All Films

in ten sity

1978 • 25 min • Canada

"The VAG exhibition space was staged with a four walled cube, 8’X 8’ which was padded internally. The four walls and the open ceiling were monitored by video cameras. Wong entered the gallery, climbed a ladder and disappeared into the blue cube. Personally I was very uneasy about the work at this time. Knowing that [Kenneth] Fletcher was a close friend of Wong’s who had only months before committed suicide. I felt perhaps Wong would attempt his own cathartic self-mutilation as we all watched. As Wong’s slow pacing and wall assaulting became more intense the audience picked up the momentum of his energies. The intensity of the performance became overpowering. Not knowing how far Wong has planned his own movements, one began to wonder if he was indeed going to bash himself into unconsciousness as some observers had predicted." - Arthur Perry, Vanguard Magazine 1979

Radiance: The Experience of Light

1978 • 22 min

The Experience of Light is a 1978 short film created and narrated by filmmaker Dorothy Fadiman. The film documents the presence of light as a universal symbol for "Spirit", to people from many cultures.

The Chair

1978 • 9 min • Hungary

It’s that time of year when unwanted items of furniture from a Budapest tenement block are chucked out. Among the discarded antique furniture, a Thonet chair sets off on a road trip to leave the dusty urban cityscape behind and, via the concrete jungle of newbuild flats and the broken-down rust belt, finally return to nature.

The Second Barry Manilow Special

1978 • 48 min

Barry's second TV special aired on ABC in 1978.

Forward

1978 • 18 min

The filmed image is liberated from the shackles of representation of an external reality, becoming autonomous and spatial; the sound drifts and is regenerated by its asyncronous but nevertheless intimate relation to the image. Here, the sound is not reduced to the secondary role of accompanying the image. It constitutes the sensory experience just as much as does the image. Fast motion, slow motion, superimposition, reflection, colorization, filtering and synthetic composition: a combination of effects that produces a long audiovisual perspective within just one sequence.

From Different Angles

1978 • 11 min • Iran

From Different Angles

Chain Reaction

1978 • 20 min • Soviet Union

Short documentary dedicated to the life of the "young atomohrad" Pripiat, directly after operations began at the Chornobyl station in December 1977. This work is a triumphant overview of the results of the journey from the beginning of the power station's construction to its successful outcome. The builders and witnesses of the station's creation reminisce on the years of construction, which became a "school of life" for those involved. Doctors talk about the excellent ecological state of the environment near the station, youths ski in the nearby snowy woods. The "big happy family of the atomohrad" celebrate the New Year. Even in winter, these scenes are depicted in bright, saturated colors, with gentle reminders of the invisible work of the Atom, illustrated with glittering diagrammes, sensors and monitors of the station, all details emphasizing the joyful existence within the "Atomohrad".

Canada Vignettes: Skier

1978 • 2 min • Canada

In this short vignette, skier Kathy Kreiner prepares for and participates in her Olympic gold-medal race at Innsbruck.

Lady of the Lake

1978 • 8 min

Experimental film by Alida Walsh

Fotorondo

1978 • 10 min • Soviet Union

A film about the relationship between real life and art in photography, photo as the capturer and interpreter.

Theory of Uncertainty

1978 • 6 min • Italy

Short by Andrea Granchi.

Labour of Love: The Housewife

1978 • 19 min

Labour of Love: The Housewife examines the role of the Asian woman within the realm of the home and the family. It features the boundless work that a housewife must accomplish in a day to run a household and to care for her family. The film is an early feminist take on the perception regarding the economic value of the stay-at-home mother and wife, whose contribution to society is underrated. A 2K restoration was made possible using a sole-surviving 16mm colour reversal (with scenes of black & white) print from the Asian Film Archive Collection (AFA) in 2022.

Legend of the Maiden Tower

1978 • 16 min • Soviet Union

The Shah is about to marry his daughter off but she is kidnapped by a sorceress. A knight ho has fallen desperately in love wit her guards her. The story ends tragically.

Nordic Combination

1978 • 11 min • Poland

Another film about a sports discipline that removes the barrier between the spectator and the participants of the competition. The scenes of ski jumps have gone down in the history of cinema. All of them were made by Adam Krzysztofi-ak, an Olympic Winner.

La Voce Umana

1978 • 40 min • Italy

Over the course of one day, a woman carries on a vacillating conversation with her lover over several phone calls. She is at times conciliatory, playful, teasing, remorseful, sad, manipulative, depressed, understanding, patient, desperate, manipulative, cloying, and finally accepting of his final farewell. It seems her lover has now found a younger more accomadating woman who will supersede the main character. It is quite sad how he has toyed with her over the years and the efforts she takes to please him, when clearly to him she is just a garment to put on when convenient or to use when lonesome and he really does not care for her. Very well written and acted.

Ariipaea Vahine

1978 • 55 min • France, French Polynesia

“Ariipaea-Vahine” is originally a poem by Henri Hiro. This poem will become a play performed several times at the Grand Théâtre and in Moorea by the Pupu Arioi. In 1978, the Matarau cinema unit was created at the Maison des Jeunes et de la Culture. The first film in this department will be an adaptation of the play. In his book "Autonomous Tahiti", Philippe Mazelier defines the piece as follows: "The theme is classic, the parabola transparent: as long as it was faithful to ancestral convictions, Ariipaea passed from the world of men to the world of gods, and Maohi culture was alive. When she converted, the gods stopped speaking to her, and Tahitian culture died. To revive it implies for Henri Hiro to fight Western culture. He calls for a return to basics against the consumer society while the latter, at the same time, is working twice as hard.

Exquisite Corpse

1978 • 8 min • United States of America

The "exquisite corpse" named in the title of this piece refers to a favorite game of the Surrealists, played by passing a folded sheet of paper among a group; each person draws one section of a body on the folded segment without looking at the other sides. What was done with pen and paper, Gusella accomplishes electronically using the VideoLab. Utilizing quick, voltage-controlled live switching between two cameras, Gusella approximates composite images. For examples, his torso appears to combine with a close-up of his face. The perceptual effect is mesmerizing and disorienting.

Drugs In America

1978 • 50 min

Documentary on drug use in America

Homage à François Couperin (Butterflies)

1978 • 3 min

A three-minute fantasy of butterflies and dragonflies cavorting amongst the pussywillows, Japanese-inspired animation accompanied by two variations on keyboard works by the Baroque composer.

In my Hometown I-III

1978 • 11 min • Japan

In this elegant, muted suite of three miniatures, Michishita captures the snowy landscape of Sapporo with a refined eye for its shadows and textures.

Lily

1978 • 28 min • Iceland

At the beginning of the film, three medical students are hunting for a body to use for research purposes. They hear of a tramp that has been found dead. The body is in the mortuary and as no-one seems to know who he is; they decide to take the body for dissection without formal permission. When the body is placed on the operating table, one of the students recognizes the man, and scenes from his acquaintance with the dead man flash back. At the same time certain things begin to happen that they had not allowed for.

Mundial

1978 • 20 min • Argentina

An unpublished piece by this pioneer of experimental cinema with the participation of Elías Cherñajovsky and Sergio Levin.

Einar Guðmundsson, The Movie

1978 • 45 min • Iceland

A film about Einar Guðmundsson, the poet (Einar Guðmundsson, litlaskáld)

Clouds & Crickets

1978 • 2 min • United States of America

An abstract kaleidoscope of colors and shapes set to soft music.