Cinematic Era: 1978 Vintage

A personal ritual of strength is getting a haircut

At the Nova Esperança wool factory, Maria da Graça stands out, studying for her own efforts.

The once thriving industrial town of Haverhill, Massachusetts on the Merrimack River now resembles, in the words of one of the film's subjects, "a ghost town where you expect to see tumbleweeds come rolling down Main Street." This film examines a dying industrial town and its politicians' search for votes over such issues as municipal spending, rising taxes, the revitalization of depressed areas, and attracting new industry. The film's central event is the 1976 Mayoral election. Election scenes are intercut with comments from Haverhill residents, members of a local foundation, political scientist Frances Fox Piven, the president of the local union, and the shoe manufacturers themselves. The oral history which surrounds the election footage is a reservoir of information about Haverhill's present condition as well as its past.

Three portraits, in relation to the Punk spirit, of Didier Ozil dressed in black, aggressive air, Gabriel Pouget, expressive in his passivity, Stéphane Varinard, puts charcoal on his face to disappear. Superimposed on the faces, the group Marie and the boys, the play of lights inside the Le Palace club in Paris and a country cemetery.

Film by Ana Mendieta, 1978

It narrates the situation of the countryside in Mexico and in particular about agricultural laborers, who move from one region to another.

In May 1974 a group of Mohawk activists reoccupied a part of their ancestral land and proclaimed it Ganienkeh. This abandoned territory was reclaimed by the Mohawks on the basis of a treaty with the State of New York enacted in the late 18th century.

Every year, a ritual known as ida is performed by the Umeda people, who inhabit the dense primary forest of the Waina-Sawanda district of West Sepik, Papua New Guinea. Ida, the central social and cultural drama of the Umeda, is a fertility ritual, in which a dominant theme is the metamorphosis of the cassowaries. An ethnography by anthropologist Alfred Gell, Metamorphosis of the Cassowaries, complements the film.

Meet Tom Johnson and his praying pigs. "Been fooling with them hogs for 35 long years," Johnson says in the film as he rocks on the porch of his modest residence near Bentonia, Mississippi. "It's just an idea that I took up. It's a play thing. And it put me into something that I didn't get out of too easy and so soon." The pigs, taught to stand beside their brimming slop trough with heads bowed while Johnson prayed over their food, dug in with gusto when he finally released them to eat. Johnson died in 1980, but the four minute film is a lasting reminder of his special pig training talents.

Documentary by Hans-Dieter Grabe.

This film is composed of ten films, some of which originally intended for display on three screens at once; the first was Berlino-Milan-Lisboa ; a film about Berlin in the middle of Milan right and left of Lisbon; with three audio tracks, front, and two each coming from a back corner. The other three-screen films had different lengths, one called Autobiography , with pictures of the creator and his parents, and another called Pieds rouges . The film also includes footage recorded in Bath, England, where Luyken once had a studio.

Educational film that deals with proper conduct of army officers.

A critique of the institution of mental health care that questions ‘normal’ viewing habits.

In «The battle of Morgarten» we see how Morgarten – a symbol of freedom – is celebrated and interpreted today. First part of a trilogy on Swiss traditions.

Fake documentary about Seville and its imaginary innovations in urbanism.

1978 Angolan documentary

An exercise critical of the official culture, based on a performance of the Vivencial Group. Scenography in the streets, alongside monuments of Recife.

Branches, leaves, and flowers overlap and mingle. The film closes with a passage from philosopher Zhuang Zhou.

Documentary about a project to find proper shelter and care for abandoned old folk in Polish villages.

Simon’s New Sound (1978, 8 min.) is about a young boy who is searching for a new instrument with which to celebrate Trinidad’s pre-Easter Carnival. He fashions a steel drum from the carefully indented bottom of an oildrum. Poet Opal Palmer is the voice of Simon.

Luka and his wife are transferred in a northern city. In their first trip, their car gets stuck in the snow.

DIAGRAM FILM alternates shots of planes, cars and people walking with comically elaborate moving diagrams of them. And sometimes it reverses itself, as when a group of triangles is replaced by a shot of tepees. The diagrams head off into fantastic Rube Goldberg machine movements, with details undergoing constant transformation.

A pseudo-documentary where three adventurers set out to Konodo Island in Indonesia to find a missing senator's son.

Super8, colour, silent.

"A surrealistic film made with optical printed techniques about a young girl who acts as a guide on a journey aimed at recapturing childhood through the distortion of memory." - The Independent

Animation that illustrates five of Augusto Monterroso's fables.

A Canadian prairie farm family has a tough beginning on their new farm.

Calligrams Woody and Steina Vasulka 4:00 1970 Illuminatin' Sweeney Skip Sweeney 28:38 (ex. 5:00) 1975 Video Weavings Stephen Beck 28:00 1976 Five-Minute Romp Through the IP Dan Sandin 5:00 (ex. 4:00) 1973 Triangle in Front of Square in Front of Circle... Dan Sandin 3:00 1973 Video-Taping Ernie Gusella 5:00 1974 Exquisite Corpse Ernie Gusella 5:00 1978 Einstine Eric Siegel 6:00 1978 General Motors Phil Morton 1:00:00 (ex. 10:00) 1976 Merce by Merce by Paik Nam June Paik 30:00 1975 Crossings and Meetings Ed Emshwiller 27:33 (ex. 4:00) 1974 Complex Wave Forms Ralph Hocking 5:00 (ex. 4:00) 1977 Pictures of the Lost Barbara Buckner 23:00 (ex. 8:00) 1978 Video Locomotion Peer Bode 5:00 1978 Music on Triggering Surfaces Peer Bode 3:00 1978 C-Trend Woody Vasulka 3:00 (ex. 7:00) 1974 Switch! Monitor! Drift! Steina 4:00 1976

1978 Linda Christanell experimental short

A basement apartment , depart from their elongated corridor 5 rooms . The whole apartment is crosslinked by mirrors that function as a monitoring system . Throughout the shoot time I have the camera does not move , she stood there like a dead man , but every corner of the apartment had by this mirror monitor installation constantly in the viewfinder . So the movie starts from the the front door at the farthest part of the apartment and ending with the view on the street, he crosses this Disstanz speak without eimal to turn his head , - . Not as in life through their own motion , but as in cinema, reading , in my head : physically passive. This works by the rise doors and cut off the see way , mirrors are crazy and turn the see way or redirect , until he finally goes in 25 minutes to the door on the street.

In a rolling area of Syria, the villagers live their everyday life, in toil and poverty. Trapped between the hardships of farming, religious and political ideologies, they barely survive. Their children are the only ones that are still full of hope. They imagine their future lives and picture themselves as doctors or engineers. But these are pipe dreams. All they can actually look forward to is farming the land with primitive tools like their parents, getting a menial job in the city or becoming brainwashed soldiers..

TELLING TALES is about the failing marriage of an industrialist and his wife, about the industrialist's wish to sell his company to a colleague, Paul Roberts, and about the terminally ill wife of Paul, Ingrid. It is also about the shop steward organising a strike at Paul's factory that jeopardises the deal with the industrialist, and about the wife of the shop steward, who happens to clean and cook for the industrialist. A network of intertwined tales told in different ways, and for very different motives, by the main protagonists.

Directed by William Raban.

An animated bike named Ike explains the safety hazards of bikes, chanting "I like bikes" as he moves through various settings, then following live-action bike riders. One falls over in the street and is nearly hit by Lisa's parents. Ike then narrates Lisa's interest in bikes through to her teenage years when she gets a car to see if she can be attentive now that she's not using hers as much.

1978 Indian Film

The mythic nature of cowboy masculinity is deconstructed in this scathing montage of re-contextualized sounds and images culled from advertising, television, arcade game footage and other pop culture iconography.

A mad scientist attempts to create a new race of human beings in his backwoods laboratory, add in nazis, disco dancers, and serial killers and hijinks ensue.

Ilyukha the prospector dreams of finding his happiness. In the end, he discovers that it’s not in money, but in kindness and love.

Film starring I.V. Sasi.

This fascinating documentary explores the mysteries behind the Shroud of Turin, which is believed by millions of Christians to be the burial cloth of Jesus. The program features many interviews with scientists, scholars, religious leaders and theologians that have examined and tested the Shroud.

In concert with guest Ray Charles, Gladys Knight & the Pips take a soulful ride through the music that made them legends, performing hits such as "I've Got to Use My Imagination," "Neither One of Us" and the classic "Midnight Train to Georgia." Charles sings "America the Beautiful" and "Georgia on My Mind" as only he can, and a duet of "Hit the Road Jack" proves that genius truly loves company. Backstage interviews take you behind the scenes.

Directed by Adamu Halilu.

Recorded at Germany's Rockpalast a hotbed for 70's and 80's Rock shows hosted the Mothers Finest crew for two packed shows,These two Mother sets from 1978' and 2003 capture a 25yr span of Funk,Rock and Soul from one of the most influential American bands of the last 40yrs. The sets are full of lively pieces that capatures the electrifying excitement and fun the band creates in concert. The two separate sets also define the length of time between the two events as the Rockpalast changed locations and as the band grew older and a few bandmember changes are obvious. The concerts are high powered and the footage is remarkable,Mothers Finest at it's mighty best!!!

A glamorous disco club (hey, it’s the 70’s!) is heisted by a a band of criminals that deal with women trafficking. More then a dozen girls are made prisioner and when they are being taken to be sold, a rival gang try to steal them. A violent war begins between the two gangs.

Floating Free is a 1978 short documentary directed by Jerry Butts featuring images of several of the contested events at the 1977 World Frisbee Championships. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film.

Based on the "Toccata" of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Documentary about the murderer José Luis Cerveto.

The firefighting work of the Lima fire companies.

The traditional martial art known as pelivanstvo is still cultivated in some parts of Macedonia. Perhaps this is one of the reasons for the success of the national wrestlers in the world, who have so far won medals at both the Olympics and world wrestling championships. One of them is Tefik Demiri, who through pelivanstvo has become a multiple state champion in freestyle wrestling.

The short feature film is about the friendship of two schoolmates, which is put to a severe test by the dishonest behavior of one of them.

Film by Michael J. Murphy. Considered lost.