Cinematic Era: 1977 Vintage

1977 video by Brazilian aritst Regina Silveira shot on VHS.

Most of Hovsepian’s films are recordings of simple, ordinary, seemingly meaningless human actions, such as yawning, scratching or thinking. His approach is raw, direct and often humorous. As such, some of the actions verge on the absurd or are presented in an exaggerated way. By focusing on the basic actions of daily life, the artist searches for an estranged identity beyond the sphere of social or political life.

Illustrates the effects of hereditary muscle degeneration disease on a family.

Not to be confused with the Alfred Hitchcock film, this underground film by Andy Sichel was screened at the 1977 Hyères Film Festival.

The story of the crofters who live on the island of North Uist - the reality of their relationship with the land, the elements, the wildlife and each other. Finlay J. Macdonald, an islander, narrates the story, interspersing legend and superstition with fact.

This film juxtaposes extreme close-up film of the activity of ants in the tunnels of an ant farm with a narration by a middle-aged, middle-American male discussing the relation between race riots and the positions of the planets. The narration derives from found tapes I’d discovered in a thrift store that had been recorded by a man named Archie Olson, speaking to his daughter in Minnesota. In other scenes, texts from Joan of Arc and Eldridge Cleaver, patterns of feathers and seeds falling, Harry Partch percussion music, and imagery of multiplying bacteria supply a view of the American political-cultural landscape that continually shifts from the macrocosmic to microcosmic and from practical and conversational to the occult and religious.

Tiny details of everyday indoors and out, over a year – moon reflected on rosebowl, soughing leaf patterns at sunset on pale wall, hoe and shovel resting at corn’s feet, building excavation across the street, Adam’s apple gulping in sunlight, breakfast dishes & pantry secrets, hands folded on lap, window sill meditation of cat...: a home-movie diary.

Black and white UCLA Student Film, Preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. A social drama featuring a young Chicano man who moves unevenly between the world of a Eastside Los Angeles gang and his private home with his mother. The film is rooted in a distinctive sense of place in East Los Angeles locations and Chicano fashion, through an Italian neorealist lens.

Visit to the zoo “Parque de Las Leyendas” where the voice-over of the veterinarian in charge of the park gives explanations of the care and attention of the animals.

A look at life in the UK, focused on the Newton family of Leeds and taking in other areas of the UK including the government in London, the historic city of York and holidays in the Lake District and the popular tourist spots of Scotland.

Uncompleted 60 minute film starring Ondine and Peggy Gormley. Pope Ondine rages and pontificates on Queer life, the hopelessness of heterosexualism, and the importance of having a good hairdo.

Argentine politics between 1955 and 1976.

Rusty is the scourge of his his 6th grade class. He plays practical jokes on and constantly gets into fights with other kids, but he is especially perturbed because he has been dubbed "the strikeout king" by other members of the baseball team (Rusty is shorter in stature than the other kids). One day, Rusty's friend Janie is in the library and sees him trying to study for a math test; Janie tells Rusty not to compare himself to her and if he allows Jesus to come into his life, things might take a turn for the better. Rusty thumbs his nose at that advice and continues to repudiate it; however, a few days later, after he pulls a prank on Janie with dangerous consequences, Rusty begins to seriously reflect on what Janie said, and finally asks Jesus to come into his life and help him.

Examines the vastness of media and its effect on daily life. Explains that since the invention of the printing press, the availability of information has expanded rapidly.

In 1965, the British psychiatrist R.D. founded Laing Philadelphia Association in London, whose main purpose was to establish therapeutic refuges for people in mental crisis, however without using the coercive methods of established psychiatry. The film shows glimpses of the diversity of activities that are currently produced by the organization, with the main emphasis on a "birthing workshop" led by Laing himself.

Venezuelan television horror movie.

Illustrations (in the area of Crete) of 14 poems by seven modern Greek poets: Cavafy, Ritsos, Seferis, Sikelianos, Prevelakis, Kazantzakis, Christodoulou.

Documentary short about the construction of a subway bridge in Vienna.

Documentary short about the construction of a subway tunnel in Vienna, using a tunnelling shield.

Documentary short about the construction of a subway tunnel in Vienna, using the cut-and-cover method.

Hands (For the Eye, the Hand of My Body Draws My Portrait) 1977 is a black and white silent film lasting 7 minutes and 30 seconds. The work exists in an edition of 5, of which this copy is number 2, and 2 artist’s proofs. It was originally shot on 8mm film and transferred to DVD more recently. The camera was operated by fellow Romanian artist Ion Grigorescu (born 1945), with whom Bratescu frequently collaborated. In the film the artist’s hands, filmed from her eye level, are performing various movements and activities above her drawing board. The sequence starts with her playing with different objects on the desk, holding a cigarette, removing a wedding ring. The artist subsequently switches to drawing lines on her palms with a black marker and finally tracing the contours of both her hands on a piece of paper.

the first procedural computer animated short film.

Shows how experiments with ducklings led to the concept of imprinting as a link between instinctive and learned behavior.

A short film about Palestinian artist Ibrahim Ghannam. A production of the Palestine Cinema Institute (PCI).

A film by Franklin Miller

A short film by Iván Zulueta.

In Space Time Structures the evershifting fields of line and shape created illusionistic depth which denied the planar surface of the movie screen. Here was a pocket of space floating in the dark of the cinema, energised by fragments of strobing, flickering light, organised as a multiplicity of coloured bands, shapes and veils.

A man is tempted with the finer things in life.

1977 DCI World Championships held in Denver, CO on August 19, 1977 1. Blue Devils (1st Place 92.05) 2. Phantom Regiment (2nd Place 90.30) 3. Santa Clara Vanguard (3rd Place 89.85) 4. 27th Lancers (4th Place 87.45) 5. Madison Scouts (5th Place 87.30) 6. Blue Stars (6th Place 84.30) 7. Cavaliers (7th Place 83.00) 8. Capitol Freelancers (8th Place Tie 82.40) 9. Seneca Optimists (8th Place Tie 82.40) 10. Kilties (10th Place 81.80) 11. Crossmen (11th Place 81.30) 12. Garfield Cadets (12th Place 78.15)

A unique blend of animation, live-action, and still photography, In Transit: The Chinese in California documents the history and experience of Chinese Americans on the West Coast from the 19th to mid-20th century. Featuring powerful narrative performances, this film offers an insight and perspective into Asian American history that was not often discussed in the mainstream at the time the film was made.

Documentary about the extraction and manufacture of charcoal, in Pompeu, Minas Gerais, focusing on charcoal burners in action, their lives, difficulties, relationships with bosses and the work carried out in a medieval process.

A monodrama featuring Montenegrin village woman.

Four integrative short films for a multimedia theatre play.

Short graduation film inspired by Anaïs Nin's private manuscript diary and Antonin Artaud's "Letters From Rodez".

The eight-man rowing team is preparing for the next competition.

Images on a text by Per Jakez Helias

Carolina, Vincenzo and I duplicate our reflection an endless number of times, as if one were mirrored in the other. Material time and psychological time blend in an exhausting oriental repetition of gestures.

Four speeds in writing associated to four physical movements that become louder and louder. The word returns to gestures and the body to survive. The real time of screen-writing makes the time of poetic action coincide with the time of the reader, reflecting the biological rythm of life into the experience of language and writing.

"In 1977 I left for a solitary journey from the Venetian countryside. My home is the car. The camera is my eye. The journey is completed but only the beginning of the planned film remains." (M.S.)

When Japan is flooded by Western civilization... or the invader invaded.

A drop of water emerging from a small brass valve is magnified by a video camera and projected on a large screen. The close-up image reveals that the viewer and part of the room where they stand are visible inside each forming drop.

This color documentary reports on young Chilean pioneers in the capital of the GDR. We experience the development of their pioneer newspaper from the first ideas to the printed new edition. Pictures by the Chilean painter César Olhagaray depict the struggle for freedom and the hopes of the Chileans, accompanied by excerpts from Pablo Neruda's "The Great Song" (Canto General).

A film about scientific research on the glacier Vatnajökull with excerpts from films taken on the glacier by various film makers in the past.

The 1977 animation Legokaupunki is the earliest known brickfilm filmed in Finland and one of the earliest known brickfilms in general. The brickfilm was shot on 8mm film using a French camera called a CAMEX 8 Cellule Reflex.

Documents the daily life struggle for survival by tens of thousands of rural Turkish immigrants who make their home in 1 Mayis Mahalllesi, a squatter's shanty-town on the outskirts of Istanbul, and their march on Istanbul to prevent the government from demolishing their home. (parahrapsed from Kathleen Modrowski) Işıtan’s documentary displays the conflict between the neighborhood residents and the police, with graphic images of violence. It uses a voice-over narration with a dramatic tone describing the events and Turkish folk singer Hakkı Bulut’s song—Gecekondu [Shantytown] (1978). The end of the film declares that it is dedicated to Hasan Kızılkaya murdered on September 2, 1978. It is highly likely that Işıtan’s film is the only surviving film of the People’s Cinema Group. (via the Amateur Cinema Project)

16mm film by Wyndham Wise.

Produced without camera input, this intense electronic landscape transports the viewer into a world that is an abstract study in machine-generated imagery. Produced at the Experimental Television Center.

An autobiographical film about my destiny, my love of San Francisco, and life here; it is an effort to explore and translate into film my various perceptions, emotions, and experiences.

Using performance as a means of personal transformation and catharsis, Mitchell’s Death mourns the death of Montano’s ex-husband. Every detail of her story, from the telephone call announcing the tragedy, to visiting the body, is chanted by Montano as her face, pierced by acupuncture needles, slowly comes into focus then goes out again. The chanting is reminiscent of Buddhist texts, while the needles signify the pain that is necessary for healing and understanding.