Cinematic Era: 1983 Vintage

Headline Today: Guatemala is a war documentary. Two American journalists: Allan Nairn and Jean-Marie Simon explore the internal armed conflict in Guatemala in 1982. After General Efraín Ríos Montt comes to power the few news about Guatemala that appear in the United States' media are apparently positive. The major American media advertises the image of Ríos Montt as a “born again Christian” with a mission to pacify Guatemala. Nothing is further from reality. The Reagan Republican administration hides from Americans the war aid that his administration continues to provide to the Guatemalan army, despite the explicit congressional ban. The international media remains silent about the dimensions of the war in Guatemala while Ríos Montt, with the approval of the local oligarchy, leads for 18 months the largest number of atrocities and human rights violations against the civilian population.

Directed by Paul Driessen.

An eccentric girl named Euis is betrothed by her parents to a young man who is the son of a landowner. Things turn out differently, as Euis is more interested in an equally eccentric motorcycle taxi driver named Beno. The failure of the landlord's son's love resulted in Euis and Beno having to pay losses and pay their debts. Of course, this makes it difficult for them. Fortunately, Grandpa Lihun, Euis's grandfather, appears, whom she hasn't seen in a dozen years. Grandpa Lihun was the one who paid all the losses and debts of Euis' family. Grandpa Lihun was suddenly rich because he had just sold his land. Beno and Euis got married the next day.

A Tahiti is a rugged, forest-clad South Pacific island, surrounded by coral reefs. Its traditional Polynesian way of life has been swamped over the years by foreign influences, particularly that of France. However, the long-awaited re-emergence of traditional culture is the focus of this documentary. We look at some of the people responsible for the cultural revival and their arts including the building of a double hulled canoe, the art of full body tattooing and the fierce dance competitions at the high point of celebration of Polynesian culture, the Tiurai Festival.

Ronald Reagan had been elected US president in 1981, and began the long unwinding of post-war progressive economic and social policy awaited by the American ruling class, but which had produced social welfare and full employment for the 50’s and into the 60’s when a combination of the cost of the Vietnam war and the Arab oil shock produced an economic crash. Initiating a program of de-regulation of industry, and of finance capital, and an aggressive anti-union assault, he began the process of offshoring, globalised production and finance, and the beginnings of the financialisation of capital and its oligarchisation that we now face. At the time we were unaware of the extent to which this would polarise and destroy and feudalise the society we were in but we could see the beginnings of the rollback and the destruction.

This documentary follows the daily life of a section of the police station of the fifth "arrondissement" (district) of Paris.

In this work, I visited a religious scholar, Shinichi Nakazawa, with the question, "What does 'gazing' mean to people? At the time, he was interested in Japanese ethnic religious beliefs by going to winter festivals, etc., and thought that a view of life as a series of rebirths was cultivated on the basis of a life based on farming. Here, I believe that "looking" provides an opportunity for the mind to be reborn. Created in 1983. The artist was 48 years old. (Suzuki Shiroyasu).

La Fanciulla del West, Puccini's penultimate opera is based on a play by David Belasco set at the height of the notorious California gold rush. The composer took three years to complete the work, which, for him, marked a new stylish departure. With more modern harmonic combinations and local melodies, Puccini pieced together a far larger canvas than anything he had tackled before. In this recording, Piero Faggioni's highly detailed staging is matched by Ken Adam's superbly atmospheric sets. Carol Neblett sings the role of Minnie "The Girl of the Gold West," Placido Domingo is as ignitable as ever in the role of Dick Johnson, alias the bandit, Ramirez, and Silvano Carroli sings the sinister sheriff, Jack Rance. Conducted by Nello Santi.

Adopting its title from a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, What’s Out Tonight Is Lost is an elegiac film sifting through the unrecoverable. The film is a reflecting pool where vision breaks up. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2010.

On December 31, 1980, between England and the mainland, two anonymous passengers were fouled by the British and Belgian authorities and found themselves prisoners on board the car ferry connecting the two frontiers.

Documentary which examines the work of the GPO Film Unit in its fiftieth year. Co-produced by The Post Office and Arena.

A short documentary about gospel recording artists Reba Rambo and her husband Dony McGuire, featuring clips of performances of various songs and interviews with the couple.

Made 1965 / 1983 With Kenneth King and Phoebe Neville. "Kenneth King's CUP/SAUCER/TWO DANCERS/RADIO (1964) is an essay in Pop Art style, in which all the elements listed in the title have equal emphasis. Phoebe Neville, dressed in bra, girdle, curlers, and toe shoes, marches across the floor on pointe with a radio clasped to her ear. King, dressed in undershirt and shorts and a black tie, does calisthenics. Both spill colored solutions from the coffee cup all over themselves, embrace one another emotionlessly, and mechanically caress their own bodies, while rock and roll songs comment ironically on the action and a taped voice explains the dance's structure. Mekas, recording a 1965 performance of this key postmodern dance, has translated it into an extraordinary film ..." -- Sally Banes, Village Voice, Oct. 18, 1983.

A selection of Survival Research Laboratories early performances, a must for those interested in how such an enterprise ever got started in the first place.

Three animators collaborate on a film.

A young journalist comes across interesting report material: talented marine engineer Maria died while on duty. Her story turns out to be quite a puzzle though - people who knew her are not willing to share much. Trying to make them speak, the journalist presents himself as her son. He hopes to dig up the truth about her and spares no effort, ending up at the bureau for investigation. The report he's writing never gets published but his belief system certainly gets challenged.

A cognitive puppet animation for children of the wondrous and harmonic world of bees in the form of a fairy-tale.

North Korea Animation that teaches the importance of learning Geometry.

The title refers to the legacy of Archbishop Oscar Romero who was assassinated in his cathedral in March 1980.

This 1983 short film by Jay Woelfel served as the inspiration for his 1988 low-budget cult classic, Beyond Dream's Door.

The action takes place in a small town situated between a river with a romantic past and a cement plant with an industrial future, which is attracting new workers. Some of them go to live with the good-hearted Old Vangel. These are all people who have lived through many frustrations and made bad names for them. Two of them arrive straight from prison. It appears that it is a failure that has taught them to value freedom, to yield easily to pleasures of life and to temptation. The dramatic effect of the film is felt when this happy band goes face to face with the practical things of life and the prejudices of the people around them. They also clash with several people in small town whose life is passed uneventfully and who have working without looking around lest evil should lead them astray and destroy their property. The filmmakers examine two attitudes to life, each imperfect in its own way, thus making us consider the possible ways of achieving harmony.

Directed by Kazi Nurul Haque.

Second in the River series. Piano tuner Eiko visits a town on the banks of the Guadalquivir River in Andalusia, Spain. In the dazzling light, she interacts with the people of Andalusia—a master guitar maker, a cave excavator, and a flamenco prodigy—and spends a summer surrounded by the sounds they create.

A story of bravery and heroism during Japanese invasion and post Japanese era.

A physical education student is deemed too disruptive to the studious atmosphere of his lodgings and is kicked out forcing him to stay at his friend's apartment

The story is of a veteran hussar in the Austrian army in the first half of the 19th century who sits in the village inn regaling his listeners with fantastic tales of heroism

a Leszek Komorowski Cartoon

With the Nazi occupation of Poland, several children in a village there become very unhappy and then get in deep trouble for a drawing of the Nazi Führer hanged from a tree.

A portrait about the jazz musician Joao Aragao.

Quick montage of four sequences: a white tarpaulin standing out against the blue sky, in the wind, interlaced with a group of children and African dancers to the rhythm of drums, a procession of bridesmaids from an Asian wedding, and me doing my hair in close-up. These shots follow each other according to a repetition of a few images.

Old friends, former front—line soldiers, suddenly quarreled in earnest: Peter Sorbu, the head of the carpet factory construction, quite sincerely believes that the factory should be built first, and the town for workers is the second thing; architect Anton Grecu also sincerely does not understand how people will fulfill the plan if they have nowhere to live, and in the end defends the priority construction of the town.

Parista's household relationship with his wife Rindayu, experienced problems because his wife often had miscarriages. After knowing the cause, because of rough sex, Parista was able to restrain herself. When Rindayu was pregnant, Rindayu found out that her husband was having an affair, Rindayu was determined to kill her husband's lover.

Experimental short film by Josephine Massarella

Claymation adaptation of Washington Irving's 1824 short story about a miser who makes a bargain with the devil, only to find he cannot worm his way out of it after all. Winner of the 1983 Young People's Film and Video Festival in Portland, Oregon. Filmmakers were high school students for entirety of the production. Filmed in Super-8mm, the audio was recorded live on two tracks on the film.

Canadian poet Earle Birney indulges his love of trains in this performance of his sound poem To Swindon from London by Britrail. In fluent "trainish," he interprets the experience of excursions by rail. Imagination sparked by the rhythm of wheels and the clink of couplings, Birney hums, hisses and hoots his way through archival footage of vintage trains and the English countryside. A must for language, animation and train buffs.

Short film by Dagmar Knöpfel.

The play tells of three brothers: Abbas I, Abbas II and Abbas III, where Abbas I accuses Abbas III of madness in order to be able to seize his inheritance from the land he owns, but the appearance of Abbas II confuses all the plans of Abbas I.

Experimental film about a train ride. The carriage window becomes a screen, the landscape a mood, the mood a landscape.

Documentary about the punk began in Rio de Janeiro, the first punk band: Coquetel Molotov. The band Coquetel Molotov came in 1981 in Rio de Janeiro, in the suburbs, in the neighborhood of Meier, most of the members were students and skaters the Campo Grande rink and Tatu and Lúcio Flávio as members, some time later, both conquer the national and international championships skate. Two other components were Cesar and Omar Nine. The Brazil was at that time a critical political situation and undefined, with many social changes; Punk came as a cry for freedom among young people with no future prospects, the periphery, the suburbs, the megalopolis, against a crushing system with huge social differences, the motto of the youth of that time was the "Do It Yourself".

From ancient Chinese sculpture to the modern Broadway stage, cats have long been a source of inspiration for artists. This unusual film juxtaposes famous depictions of cats from the Museum's collection with their contemporary counterparts. Curators and staff muse on our feline friends' legendary stubbornness and implacable curiosity, their endless capacity for mischief, and ultimately how they have held our attention for millennia.

A film about problems in providing the population with housing that meets their needs. Affected citizens and representatives of the responsible state institutions give their views.

In the middle of a secluded and peaceful deep mountain and old forest, a beautiful Bai girl holds a sweet spring for a drink, and sometimes plays with the birds in a friendly manner. At this moment, she saw a deer panicking, followed by a hideous falcon.

Documents Aboriginal protest following the death in custody of Eddie Murray in Wee Waa in 1981, and of Pat in 1983 along with rallies during the inquest into his death.

Film by Michael Rudnick