

1992 • 57 min • United States of America

With an all Indian crew, Victor Masayesva visited tribal communities in Arizona, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, Washington and the Amazon to produce this film.

Girls Daydream About Hollywood

1992 • 5 min

"A fragmented psychic landscape where TV clips, bar talk, and rape loom close. Trying to reconstruct and resolve sexual abuse becomes a complex project of association and recall. Daydream has a thick, luminous feel." Elisabeth Subrin, Visions Magazine

The Elephant's Great Battle with the Whale

1992 • 8 min • Russia

The story of one fierce struggle between two giants of land and sea — the Elephant and the Whale. A minimalistic cartoon about the importance of being tolerant.

Taste It Nine Times

1992 • 6 min

Nine visually rhythmic film sketches depict the passions, fetishes and humor of various women characters- from Eve in her garden to an everyday pineapple goddess.

The Red Sea

1992 • 20 min

The Red Sea is a subjective testament to an emotional and aesthetic journey. Touching on sensuality, pain and the inevitability of loss, the film moves across territories of significant yet unresolved images. As in a dream text, the viewer is left in a state of interpretation with great emphasis on the experiential.

In Search of Our Fathers

1992 • 60 min • United States of America

Williams, who was raised by his mother and aunt, had been trying for months to get his mother to talk about his father, whom he had never met and knew nothing about. Having finally relented, she allowed him to come to Paris, where she was living, and film an interview.

Among Good Christian Peoples

1992 • 23 min

The film explores some of the historical, emotional and social interpretations of Jacqueline Woodson's personal essay "Growing Up Black and Gay Among Good Christian Peoples." The video combines Woodson reading her own compelling essay with footage shot in Pixel Vision imagining childhood memories through interviews, and adults play-acting by reading a children's Bible and having slumber parties.

Chick Corea Akoustic Band - Live From The Blue Note Tokyo

1992 • 55 min

Chick Corea, John Patitucci, Vinnie Colaiuta

Eerie

1992 • 1 min • United Kingdom

Eerie is a vertiginous short film with the rhythmic quality of a loop or a magic ride on a Ferris wheel. The protagonists are two lovers in a cable car, high above the slopes of Mount Pilates. Exuding 1920s Berlin lesbian decadence, the film features in-camera dissolves inspired by German expressionist filmmaking. Sandra Lahire (1950-2001) was a central figure in the experimental feminist filmmaking that emerged in the UK in the 1980s.

État critique

1992 • 54 min • Canada

Neighborhood Tokyo

1992 • 29 min • Japan

Miyamoto-cho is a community of Mom-and-Pop stores and family enterprises located near the center of Tokyo. Competition from supermarkets and shopping centers threatens the livelihoods of long-term residents. High land prices tempt owners to tear down old homes and replace them with apartment buildings; this in turn is changing the composition of the population. Against this backdrop, residents strive to maintain the close social ties, symbols of local identity, and community rituals that keep Miyamoto-cho from becoming just another mailing address. Theodore Bestor began his research here in 1979. His prize winning book of the same name is available through Stanford University Press. This documentary is one of a series depicting the variety of life in today's Japan in the context of human problems common to all industrial nations. A comprehensive study guide is available.

A Feather Tale

1992 • 6 min • Canada

In this animated short, a woman, taking on her lover's fantasies, adorns herself in her finest feathers and assumes a seductive but demeaning role. Caught up in his own game, the man plays on to the bitter end--a cruel game in which love is stripped of its golden glow, leaving only the naked reality of dependency and desperation.

Haven

1992 • 3 min • Canada

Animated magazine cutouts of two men having sex lead into appropriated gay porn images, blurred to the point where they become abstract colour and motion. All this is set to pastoral sounds, sex noises, and a reporter's voice-over about the RCMP’s “fruit box” experiments - official and ludicrous attempts to expose closeted gay men.

Pearl's Diner

1992 • 8 min • Canada

Lynn Smith's animated short. Nominated by Genie Best Short animation.

The Kings of Siam

1992 • 11 min • United Kingdom

A pair of Siamese Twins live and work as part of a travelling fair. One dreams of being a rock and roll star, while the other dreams of scoring the winning goal for England in the 1966 World Cup final.

The Orange

1992 • 5 min

In this animated film for five- to eight-year-olds, a group of schoolchildren are amazed to discover that one of their classmates does not have enough to eat. With the help of their teacher, the children come to understand that his hardship affects them all and that the fight against poverty requires solidarity and sharing. Film without words.