All Films

H Is for House

1976 • 10 min • United Kingdom

Ostensibly, a film about a child's pictorial alphabet stuck on the letter H.

Surface Tension

1976 • 13 min

"This experiment determines what happens when a negative is superimposed upon its own positive image. The center of the picture forms the optical soundtrack on both left and right screens so that what you see finds its aural equivalent in sound." - Anthology Film Archives

Packman's Barn

1976 • 60 min

Ben Packman leaves an old people's home to return to the Welsh mountains.

Monsieur Pointu

1976 • 12 min • Canada

Monsieur Pointu would like to play his fiddle. But the fiddle has other ideas.

You're Nothing But Tears

1976 • 11 min • Soviet Union

How a small onion helped a cabbage out of trouble.

Scenes with Beans

1976 • 12 min • Hungary

Watching from the stars, an all-seeing creature observes a society of sentient beans — the joys, triumphs, and tragedies of day-to-day life on their planet — until the busy inhabitants finally notice the watcher’s leering gaze.

The Elephants' Graveyard

1976 • 48 min • United Kingdom

Bunny has told his wife he is working as a postman, but in fact is wandering the hills all day, wondering why he doesn't want to work. He meets Jody, an older man who has told his wife he's working in a factory, but is in fact doing the same thing. The two men spend a day of friendship together, but what does the future offer them? And tonight is supposed to be pay night...

Stanley Baxter's Christmas Box

1976 • 60 min • United Kingdom

Sketches include the film noir 'Farewell my Cinders', the BBC Jewish news, The Bruce Fosdyke Show, A Christmas Appeal by Faith Douche, the meaning of Christiman, 'The Last Noël', Jacques Cousteau presents Some Mammals Do 'Ave 'Em, Girl on the Cover followed Harpies Bizarre's America's Loveliest Girls starring Lois Latnick.

Man nennt mich jetzt Mimi...

1976 • 35 min • East Germany, Germany

A young married couple is in love. Both believe that the other has it easier in life. To find out who is right in this matter, they swap clothes: Anna slips into a man's suit and Peter into a chic woman's wardrobe. In this outfit, they both drive towards their vacation destination. Of course - under these circumstances, the young couple are in for exciting and unpredictable adventures, as the locals at the vacation resort show more than just platonic interest in their new guests...

Marine Merchants

1976 • 26 min • United Kingdom

A look at how fish and chips make it to your plate.

Munakata, the woodcarver

1976 • 36 min • Japan

A documentary film looking at the work of Shiko Munakata, a woodblock artist. His prints are based on Buddhist philosophy and are highly original and Oriental in style.

Love in the Hamptons

1976 • 24 min • United States of America

Mickey Rourke stars in his first film role as a young waiter in the Hamptons, who finds love with a cocktail waitress as she struggles to support her child and confront her troubling home life.

Gravity

1976 • 8 min

In this spoof of public-school educational films, young Mary Jane asks the question, "What is gravity?" After asking various (dysfunctional) family members without success, she then asks Dr. Waxman of the Karl LaFong Foundation for Gravitational Research (motto: "heads in the clouds and feet on the ground"), who explains that gravity is caused by a substance named GR12. Unfortunately, the world is running out of GR12. The cartoon character Jiminy Gravity then explains (in song) how we can conserve gravity with such practices as sitting on the floor and carrying helium balloons.

People, People, People

1976 • 4 min • United States of America

Traces life in USA from the first Native Americans to the Bicentennial.

The Goodies Almost Live

1976 • 30 min • United Kingdom

The Goodies bookend the sixth season of their successful television show with a specially taped concert special, featuring live studio performances of songs from The New Goodies LP and I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again.

Three Rubles

1976 • 21 min • Soviet Union

Having found three rubles on the road near a change house, road masters Abessalom, Beso and Gigla decided to go to the city.

A Small Miracle

1976 • 20 min • United Kingdom

On Christmas Eve, a poor old woman plays her accordion in the street. Apart from two children, the passers-by ignore her and by the end of the day she has to sell her accordion to buy some food. Worse is to come. (1976)

Me & Stella

1976 • 24 min

Geri Ashur’s Me & Stella traces the life of blues musician, folk singer, and composer Elizabeth Cotten—and her guitar, Stella—who is best known for writing the folk standard “Freight Train.” After spending her early teenage years writing songs and playing the guitar, Cotten put her musical career on hold for three decades. Encouraged by the very musical Seeger family, for whom she worked as a maid, Cotten started recording and became a star in the 1960s burgeoning folk revival at an age when most people are contemplating retirement.

Red Ball Express

1976 • 3 min

A drawn-on-film train builds itself and takes a trip, set to the bluegrass standard Orange Blossom Special.

Blue Puppy

1976 • 19 min • Soviet Union

A puppy, born with a strangely light-blue coat, finds himself shunned by all. No one wants to play with him or call him a friend — even the Grey Dogs keep their distance. But when a fearsome Pirate suddenly attacks the island, he enlists the Black Cat’s help to kidnap the Blue Puppy.

Short Films 1976

1976 • 25 min • United States of America

Four films verging on portraiture, converging to make a drama for all seasons, starring: Jane Brakhage as The Dreamer; Bob Benson as The Magnificent Stranger; Omar Beagle as The Snow Plow Man; and Jimmy Ryan Morris as The Poet and as Doc Holliday.

Chesty: A Tribute to a Legend

1976 • 47 min • United States of America

A tribute documentary on the most decorated U.S. Marine, General Lewis B. 'Chesty' Puller.

The Miracle Healers

1976 • 52 min

Actor Roscoe Lee Browne is host for this documentary that delves into the mystery behind spontaneous healing and other psychic phenomena that could be applied to medicine. This includes an examination of Jim Jones and the People's Temple.

Ikar and Sages

1976 • 7 min • Soviet Union

It is a parable about world wisdom and "madness of brave men" who are ready to risk their life for the sake of new opening.