All Films

Gertrude & Alice in Passing

1978 • 7 min • Canada

This experiment in point of view, narrative structure, and time attempts to reproduce cinematically Gertude Stein's notion of a "continuous present." In four rhyming shots/scenes, it suggests the development of a relationship over many years. Based on biographical details from the lives of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, with improvised performances by Jackie Burroughs and Anne Anglin.

Untitled

1978 • 7 min

Made from the same footage as Epilogue but in a different order: 1. pan, 2. dissolve-crossfade, 3.freeze.... as opposed topan, freeze, crossfade-dissolve......very different in terms of filmic expectation, recognition, assumptions of anti-narrativity, all whilst watching these small fragments (each film only a few minutes long, each made from the (repeated) opticals of the same very short fragments of several seconds each....)....P.G.

Canada Vignettes: The Performer

1978 • 3 min • Canada

This short film from the Canada Vignettes series features tenor Roger Doucet singing the Canadian national anthem, O Canada, before a hockey game in the Montreal Forum.

Word of Honour

1978 • 10 min • Soviet Union

Based on Panteleyev’s tale about a boy who wouldn’t leave his post after he gave his word.

Jugend-Zeit

1978 • 18 min • East Germany

The documentary tells the story of Anke, Birgit and Katrin, who are training to become cattle breeders and graduate from high school. During this time, they live in a boarding school. The three girls talk about their everyday lives and reflect on their future.

Surf Sail

1978 • 20 min • New Zealand

A documentary following the attempt by three young people to be the first windsurfers to cross Cook Strait.

These Are the Weapons

1978 • 59 min • Mozambique

The agitprop film Estas são as armas by Murilo Salles was edited together from archival images and formed one of the first works to be produced by the newly founded film institute in Maputo.

Mysterious Castles of Clay

1978 • 57 min • United States of America

Mysterious Castles of Clay is a 1978 film about a termite colony; filmed in Kenya by film-makers Joan and Alan Root, and narrated by Orson Welles. (narration replaced by Derek Jacobi, in a later release titled "Castles of Clay")

Some Little Men

1978 • 10 min • Soviet Union

Two humorous stories about a man who cuts down a tree he is sitting on.

The Year Of Punk

1978 • 42 min • United Kingdom

The summer of the Jubilee in 1977 was mentally dominated by another national anthem - "God Save the Queen" by The Sex Pistols. That same summer was also the summer of punk. Janet Street Porter Reviews The Year Of Punk, Featuring Early Classic Footage Of The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Siouxsie And Others.

The Vampires of Poverty

1978 • 29 min • Colombia

Two filmmakers travel around impoverished sectors of the cities of Bogotá and Cali in search of the images of abjection needed to complete a documentary commissioned by German TV. Meanwhile, another camera captures these “vampire” filmmakers feeding off the misery of their marginal subjects.

Tut: The Boy King

1978 • 49 min • United States of America

Review the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb by Howard Carter in 1922 with archival photographs and reviews the highlights of the treasure trove with anecdotal stories and conjecture about the Boy King's life and death.

The Tale of Chugaystra

1978 • 20 min • Soviet Union

During the Great Patriotic War, in the occupied Hutsul village, a grandmother tells her grandchildren a fairy tale about the giant Chugaystra, the people's defender in ancient times. At night, a wounded partisan comes to their hut, and the children go to the forest to look for Chugaystra, deciding that only he can help the partisan and all Hutsuls...

O Construtor de Anjos

1978 • 40 min • Portugal

Gothic film in a monastery, where sensual monks murder the children they receive, with images of fantastic, painted from the author own painting and also from the Hammer films and the Saxon plastic tradition of romanticism.

The Two Soldiers

1978 • 25 min • Portugal

The film follows soldiers escape and wander, talk, and drift aimlessly.

Dziadowski's Blues Non Camera, ie Legs Forward

1978 • 8 min • Poland

An animated film made without the use of a camera using the technique of drawing and painting directly on a film strip, illustrating a grandfather's ballad, the protagonist of which seeks an explanation for the cruel phenomena of the world around him. Rockets thrown to the ground and bombs exploding, a car falling off a cliff, a driver driving a man on the street or a policeman firing a gun at an opponent - images of this type of catastrophic behavior are intertwined with the recurring image of a man running somewhere.

Yellow Submarine Sandwich

1978 • 3 min

An animated Yellow Submarine spoof produced for The Rutles' 1978 mockumentary All You Need Is Cash and featuring their song "Cheese and Onions". Screened as a standalone short film at the 1979 Annecy International Animation Film Festival and The Museum of Modern Art.

Inscription

1978 • 12 min • Yugoslavia

A documentary film consisting of various clips of Josip Broz Tito.

Superjock

1978 • 11 min • United States of America

The story Jim and Vic, two men who go on separate fitness journeys when they realize they're overweight and at risk for heart disease.

Robin Williams: Off the Wall

1978 • 60 min • United States of America

This was Robin's first HBO special, part of the HBO On Location series. It was taped on location at the Roxy Theatre in Hollywood in 1978. The theatre is full of celebrities, and at one point Robin pulls up John Ritter and makes him do an improvisational bit with him.

Edwin Denby

1978 • 2 min • United States of America

Don Quijote de la Mancha

1978 • 26 min • Spain

Duane Michals (1939-1997)

1978 • 14 min • United States of America

A look at photographer Duane Michal's sequential photo narratives, with voiceover by Michals himself.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: A Lesson in Cooperation

1978 • 8 min

Cooperating, even in chores, can be a rewarding experience.