All Films

Ibsen's Motif

1984 • 18 min • Soviet Union

A meditation on Henrik Ibsen's plays "Brand" and "Peer Gynt".

Code Gray: Ethical Dilemmas in Nursing

1984 • 26 min

In this documentary film, nurses in a variety of care settings confront serious ethical dilemmas which effect their patients. The film’s four sequences involve the ethical principles of beneficence, autonomy, justice and fidelity.

Tale of a Toy

1984 • 9 min • Soviet Union

Made to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Soviet victory over the Germans. The film won second prize at the XXII Leipzig Festival of Films for Children. In a German concentration camp Russian prisoners fashion a Don Quixote doll from a bit of metal. It becomes their symbol of hope. The lyrical film is bracketed with references to the Spanish Civil War, which led to decades of authoritarian rule by Generalissimo Franco, and the 1973 coup d'etat in Chile which toppled the socialist, pro-Soviet regime of Salvadore Allende. ('Clear skies' was the codeword which launched Francos 1936 coup, supported by the fascist governments of Italy and Germany and opposed by the USSR and France).

L'Autre Rive

1984 • 28 min

Le Cheval de fer

1984 • 8 min • Belgium

The story of the bet of Leland Stanford , baron of the rail, on the gallop of the horse. He uses the photographer Eadweard Muybridge , who is developing a system to analyze the movement.

S＝13

1984 • 5 min • Japan

An animation that combines the motion of abstract lines and the motif of an apple.

Beyond and Behind the Vote

1984 • 52 min • United Kingdom

Documentation of the 1984 Chesterfield by-election, which saw Tony Benn returned to parliament, and the early days of the Miners’ Strike which began shortly after.

Variations On Discord and Divisions

1984 • 40 min • United States of America

This 40-minute filmed performance was presented for the first time in 1984 at the New York art centre ABC No Rio. Since Mona Hatoum refuses to produce the same work twice, she generally creates one single site-specific performance. However, in 1984, she decided, with Variations on Discord and Division, to provide an action that could be adapted to different spaces. She thus offered several possibilities for actions and “variations”. Through this performance and the various forms that it may take, the artist deals with notions of exile, war and oppression. This work consists of several little abstract scenes, which represent for the artist ways of experimenting with specific situations.

Hokkaido Trip, Summer of 1984

1984 • 3 min • Japan

Summer 1984. An image of when I visited Sapporo, Otaru etc. And my parents hometown. I'm shooting only girls (shame ...).

L’osservatorio nucleare del sig. Nanof

1984 • 60 min

Familienbetrieb

1984 • 15 min • East Germany, Germany

The film documents the hard work in the Frank-Behrendt coal business.

Das Attentat auf Hitler

1984 • 43 min • East Germany, Germany

East German documentary about the 20 July plot.

The Shadows of Summer

1984 • 17 min • United States of America

When a boy and girl run away from home, his funds quickly dwindle as she's haunted by the ghost of her dead mother.

O Pequeno Exército Louco

1984 • 52 min • Brazil

The Nicaraguan Revolution and the US presence in the country since the 1930s, highlighting the overthrow of the Somoza regime in 1978–79.

The Hedgehog, the Dog and the Boy Niko

1984 • 15 min • Soviet Union

About an old dog who came to the aid of the boy Niko in difficult times.

Caught in Time

1984 • 57 min

Duke and Steve are caught up in today's world that revolves around peer pressure and the social scene. After a party, a crash occurs and suddenly Duke and Steve are back in time ... to 1st century Palestine!

Dialogue for Two Players

1984 • 19 min • United Kingdom

"The tellingly titled Dialogue for Two Players, also 1984, moves into quasi-dramatic space, in which the seemingly spontaneous relationships, are revealed not just as a construct but also as a complex puzzle. It implicitly comments on and critiques the 'confessional' modes of video and its illusion of real presence. It thus rejects that was at the time a dominant style in artist's video, turning on its head the simpler versions of the slogan that 'the personal is political'. At the same time it is a political work in a different sense, questioning the popular TV format of the in-depth personal interview which it ironizes. As such, and with Partridge himself playing the part of interviewer/director, it is his most overt 'intervention' into documentary drama even as he subverts it." - Al Rees

Shapes and Forms

1984 • 3 min • Bulgaria

A tall man and a short man argue about whether the object in front of them is a square or a circle. During the struggle, they push the object. It turns out to be a cylinder.

The Bird Catcher

1984 • 10 min • Soviet Union

A parable about a lucky bird catcher who is fortunate enough to encounter a fantastic woman, the Firebird. The author conveys the idea that selfishness and vanity are destructive to feelings and can kill love.

A Matter of Form

1984 • 3 min • Canada

In this film, which takes place to the rhythm of Schubert's Military March, the point, this first form, by its multiplication and the chosen orientations, allows us to see how it can be chained to form lines, shapes, surfaces, to form ensembles that ultimately occupy the entire surface of the screen.

Eclipse

1984 • 13 min • Brazil

In the face of images that are transfigured, inside a mushroom of an explosion already begun, the narration of a rude Latin American poem tells occurrences and impressions of the sixties, seventies and eighties in Brazil and Latin America, with some memory failures. The film was made from the technique of direct animation in the film.

The Ship, or the Chronicle of Captain Sanka

1984 • 51 min • Soviet Union

A boy of heightened romanticism from a poor family falls in love with a girl and tries to compete with a rich and sophisticated rival.

Francis Bacon and the Brutality of Fact

1984 • 58 min • United Kingdom

In his London studio, Francis Bacon discusses his work and approach with David Sylvester. His representations of the human figure in portraits and triptychs link him to the distorted realism of Van Gogh and Picasso, who also portrayed the intensity of life that Bacon calls “the brutality of fact.”

The Amazing Mister Blois

1984 • 12 min • Brazil

The art of Oscar Blois, a miniaturist artist - paint on pins, fleas, models on lamps - a character whose personal universe includes contacts with extraterrestrials, from whom he learned mathematical calculation that he applies in domino divination games