Non-narrated treatment of the activities carried out in an abattoir. An unlikely subject for a documentary, but the filmmaker captures the strength and terrible beauty in the daily preparation for slaughter. The sound track echoes with hard metallic knives being ground, tested and sharpened. No beast is actually shown being killed but the slaughter is mirrored in the blood-red faces of the men and the scenes of water flushing away the blood to a river – thus water purges but never really cleans the walls of the slaughter house. A powerful film – almost abstract at times. Perhaps even more effective because of what it leaves unsaid and unshown.
Category: Short
The Tin Woodman, framed by light bulbs, does a little dance, leaps and retrieves his axe from outside the frame, chops down a tree that turns into various objects, grabs a heart emblem from the corner, and goes to the Emerald City at night with Toto. He goes to the edge of a cliff, where he meats an Asian spirit who gives him a heart shape that becomes a kite that hooks to him with a cane. This is followed by approximately ten minutes of kaleidoscopic images, including a man’s hands, a dancing girl, and a cutout of Krishna.
Pixillation was one of the first collaborations between Lillian Schwartz and Ken Knowlton during their stint at Bell Labs using Knowlton’s self written computer animation language EXPLOR. Made in 1970 this 4 minute film crams in a spectacular amount of visual information, cutting from geometric sequences reminiscent of Cellular Automata to analogue sequences of organic forms – immersions of liquids and oils so favoured by the West Coast light show fanatacists around the same time.
Canadian poet Leonard Cohen who now resides on the island of Hydra in Greece, is shown in his native city of Montreal. The program explores Cohens childhood and his subsequent development as one of Canadas leading new writers. The film takes viewers to the house Cohen was brought up in as well as to the places of Montreal he enjoys frequenting his favorite bistro, a three dollar-a-day hotel, the public park, the exclusive section called Westmount, and a Greek grocery store. Cohen himself is shown at a recording session, at public readings of his poetry, displaying home movies of his childhood, and commenting on university life. He also reflects on his visit to Cuba, his girlfriend in Greece, his obsession with danger and his friends and their personalities.
On the sea beach, a tourist inflates and creates an entire campsite out of plastic. In this colorful inflated environment, there is a plastic substitute for everything, even for feelings. On the beach, a ravishing love, jealousy and revenge, and in the end tragedy, are born.
A little bumblebee is tired of her daily routine and the other boring bumblebees. She needs an adventure! She flies to the place of her dreams and meets a frog who is also seeking something new. Despite their differences, the two animals become friends and start their adventure together.
The inhabitants of a Spanish village gather for the visit of a death defying tightrope walker. He comes with his own attractive aura of danger and drama, and the crowd are not disappointed. Animated in a sketchy style on paper, this film powerfully uses the graphic freedom of this technique to select and embellish, to swoop and wander around the village. Austere sound effects and an Albeniz guitar piece are used to heighten this charmingly modest drama in which ordinary things – a hammer driving a nail, a flock of birds wheeling in the sky – are given their due.