All Films

Ahluvyalike

1983 • 6 min

A poetic dramatization of certain emotional spaces manifested by intense love relationships. This work is considered by some historians to be the first piece produced in the poetry video genre.

Morphology

1983 • 5 min • Japan

O Coração do Cinema

1983 • 18 min • Brazil

Free adaptation of the script by Vladimir Maiakovski. Jomard Muniz de Brito and Pernambuco's cinema.

Patt

1983 • 7 min • Germany

Short film by Dagmar Knöpfel.

Petite Mort

1983 • 6 min • France

"As a reminder for the younger generations, in 1983 there were only 3 television channels in France. Special effects production with graphic palette was at its beginning in editing rooms. Canal+ was born in 1984, the 5th and 6th channels in 1986. Marshall MacLuhan and Paul Virilio provided input for my reflections regarding the impact of technologies on our five senses and our spatio-temporal perception"

Keltie's Beard: A Woman's Story

1983 • 9 min • Canada

Before Keltie came along, the women in her family removed their facial hair and told no one. Keltie is proud of her beard and tells her story to us in this single-take film.

AC/DC Joe Louis Arena Detroit USA November 18 1983

1983 • 46 min

AC/DC's Flick Of The Switch promotional concert footage recorded at the Joe Louis Arena Detroit USA on November 18 1983.

Self-Portrait

1983 • 4 min

A short, silent, oblique self-portrait from 1983. Filmed on 16mm Kodachrome 40 and some black-and-white stock (the superimpositions were made in-camera) and reworked on the optical printer at the LFMC.

Fear of Poetry

1983 • 40 min

An improvisatory 40-minute foray into a fervent, formative period in the lives of poets such as Dennis Cooper, Benjamin Weissman, Amy Gerstler, and Bob Flanagan, who took part in Cooper’s famed Wednesday Night Poetry readings. Drawing on archival footage from those gatherings, including interviews and readings, Fear of Poetry presents a snapshot of Venice in the 1980s: a chorus of punks, poets, artists, and performers co-existing in a place where, according to Flanagan, “love is still possible.”

Z-Grass

1983 • 3 min

Experiemental video using Datamax graphics software. This piece is a very early example of the use of computer animation in video art. ZGrass refers to the programming language used to create the images.

Bosun's Chair

1983 • 8 min • United Kingdom

A soundscape of the comings and goings in a home precedes a description by a young boy of a bosun's chair, a device suspended on ropes for crossing stretches of water. A film in three scenes captured on Betamax video shot in 1983, the material of the image floats and ripples on the screen. Distributed by LUX, London.

Image Con Text: One

1983 • 43 min • United Kingdom

"Leggett's early experiment was with film, though his exploration of video started in the '70s with CCTV and performance ... and re-contextualising the video image as film, to questioning the electronic technology and its 'ambiguities'. Leggett has moved fluidly between shifting moving-image technologies, film, video and digital, and engages the audience directly with the associated and variable discourses." - J.Hatfield.

Paokhum Ama

1983 • 54 min

The film explores the different life styles of modern India. In urban society corruption is rife, careers advanced by bribes and influence. But there is an alternative: life in the hills, where the people face life silently and accept nature's gifts. In this ultimately optimistic film, a Manipuri youth lives through personal pain and disappointment to face with new hope and energy the struggle of his family for a different way of life.

8-man Never Sleeps

1983 • 15 min • Japan

鳥たちの棲むところ

1983 • 2 min • Japan

The Priest Had A Dog

1983 • 6 min • Soviet Union

There was a priest in the village and he had a dog. The priest owned a big shed in which he kept a huge amount of meat. The dog guarded this shed from other dogs, but one day the dog could not resist and ate one of the sausages. The priest noticed this and killed his pet. Then he buried the dog near the fence and made an inscription: "Priest had a dog, he loved it, it ate a piece of meat, he killed it, buried it in the ground, and wrote this inscription so that...", but, fixated, begins to write it on the ground. Thus he, continuing to write, visits various parts and countries, and eventually returns to his home and finishes writing near the place where he buried his dog. But upon entering the barn, the priest sees various animals greedily eating everything in it.

Marie Antoinette

1983 • 10 min • Canada

Marie Antoinette takes us on a walking tour of the Petit Trianon, a charming little farm on the grounds of Versailles. Her commentary includes reflections on life, God, and the peasants, providing valuable insights into the royal character of this important character.

Revealed Silence

1983 • 10 min • Canada

The bitterness of an uncommunicative couple manifests itself over the course of an evening's television viewing. Unable to address the issues which threaten their relationship directly, the couple seethe and stew against a telling aural backdrop of television commercials and entertainment, directing cynical asides about each other's faults to the viewers. In the role of confidante, the viewer is given the uneasy task of bearing witness to their relationship's inevitable destruction.

Camera on Chicago

1983 • 34 min

A love letter to the city from Chicago native and filmmaker Warren E. Thompson. It is a continuing effort to record some of the events, characteristics, problems and glories of Chicago. Footage includes architecture, sculpture, housing, Lake Michigan, Chinatown, parades, Maxwell Street Market, and the people of Chicago. Thompson captures life and culture from the most affluent to the poverty stricken.

The Wall

1983 • 7 min • Canada

The tape follows the participants in a carnival show performing their act called The Wall of Death. The riders operate motorcycles and go-carts on a vertical wall. The tape follows them through one complete show. It starts with the least knowledgeable and least skilled showmen and works up to the best. The star of the show is a woman. She out-performs everyone and stands alone in what is generally thought of as a man's game. Changing roles in a changing society.

Chase

1983 • 23 min • Yugoslavia

A dispute about water causes dramatic consequences, and the whole story grows into a tragic metaphor for the fate of a man doomed to fight for a bare existence.

4000 Great American Abstracts

1983 • 3 min

Video by Dov "Doobie" Eylath.

Tracking the Pale Fox: Studies on the Dogon

1983 • 48 min

This film tells with verve and a touch of self-irony the history of research on the Dogon since the famous 1931 expedition of Marcel Griaule. The film establishes the original expedition in the context of French anthropology at the time. Jean Rouch, celebrated filmmaker and less known as an anthropologist on the Dogon, narrates part of the story, and interviews Dogon elders and veteran expedition-member, Germaine Dieterlen.

Lituanikos Sparnai

1983 • 19 min • Soviet Union

A documentary film about two Lithuanian pilots, who flew over the Atlantic in 1933 - Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas.