All Films

My Friend, the Semaphore

1978 • 9 min • Soviet Union

An educational short on road safety for children.

She's a Railroader

1978 • 10 min • Canada

Karen Zaitchik jumps on and off moving boxcars, throws switches, pulls brakes and uncouples freights with ease and confidence. She's a railroader for CN and that's what this 21-year-old highly individualistic woman wants out of life for the moment. This colourful short film shows how Karen manages in the traditionally male world of the railroad.

Vestibule (In 3 Episodes)

1978 • 25 min • United States of America

...a meditation on a familiar New York city space in which memories, fantasies and the maniacial interwine.

Ramones: Live at Musikladen

1978 • 52 min

Live performance of original punk rockers The Ramones on the West German television show 'Der Musikladen' in 1978. The band's 50-minute set features some of their best-loved hits such as 'Blitzkrieg Bop', 'Sheena Is a Punk Rocker' and 'Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment'.

Budworks

1978 • 35 min • Canada

Through the 1980's in every Canadian province east of Saskatchewan, except Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, chemical insecticides are sprayed from the air onto the forests to combat the spruce budworm and other forest insects. The focus is on the province of New Brunswick whose spraying began in 1952. It explores who both sprayers and anti-sprayers are, the role of government, the economics and the health issues surround the aerial application of insecticides.

Chairmen

1978 • 13 min • Canada

This short animated film presents an allegorical portrait of a society where men have lost their autonomy in the struggle to be recognized by the very society that restricts their freedom.

The Secret of Rented Island

1978 • 10 min

Presents Jack Smith in a perfomance entitled Rented Island, an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts.

Liquid Crystals

1978 • 6 min • France

Title cards introduce images we watch without narration; they are displays of shape and color. François de Roubaix's electronic music accompanies these images, photographed under a polarizing microscope. The crystals appear to move like tiny organisms: small four-part fans share the frame with flowing lines of pink. Multiple patterns appear side by side.

Låt er inte förföras

1978 • 30 min • Sweden

"Don't Be Seduced" - Gothenburg's Brecht-ensemble performs songs and texts of Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler.

Make Me Psychic

1978 • 8 min • United States of America

Anita the duck buys a psychic device at a novelty store in an alternate universe and creates mayhem at a crazy party.

Double Strength

1978 • 20 min • United States of America

Four stages of a lesbian relationship explored in an experimental film starring performance artists Terry Sendgraff and Barbara Hammer on suspended trapezes and ropes.

Fergus Walking

1978 • 3 min

Directed by William Raban.

Black Beauty

1978 • 47 min • Australia

This heart warming adaptation of the timeless novel tells the story of the courageous stallion Black Beauty, a well-bred horse in the 19th century England.

People Wither Like Leaves...

1978 • 4 min • Poland

A study of human transience, interrupted by the unchanging image of factory chimneys that smoke without pause.

The Light Princess

1978 • 56 min • United Kingdom

Based on a short story by George MacDonald, a princess experiences constant weightlessness.

The Champions, Part 2: Trappings of Power

1978 • 55 min • Canada

Part 2 of this 3-part documentary series about Pierre Elliott Trudeau and René Lévesque covers the years between 1967 and 1977, a colourful decade that saw Trudeau win three federal elections, the 1970 October Crisis and the sweeping rise to power of the Parti Québécois.

Daniel in the Lions' Den

1978 • 43 min • United States of America

Daniel is thrown into the lion's den for his part in a plot, and the rest is the familiar Bible story.

Something's Wrong

1978 • 30 min

The businessman's private medical check-up is usually considered one of the perks of the job, but Trevor finds that all is not quite what it seems when his examination turns out to be more personal than physical.

Les chants de Maldoror

1978 • 30 min • Japan

A “reading film” of delirious image and text, Les chants de Maldoror takes its title and inspiration from Comte de Lautréamont’s 1869 proto-Surrealist poetic novel which, for instance, describes beauty as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table. In the novel’s six cantos, a young misanthrope indulges in depraved and destructive acts. Unexpected encounters abound, with turtles and birds joining Terayama’s regular cast of snails and dogs to wander over books and bare torsos. Feverish video processing posterizes, inverts and overlays images that are further colored by sound—pushing the limits of his literary adaptation. Terayama wrote that the only tombstone he wanted was his words, but, as Les chants de Maldoror demonstrates, words need not be confined to carved monuments or bound hardcopies.

New Country - New People

1978 • 18 min • New Zealand

A documentary about the history of settler groups that came to New Zealand from Europe.

Wejście w nurt

1978 • 48 min

Anna is a teacher and her husband Marek is an engineer. They both face moral dilemmas at work: Marek's boss wants him to help get rid of a renowned engineer from their company; Anna refuses to support the false accusation of her student.

An Encounter with Faces

1978 • 21 min

Oscar nominated documentary short from 1978 about an Indian juvenile reformatory.

One of These Nights I'm Gonna Get an Early Day

1978 • 30 min

When Mal Leyton's modern jazz quintet sets out to play an unlikely gig at a college concert, the musicians really need their legendary sense of humour.

Night Window

1978 • 20 min • Japan