All Films

NEW AKINA Étranger Akina Nakamori in Europe

1983 • 57 min • Japan

NEW AKINA Étranger Akina Nakamori in Europe is the first video release released by Nakamori Akina. It was released on October 12, 1983.

The Dream

1983 • 20 min • Soviet Union

A homeless New York man (looking very much like Charlie Chaplin) dreams about getting himself a warm room and food, and tries various things to fulfill his dream - yet something always goes wrong.

To the Camp and Back

1983 • 60 min • United Kingdom

Christine, grieving for her fiancé who was shot down by the German Luftwaffe during the war, is persuaded by her cousin to meet a German prisoner-of-war—a Luftwaffe pilot.

The Navigators: Pathfinders of the Pacific

1983 • 59 min

In hand-built, double-hulled canoes sixty feet long, the ancestors of today's Polynesians sailed vast distances using only the waves, the stars, and the flights of birds to navigate. Anthropologist Sanford Low visits the Caroline Islands of Micronesia to meet Mau Piailug, the last navigator initiated on his island and one of few men still practicing this once-essential art. He demonstrates his skill by sailing a replica canoe 2500 miles from Hawaii to Tahiti with no modern navigational instruments.

Walt Disney Cartoon Classics, Volume 3: Scary Tales

1983 • 43 min

You're in for a ghoulishly good time with these funny and collectible scary tales, featuring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Pluto. Mickey discovers a houseful of haunts when he happens upon an old mansion. Then Donald is suddenly surrounded by sinister characters when he starts to read a mystery novel. And Pluto's greatest nightmare comes true when he chases one cat too many. This Cartoon Classic collection also features "The Skeleton Dance" - Walt Disney's first "Silly Symphony."

Mantrap

1983 • 55 min • United Kingdom

A longform video that showcases the British pop group ABC, using songs from their album "The Lexicon of Love" to tell a spy-caper story of how the unsuspecting lead singer, Martin Fry, is duped into fronting the band because of his striking resemblance to another man associated with espionage. Will he stumble onto the deception before it is too late for him?

Cy

1983 • 13 min • Taiwan

Chattering school boys first learn of the secret of palm reading. They stare at the overly short lifeline, all of a sudden, the fear of death seeps into their youth. The black and white images exude repression and melancholia, mixed with the angst for mortality and the memory of deceased loved ones. Time flies by like the train speeding past town. With the desire to live, the boys run forward, attempting to break free from destiny.

A Thanksgiving Tale

1983 • 27 min • United States of America

A group of cats have a warm safe place to stay but no food. When Tom the Turkey comes to town to begin his acting career the cats intervene so they can have turkey for Thanksgiving. A pack of neighborhood dogs who guard a local restaurant have all the food they want but are freezing. Learning about the cats' plot to turn Tom into dinner they try to stop the cats. Soon they realize if they work together everyone would have enough to eat and a safe place to stay.

David Hockney: Joiner Photographs

1983 • 49 min

David Hockney is unquestionably one of the most passionate and versatile experimental artists on the contemporary scene. In the late 1970s the British artist developed a pioneering concept which also changed his perspective on painting – his “joiners”. In this film, the artist himself talks about this photographic approach, a kind of Cubism-inspired photocollage which explores the space-time continuum. Hockney allows the viewer to share in the creative “joiner” process and leads us step by step into the universe of his artistic creativity.

Punks de São Paulo

1983 • 35 min

Documentary about punks of the city of São Paulo and its difficulties, struggles and ideals, the importance of music in the universe of its ideology, interviews and images of shows of some musical groups like Ratos de Porão, Inocentes and Fogo Cruzado.

Crossroads - A Decision

1983 • 23 min • Hong Kong

Crossroads - A Decision is a Hong Kong TV-Short starring Andy Lau

Have You Ever Been Ashamed Of Your Parents?

1983 • 45 min • United States of America

Two teenage girls, one rich and one middle-class, become best friends over the summer.

Souvenir of Lebanon

1983 • 6 min

Writes Schneemann: "Souvenir of Lebanon follows a long video pan through destroyed Palestinian and Lebanese villages. In 1982-83, Israeli ceaseless bombardments destroyed bridges, farms, roads, hospitals, schools, libraries, apartments, and historic sites and towns dating back 2000 years. The live color footage was received unexpectedly from an anonymous news photographer. It is intercut with black and white disaster stills I re-shot from daily newspapers, edited in juxtaposition with color slides of bucolic Lebanon given to me on the day the Lebanese tourist bureau in New York city closed." "Souvenir of Lebanon is the video component for the kinetic sculpture War Mop; a flailing motorized mop rises on plexiglass cams and is dropped, slapping the video monitor every eight seconds. The sound on the video recorded layers of reverberation as the mop hit the monitor."

Oliver

1983 • 45 min • Philippines

A documentary about a gay nightclub performer with an especially lurid "Spider-man" act. Oliver is a female impersonator who supports his family by performing in Manila's gay bars.

Dallas

1983 • 5 min • Germany

Che, Today and Always

1983 • 11 min

A sound system plays Commander Ernesto Guevara's speech, delivered on October 20, 1962, during the Second Anniversary of the Young Communist League, along with a series of archival images of the revolutionary leader visiting factories and meeting with workers.

American Obsessions

1983 • 1 min

Richard Kern’s 1983 film "American Obsessions" features David Wojnarowicz interacting with plaster heads from his “Metamorphosis” sculpture series. Kern went on to create two more films with David, "Stray Dogs" from his series Manhattan Love Suicides, 1984 and "You Killed Me First," 1985.

Madame Potatoe

1983 • 6 min • United Kingdom

A film about the pressure which society puts upon people to project different images, particularly the image of success. Through the medium of potato printing the film shows how Madame Potatoe struggles to cope within the world in which she is placed. She retreats into the earth leaving her image to continue along its own increasingly exploitative path. Madame Potatoe was first shown as part of Emma Calder's MA show at the RCA, which comprised a life-sized, motorised Madame Potatoe eating crisps and watching the film on telly. She was sat in a room papered with Madame Potatoe print wall paper. Shown at the Tate Gallery, animation festivals, CH4 TV and world wide TV. Madame Potatoe print bought by the V&A for the prints and drawings collection. Many press clippings and associated articles are available.

McLaren on McLaren

1983 • 8 min

An opening address, a tribute and highlights of a long and productive career--McLaren on McLaren is Norman McLaren on camera. The occasion is the opening of a prestigious festival in Arnhem, the Netherlands, in November, 1983, marking the tenth anniversary of Holland Animation. The renowned animator pays homage to those who merged their arts with his, and to the National Film Board, which gave him forty-two years of artistic freedom.

The Girl and the Dragon

1983 • 9 min • Soviet Union

Every evening night came to one small town, and with it - peace and sleep. Only the lamplighter did not sleep - he lit up the city. A little owlet helped him light the lanterns - all the same, owls do not sleep at night. And in the morning, the main person in the city - the mayor - made sure that the lamplighter put out all the lights on time - after all, it was already light during the day. In the morning the lamplighter was resting, and the owlet flew to sleep on the roof, and every time he woke Drakosha up. Drakosha was a dragon and lived in a garbage can.

Byker

1983 • 53 min • United Kingdom

A partly dramatised documentary built around Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen’s photographs of the Newcastle terraced community, demolished to make way for the Byker Wall. Konttinen, a founder member of the Amber collective moved to Byker when the group came to NE England in 1969. She lived there until 1976, when her own flat was demolished. The film reconstructed some of the contexts, which had already gone, creating a celebration of traditional working class culture that has been widely shown to community and general audiences, as well as in planning and architecture forums. Together with Keeping Time, the film was one of Amber’s early photo films. Others created around Konttinen’s photographs include The Writing in the Sand (1991), Letters to Katja (1994), Today I’m With You (2010) and Song for Billy (2016).

The Zar

1983 • 24 min • Sudan

A short documentary on the practice of Zar in Sudan.

Apocalypse Snow

1983 • 26 min • France

Villainous monoskieurs try to capture the hero snowboarder to steal the secrets of skiing.

Savushkin, Who Didn't Believe in Miracles

1983 • 9 min • Soviet Union

How many times did a miracle come to the pragmatic clerk Savushkin - and each time he brushed it off, and then powerlessly watched how the miracle and happiness go to another.