Cinematic Era: 1968 Vintage

A film by David McLaughlin with music by Terry Riley

Experimental documentary about the San Francisco scene.

"Snapshot images projected fleetingly on an unstable and mobile surface, describe the urban chaos of the population of Caracas in the 60s. An emerging cosmopolitan city, subjected to the alienating imbalance of an environment convulsed by a complex political and social crisis. Withstanding flashes of neon, reflectors and dazzling directional lights, like a night mirror of the city. An elastic uterus shakes and contracts with interrupted spasms, trying to expel what moves and is submerged inside, deep within. Surprisingly and unexpectedly, this altered thing is released, and an anxious, throbbing and anguished humanoid being emerges hastily." Daniel Gonzalez.

A man living the wanton life in the city of São João del-Rei repents from his sins after a supernatural encounter, directed by Sergio Ratton

About a domestic traitor who helped the Italians kill his fellow Dalmatians.

This is a film with minimal content. Using a film pen, a line was drawn across a strip of clear leader, until it hit the edge of the frame ("cheers"), and then the line was drawn back to the other side ("cheers"), etc. This strip functioned as the film negative. The projection is the drawn out line as a white line that wanders back and forth, bringing light and darkness into the theater. Because of this one should not only watch the movie screen, but also the light that comes out of the projector and the reflections in the theater. A "light play." (E.S.jr.)

Expanded cinema with a real and a projected curtain. (This film is part of the 20 Action and Destruction Films.)

This film has two parts. In the first part, the film material is on 8mm uncut film, so that in the 16mm projection a 4-fold film can be seen. In the second part of the film, the 16mm film is shown in full size, that means the picture is now enlarged four times its size. I drew over the film after the fact, and abstracted it in many different ways. (E.S.jr.)

A popular and gifted teenager draws concern from his teacher when she discovers that he doesn't care about education, has no plans for the future, and methodically does the bare minimum to pass his classes.

A fixed shot showing six persons, looking into the camera inertly. Gradually tiny, minimal movements can be registered.

"This film shows my life with my family in the Triemli high-rise in Zurich." (HHK)

George Plimpton attends the annual children’s fair of local pets, at the Virginia home of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, with Art Buchwald as ringmaster.

Anti-war demonstration, 1968, New York City march to Sheep's Meadow, shows Vets against the war, Yippies, arrests, and flags of a half-forgotten revolution.

Footage of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Held in Kassel between June and October 1968, documenta 4—the last to be directed by Arnold Bode—was plagued by controversy and debate: artistic, political, generational, and aesthetic conflicts, as well as tensions between European and American art were some of the issues that affected this edition, echoing the social and political upheavals that were taking place elsewhere at the same time. The film reflects this effervescence, giving voice to the artists, curators, and audience, but also offers a unique approach to an exhibition in progress. We watch Sol LeWitt constructing Three-Part Variations; Joseph Beuys installing Raumplastik; Martial Raysse talking about the role of the artist; Harald Szeemann defending the concept of the museum; and Edward Kienholz explaining his work from inside his Roxys installation, among many others.

A short subject directed by Pierre Marchou.

A young man sets out to make a Super 8 film, but isn't sure what the film should be about.

An open-ended, unsigned collective work, assembled from footage shot on the spot in ’68-era student assemblies and poster-making workshops as well as a dizzying variety of other sources, UUU (Usines, Universities, Unions) uses the power of thrilling montage to convey the renegade energy of the day. “This film is a faithful reflection of the spirit that animated us,” reads a signed statement by the collective, who opted to leave their work, like the revolution, teasingly unfinished.

Different leading methods are tested on three groups of kindergarten children.

In 1967, Che Guevara's message is read by Fidel Castro, causing a sensation both among the revolutionary movements and those who oppose it. In 1968, this film was banned by the Centre du Cinéma Français and could not be exported as it was considered by the officials as a call to arms and revolution, questioning the role of UN and other international organisations.

Problems of modern marriage. Psychological and sociological survey.

The filmmaker appears as an artist attempting to set up his easel, with frustrating results.

Video documentation of Nicolás García Uriburu’s work for the 1968 Venice Biennale, where he dyed Venice’s Grand Canal using fluorescein, a harmless pigment which turns a bright green when synthesized by microorganisms in the water.

A rapid fire montage, a dynamic juxtaposition of the world’s vital and destructive forces, the title originating from a Chinese text which refers to the Third Eye. Close up shots of the various faces open and close the film, the very last shot holding on the innocent face of a young child. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2014.

1968. USA. Directed by Philip Gittelman and Charles Harbutt. 6 min. Screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York on July 1, 2017 as part of "Magnum Shorts: American Stories". Accompanies "Beyond the Frame: International Cinema by Magnum Photographers." Philip Gittelman and Charles Harbutt's America puts their photographs alongside selections by Magnum colleagues Eve Arnold, Bruce Davidson, Mary Ellen Mark, and others. Originally anthologized in the book America in Crisis, the project sought to capture the zeitgeist of a divided nation at the end of a tumultuous decade. The film furthers this consideration of an American Dream at an equivocal impasse by juxtaposing the images with a distorted version of "America the Beautiful."

This film represents an encounter with several major icons of the history of western painting, "while attempting"–as the filmmaker says–"to always create a link between art and life, an impertinence with respect to those images that the production of works of documentation [books and magazines] brought to the attention of everyone for the first time." Reclaiming art history in a performative, playful way and evoking the tradition of tableau vivant, Pistoletto with his daughters Cristina and Maria Pioppi "act out" in a series of little scenes: Orpheus and Eurydice, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Raphael, Chaim Soutine, James Ensor, Edgar Degas, Vincent Van Gogh.

A film by Antonio Maenza Blasco.

Educational film shown to members of the US military to acquaint them with the Vietcong.

The story of a man who, after an impenetrable life, returns home to the site of a sweet memory...

The story of a man who never attended Sarah Lawrence College but still made some impact.

Workers in the northern German province build a silo.

Experimental film in two parts, the first black and white, the second color.

The social and economical state of the first years of Joaquín Balaguer's government.

Animated short. A man runs and runs.

Animated short. "Two apples devouring each other, accompanied by sound of male and female laughter." - BFI

The tragic story of a street seller of sweets.

Stepping Stones - Abstract drama played out in light, color and sound - is made up entirely of original vintage light show projections, excerpts of which were featured in the 2005 Visual Music exhibition at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles

Tomorrow Never Knows is a psychedelic interpretation of a Beatles song.

Documentation of the 1960's which demonstrates the attractions of the new world between Alaska and Tierra del Fuego as a colorful tourist picture book.

Short comedy about a speech for new students.

After much satirical banter between the two girls and their university tutors and colleagues, the near to final dinner party scene explodes in an extended homage to Jean-Luc Godard via the daggiest dance number ever committed to film. Jack and the two girls (played by then campus objects of desire Jane Washington and Margaret Harrison) leap up from a series of dinner table pontifications – though we’ve already had a clue about the next event when Kate says, “My idol for this week is going to be that weedy little man in Godard’s film”. Then the music starts. All three eventually dance in an attempted replay of the number in Godard’s movie. Its shot front-on in the manner of Griffith, with the dancers moving towards and back from the stationary camera for almost all of the three minutes of the song, until near the end there is a cut to a medium close-up. Exhilarating. Funny. And remembered down the ages.

Larry Crane Sexploitation movie.

Part of BFI collection "They Stand Ready."

French TV Show

The first revolutionary film produced by the Palestine Film Unit. Filmed in Jordan, the film documents Palestinian protest against the Rogers Plan.

Gharchi Rani is directed by Rajdutt, and stars Appa Sahib Jadhav, Sudhir Kumar and Sulochana Latkar.

Bollywood 1968

Bollywood 1968

Bollywood 1968

Documentary about the german parliamentary building.

Bollywood 1968

Film starring Balkrishna, Rajkumar and Chandrakala

In defending his refusal to be conscripted into the Vietnam War, champion boxer Muhammed Ali defiantly declared: ‘No Vietcong ever called me a nigger, my enemies are white people, not the Vietcong.’ His rebuttal suggested the title of this documentary, which depicts an anti-Vietnam-War rally in New York in 1967.

Claude, a Tennessee moonshiner has been holding out on Jarvis, a big-city gangster, so Jarvis kills Claude and takes his woman, Lorilee, back to the high city with him, and promises her fancy clothes, money and fame for working at his nightclub.

Ranger J. Audobon Woodlore tries to run his national park with efficiency, but one of the bears, Humphrey, manages to continually sabotage operations, as seen in various cartoons taking place at the park.