In this short film from Yugoslavia, a boy wanders the city alone on a hot summer’s day. More and more unnerved by his own shadow, he attempts to escape it, but ends up finding a new friend instead. Grounded in the architecture and infrastructure of the city, the film turns into a literal flight of fantasy.
Category: Short
Bruce Conner deconstructs the repetitive imagery and messages from media coverage of the Kennedy assassination, fabricating an image track out of the fragments of the paltry documentary footage. The film is divided into two unequal parts, a longer, first section that Conner has called ‘the death of Kennedy’ and an ‘epilogue’ that imaginatively unpacks the Kennedy myth. It is also an astounding exposé of the media’s modes of creating meaning, of constructing messages, and ultimately of controlling information.
This BBC2-screened film is a look at the European art world of the late 1960s, and a meditation on the nature of art and the pricing of art, shot by Tony Williams. The origins of this film are suitably cosmopolitan. It was initiated by an Iranian student – and underwritten by Jeremy Fry from Cadbury Fry Hudson. Its focus is Takis, a Greek artist who creates kinetic sculptures out of discarded electronic objects (at times reminiscent of Len Lye’s work), and plans to mass produce cheaper versions of his work to make his art accessible. But will it still be art?
A man recollects the conflict in the middle east through his personal memory. In this short documentary, Omar Amiralay reflects on the first time he heard of Israel. Through recorded conversations with filmmaker Mohamed Malas, both Amiralay and Malas share their own unique stories and experiences about Israel and Israeli occupation. In the company of fellow Syrian filmmaker Mohammad Malas, the ground-breaking director Omar Amiralay revisits the ruins of the destroyed Golan village of Quneytra, occupied by Israel and then abandoned following the 1973 war.
A prisoner attempts to have one forget the bleakness of prison existence through coloured crayon sketches drawn on the wall. However, the prison officer does not hesitate to stamp out even this small pleasure. Adapted from a press caricature, titled “Művészek/Artists” by György Várnai, which was published in 1966 in the popular satirical weekly “Ludas Matyi/Mattie the Gooseboy”.
A film of high emotional impact and artistic control, One Day Crossing tells the story of a Jewish woman in Hungary who poses as a Christian to protect her family during the Holocaust. Inspired by director Stein’s own family history and created as her Columbia University graduate thesis project, this short work of fiction has garnered international acclaim for its power, craft and authority.
With the help of special lenses we enter a world where Sisyphus in miniature fights stubbornly to fulfill his life’s purpose: survival. The continuous defeats don’t discourage him and he continues with doggedness even if he will never be sure of the final success.
The work of child psychologist Jean Piaget has been influential in the areas of child development and education. In this film made shortly before his death he discusses his ideas, attempts to clarify misunderstandings about them and explains some of his classic experiments with children which are recreated. He also explains his theory of knowledge.