All Films

The Lost Pharaoh: The Search for Akhenaten

1980 • 57 min • Canada

Ancient pharaoh Akhenaten was almost lost to history. Canadian archaeologist Donald Redford, who uncovered the foundation of one of the pharaoh’s many temples, attempts to finally piece together this great Egyptian ruler’s enigmatic story.

Sadonian Horizons

1980 • 15 min • Soviet Union

In November 1979, the tunneling team of Viktor Andreevich Vakhnin set a new record, deepening the adit by 451 linear meters in 31 calendar days. The brigade dedicated its labor victory to the opening session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in Moscow.

The Pocketbook

1980 • 13 min • United States of America

In the course of a botched purse-snatching, a boy comes to question the path of his life. Billy Woodberry’s second film, and first completed in 16mm, adapts Langston Hughes’ short story, Thank You, Ma’am, and features music by Leadbelly, Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis. (Ross Lipman)

Herzlich willkommen!

1980 • 30 min • East Germany

Documentary about the Fifth Festival of Sorbian Culture 1980 in Bautzen.

The Cookie Kid

1980 • 11 min • United States of America

The girl holding the world’s record for selling Girl Scout Cookies shows how effective sales techniques and setting of personal goals lead to success.

The Earth Man

1980 • 28 min • Sweden

The Earth Man, a small clay figurine, lives in a small town in Anatolia in Turkey. But he dreams of going to Europe and finally arrives in Sweden. In Sweden it's not that easy to get rich. There are many temptations and difficulties and in the be bad times, he can not decide himself about his destiny.

Boolean Procedure

1980 • 23 min • United Kingdom

a man is made redundant by computers taking over his job

A Nermish Gothic

1980 • 7 min

Recalling the flickering invention of early silent film illusionists, this battle of wits begins simply enough, with the innocent creation of cut-and-fold triangles from a blank sheet of paper.

Líneas de viento

1980 • 10 min

Eusebio Sempere's work serves as the basis for transforming it into movement and rhythms that are implicit in his own visual arts, but which can only be converted into another dimension other than the sculptural-pictorial through cinema.

Moon Breath Beat

1980 • 5 min • United States of America

Moon Breath Beat is a hand-drawn experimental 2D film that depicts a woman and her two cats and how external forces such as birds and the moon impact their lives. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2016.

Schimpft uns nicht Zigeuner!

1980 • 45 min • Germany

The film accompanies Linda and Gallier in their everyday lives and gives them space for self-representation: at school, at the family table, at the disco, or in conversations with friends. The racism of the majority society, the pressure to assimilate, and the counterarguments of the two young people and their community members are omnipresent. The parents and grandparents are survivors. Linda summarizes that experiences of persecution and oppression have shaped the strong sense of belonging among the Sinti.

Rockpile: Live at Rockpalast

1980 • 60 min • Germany

Rockpile recorded their installment of the German TV show Rockpalast in January 1980, a few months before the appearance of their lone LP, Seconds of Pleasure, but at that point, the quartet were a fixture on the new wave scene, touring constantly and appearing on solo LPs by their co-leaders Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe. All this is a roundabout way of saying that Rockpile wasn't hurting for material: they drew heavily upon Edmunds' solo records in particular -- 13 of the songs on this 17-song setlist appeared on one of Dave's LPs -- interspersing a few rock & roll oldies along with songs from Nick, plus a showcase for Billy Bremner

Notes on the Making of 'Berlin Alexanderplatz'

1980 • 44 min • Germany

Documentary about the making of the 1980 German television series.

Primal Scenes

1980 • 10 min

Over grainy, black and white images of a woman giving birth, Montano reads the story of a nun’s sexual self-discovery—recounting Sister Joan’s growing awareness of her body’s sensuousness and sexuality. Primal Scenes is an excellent example of women’s erotica, focusing on a woman’s experience of her body as both sexually powerful and deeply mysterious. Montano uses stirring images of women acting in the rather traditional roles of nun and mother, yet she recasts these roles and demonstrates, from a woman’s point of view, the possibility of claiming a fully-realized sexual intensity for women.

Oskar Schlemmer and Dance

1980 • 15 min

Original film material from the Bauhaus dances of Oskar Schlemmer.

My Survival As a Deviant

1980 • 60 min

The myths of deviancy are explored and the realities of survival are experienced in the city of Sydney between 1979 and 1980 from the point of view of a broke and homeless gay male cartoonist and the many fellow travellers he meets on the streets.

Canada Vignettes: Arctic Seascape

1980 • 1 min • Canada

A vignette exploring the depths of the Arctic Ocean.

Jackie McLean on Mars

1980 • 32 min • United States of America

Jackie McLean is a true jazz master and one of the few true authorities of the bebop era still in business, but at the time of this film his main gig was teaching at Hartford. Hartford seems to have had a low-profile and low-budget jazz department, and the same goes for this film, which clocks in at just over half an hour, and barely scratches the surface of the subject matter. Still, what is here is engaging and a surprisingly candid portrait. McLean is shown practicing in his apartment and - briefly - playing with his quintet, but most of the running time is spent at Hartford in the classroom - and what classes they must have been. McLean's stream-of-consciousness lectures run from Sun Ra to JFK's assassination to how he learned Giant Steps, and the students try their best to keep up. A fascinating glimpse into the mind of a jazz musician.

Point de fuite

1980 • 25 min • France

A film consisting of four parts, which attempts to reduce the illusionist space that cinema inherits from the perspective devices of classical painting to the two sole dimensions of the screen, through means specific to the filmic medium. The motif of the window serves as serialized material, since it is by imagining itself like a window (Alberti, Dürer) that the Quattrocento painting was able to construct its perspective and illusionist space. Production : Visual Arts Insttute of Orléans.

Cinématon n°100 : Dominique Païni

1980 • 4 min • France

Dominique Paini's portrait by Gérard Courant (1980 - silent).

Table Top Sketches 1 & 2

1980 • 5 min • United States of America

Possesed by a White Shadow

1980 • 16 min • Japan

Exam

1980 • 9 min • Soviet Union

A propaganda film about the need to know the rules of the road.

The Weak Bullet

1980 • 13 min

Told with raw eccentricity and grotesque humor, The Weak Bullet is an ironic tale in which the trajectory of the eponymous bullet propels a bizarre narrative of social rupture and sexual paranoia.