All Films

John Jacob Niles

1978 • 31 min • United States of America

John Jacob Niles is a portrait of the adding machine repairman who came to Eastern Kentucky in 1909, “heard the songs [his] father sang,” and became a much-noted “arranger, expander, collector, recorder, and performer” of traditional Appalachian ballads. Niles played an important part in the national “discovery” of Appalachian folk music. He describes how he travelled with the photographer Doris Ulmann through the 1920s and 30s — she taking pictures of the people, and he learning their songs. The film shows Niles in concert, at home, at work arranging his music, and explaining the historical place of balladry in American music.

Lunch

1978 • 8 min • Yugoslavia

A man is sitting at the table eating. He is interrupted by the sound of the bell ringing at someone’s door. In his troubled mind he sees his childhood, the war, his parents in a Jewish ghetto and all possible forms of aggression, which he has experienced right up to this day…

Genetics and Us

1978 • 19 min • Soviet Union

The story of the tragedy of a young family in which a child with Down syndrome was born. It is shown in detail and at the same time very delicately how a geneticist searches for the causes of the pathology that has arisen, telling what genetics can really do at this stage.

Arc

1978 • 2 min • Switzerland

8mm film by Swiss artist Roman Signer.

Across the River

1978 • 2 min • Switzerland

8mm film by Swiss artist Roman Signer.

Water Tower

1978 • 2 min • Switzerland

8mm film by Swiss artist Roman Signer.

Baby Dolls

1978 • 19 min

An eighteen year old male talks of his up coming sex change and how he imagines life as a woman. The talk is frank and informative.

Mongoloid

1978 • 4 min

A documentary film exploring the manner in which a determined young man overcame a basic mental defect and became a useful member of society. Insightful editing techniques reveal the dreams, ideals and problems that face a large segment of the American male population. Educational. Background music written and performed by the DEVO orchestra.

The Princess and the Shepherd. A Fairytale

1978 • 13 min

Maria Lassnig's take on the fairytale. A collaboration with dancer Liesbeth Eberwein (Baroque Statues).

Our Liverpool Home

1978 • 28 min

All together now! 52 families living in run-down terraced houses in Corn Street and Yates Street, Liverpool, form a housing co-op and modernise their homes.

Self-Portrait 78

1978 • 13 min

In the video "Self-portrait 78," Kwak Duck-jun filmed himself rubbing his face against cracked glass in which his eyes, nose and lips appeared twisted and contorted. While looking silly at first, he expressed his deepest desire to overcome his uncomfortable identity crisis.

Perpetuo

1978 • 2 min • Yugoslavia

Animated film produced by Zagreb Film

Hisar Muddad

1978 • 22 min

Using film footage from various sources, Kaiss al-Zubaidi creates a description of the everyday lives of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Through skilful montage, the constant latency of conflict and violence becomes a relationship between the images. Counter-Siege was awarded one of seven ‘Main Prizes’ by the international jury at the 1979 Oberhausen Short Film Festival.

Ragtime Lag

1978 • 13 min

Experimental short by Masaki Matsushita.

The boat of the dead

1978 • 8 min • France

How do souls travel to the afterlife ? What should the ferryman do ? Morgane, the water fairy, knows this (according to Per Jakez Hélias).

Laurel Fork

1978 • 3 min

Peter Bundy film

State Highway

1978 • 4 min

Peter Bundy film

Sniffare

1978 • 24 min • Sweden

Håkan started sniffing paint thinner when he was 13, at 16 he was first arrested, now we get to follow him as he returns to his childhood neighbourhood and no one wants to see him.

Black's Garage

1978 • 17 min • United States of America

Short documentary segment for Twin Cities Public Television, St. Paul, MN, about Clarence and Harold Black at their service station in Jacksonville, Illinois.

Vtr&i

1978 • 13 min • Italy

This work marks a milestone in my research with video. For the first time, in fact, I'm using a particular system of my own invention: the video loop. The technique, previously used in the music field, is applied by me to video and allows me to create infinite superimpositions of images and sounds that accumulate in real time. This technical-poetic procedure will later determine a large part of my video production and will find the most correct application in music video performances.

Mole and the Hare

1978 • 10 min • Soviet Union

About a mole who unexpectedly discovered a wonderful world on the surface of the earth.

Don't Forget

1978 • 5 min

Don’t Forget shows traces of light on film emulsion. Blonk filmed reflections in the water, light passing through a canopy, and moving light sources. By zooming in and making circular camera movements and vibrations caused by long exposure times, patterns in different forms are created. For this film, he used extremely high-contrast, orthographic film, which creates an abstract-expressionist game of light and shadow.

Venise

1978 • 35 min • France, Italy

16mm dairy film by Pierre Parat

Spata, Saint Peter's Stew

1978 • 25 min • Greece

The film describes the custom called "Saint Peter's Stew" and is celebrated in Spata during the feast of Peter and Paul. In the year the film was made, 1978, the performance of the custom took on a strong socio-political content. He was associated with the residents' protest movement against the government's decision to move the airport to Spata. Besides the description of the custom, the film reveals two more important points. The first is that, as anthropology also claims, customs are not simple survivals of ancient institutions but are constantly transformed, forming an operative framework, in which the social problems of the time are inscribed as content. The second is that the respective protest and resistance movements are expressed through existing social symbols changing their content.