All Films

Taina

1974 • 6 min

A lyrical short film (from Artūras Barysas-Baras), with an aura of subversive irony.

Backyard Economy 1

1974 • 4 min

Set in the arch-American "home movie" context of a sunny suburban yard, Rosler's early Super-8 film Backyard Economy I documents the products of mundane domestic chores. Silently depicting scenes of laundry hanging out to dry in a suburban backyard, Rosler points up the labor that allows leisure and interrogates its underlying "economy."

Going Places Fast

1974 • 14 min • United Kingdom

Aimed at the overseas market (and with one or two references that would not be acceptable as politically correct today) this film extols the virtue of using rail services for travelers visiting Britain.

Speeding

1974 • 21 min

Short educational film by Mitchell Block (1974)

The Rook

1974 • 10 min • Iran

The Rook made in 1974 is the establishment of sadeghi’s style in reference to Persian painting and miniature. The chess board act as witness to a game in progress. The players move their pieces until two kings remain and the game back to continue from the beginning which represent ongoing metaphor of political power games. The humorous piece of animation looks at the absurdity of war, politics and stance of society in between these notions.

Man in Search of Man

1974 • 21 min • India

In the summer of 1974, the Indian government organized an expedition to the Andaman Islands. What you are about to see is the first ever released film about the native peoples of these islands. After a brief review of Port Blair's history, the expedition leaves to meet the Onge people on Little Andaman Island, then to meet the Jarawa people on Interview Island, and finally to Sentinel Island where the Sentinel people have been filmed for the very first time.

Super Carrot

1974 • 6 min • United States of America

UCLA Student Animation Workshop. A violinist charms a snake and then both are eaten by the monster, which also eats a frog, a bricklayer, a dribbler, and a bird. Super Carrot conquers the monster by flying into his mouth, but then Super Carrot is eaten by the rabbit.

Smokey Wears Pantyhose

1974 • 9 min • United States of America

Fast -paced film works its way through American culture in a crazy quilt of images and wild sounds including truckers’ CB radio banter and arcade machine gun fire. A theme of give and take is established as a young man tries to get rid of a coconut head, visits a carnival peep show, dances and twirls batons with a dog, and finally hops a truck to somewhere.

Pan 3

1974 • 1 min • United States of America

A journey through a field of corn.

Mr. Rossi in Venice

1974 • 12 min • Italy

Mister Rossi goes to Venice.

Pan 0

1974 • 1 min • United States of America

Clouds roll by in a static haze.

Bedsitters

1974 • 17 min • Netherlands

Set on the landing and the stairs of Zwartjes’ new house, then still empty, in The Hague. The filmmaker suggests a mysterious and complex space by using a ‘floating’ camera to film a number of crawling, creeping personages. (MUBI)

Eureka

1974 • 38 min • United States of America

"This is a film that not only documents a place in time, but a modern spatial vision, a look and technology that makes this street the sort of place it is. And here in this preserved piece of history, one also sees the chemical dance of film grain that makes up the material of Gehr’s own History. We do not simply see Market Street circa 1902, but a film of Market Street, and it is as fascinating as the site itself. Film may in some sense exist indifferent to emotions, objects, beings, or ideas. But early in his work Gehr realized that film, even conceived as a thing in itself, can never exist outside of history. The very dance of grain on the screen acquires a history of its production, its screenings, its viewings. History is the place no place can avoid.” - Tom Gunning

A Film of Their 1973 Spring Tour Commissioned by Christian World Liberation Front of Berkeley, California

1974 • 12 min

A radical Christian group's lecture tour of US colleges was filmed in the cinema verité tradition, with hand held camera, sync and wild sound. To avoid making a conventional documentary, the filmmaker created a dynamic collage by stroboscopically editing together pairs of scenes using a rapid rhythm of three-frame units.

Launch

1974 • 10 min • United Kingdom

Activities leading up to the launch of a large ship built at the Swan Hunter's Wallsend shipyard.

Firefly

1974 • 5 min

Superimposed images of a woman dancing.

Nitrato

1974 • 19 min • Brazil

Nitrato expresses the ambiguities and contradictions of the Cinemateca Brasileira. The film deals with the richness of its collection, the recognition of international entities, and explores what its relationship to the general public was like. Nitrato also portrays the neglect with which the institution is treated, as seen in how precarious its building infrastructure is, how politicians neglected to communicate with the institution’s staff, and the aftermath of another fire in the building.

Alternatim

1974 • 15 min

A part of Werner Nekes' lyrical anthology DIWAN.

Women

1974 • 13 min • United States of America

A sardonic film about the clichés laid on women.

Weather Balloon, Feathered Balloon

1974 • 4 min

United States 1974, Super 8 film transferred to digital, colour, silent, 4 min

Grass Breathing

1974 • 3 min

United States c.1974, Super 8 film transferred to digital, colour, silent, 3 min

Quneitra 74

1974 • 21 min • Syrian Arab Republic

Quneytra 74 begins with shots of people on the edge of the blasted city of Kuneitra. A woman breaks away from the crowd, makes her way towards the city, speeds up the step, as if to escape from the camera. Filmed on behalf of Syrian TV, the accuracy of Malas' light, shadow, silence and soundscape as essential elements of his cinematic language is evidenced here, as well as his interest in the issues of civil war, territorial war and identity destruction.

Easter Is

1974 • 24 min

Benji and Waldo in Easter Is

“He was born, he suffered, he died.”

1974 • 8 min • United States of America

"The quote is Joseph Conrad answering a critic who found his books too long. Conrad replied that he could write a novel on the inside of a match-book cover, thus (as above), but that he "preferred to elaborate." The "Life" of the film is scratched on black leader. The "elaboration" of color tonalities is as the mind's eye responds to hieroglyph." - S.B. (Note: it seems possible that Brakhage misattributed this quote, which appears to be from William Faulkner and/or W. Somerset Maugham). Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2006.