Cinematic Era: 1986 Vintage

Accidentally, as if they had secretly intended to do so, Jonas and Maria meet. They go on a trip together and try to find out what sense there is in living and the road to freedom. Just as accidentally, an unknown man is trailed, hindered and kidnapped. Finally, he fights back and becomes the victim of his own doing. Accident? Fate? Necessity?...

A performance by Buddy Hackett of his adult nightclub act, taped live before an audience at Caesars in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on October 25-26, 1985.

A platoon loses contact with their commanders and finds themselves stuck in the vast forests with no way out. Plagued by despair and the constant sightings of their fallen comrades, the soldiers begin to succumb to ill health and madness.

The story of the mafia, who wants to prevent him, with a journalist who prepared a series about drugs and white woman trafficking in his newspaper.

A woman is attempting to write a script about the district where she lives, but she is frustrated and unable to focus.

Ravel and Colette's fairy ballet choreographed and designed by Jiří Kylián. A seven year-old boy, grumpy and unwilling to do his homework, is scolded by his mother. In an outburst of anger, the young boy takes it out on every object around: a tea pot, a kettle, a book, a clock... until he slumps on an old armchair, worn-out. Suddenly, fantastic events happen. Objects come to life, animals start to chat, and they all plot revenge. Terrified, the young boy calls his mum, but gets no response. The creatures rush at the young boy. However a squirrel, hurt in the battle, is rescued by the child. Full of regrets, the creatures cease to torment the young boy, and forgive him for his past wrongdoings.

Munich Film Festival 1986.

One of Jules Engel's works on the Visual Music 1946-1986 DVD from the Center for Visual Music.

The bar flies prepare for the big day with betting, boozing and banter. But will best man Billy break more than his ma’s heart before the wedding? This award winning drama set in Derry reflects the ordinary ways drinking affects friendships and marriages. It stars Seamus Ball as hapless best man and confirmed bachelor Billy. Described by Alexander Walker as a ‘boyo who tries to drag his marrying pal back from the alter into the drinking circle’s celibacy’. What will happen as Billy stirs up the marital troubles, misunderstandings and regrets that brew in the tension between the pull of the pub and the plea to come home?

An inventive, humourous , and sometimes biting recombination of the staples of the ‘nature documentary’, including pompous music and voice-over and ground’s-eye-view photography. A documentary on the life of the lowly lemming takes on new and different meaning.

An experimental film about two women--one urban, another rural. They appear watching from windows, going about their daily tasks. Both are waiting, for what?

Through interviews with survivors of sexual abuse, parents, social workers, community activists, and abusers thmselves, this piece explores the feelings and experiences of sexually abused children and their families.

Reflections in fish tanks in the windows of restaurants in Chinatown, San Francisco, accompanied by sounds of foghorns, passers-by, dining and breaking waves. Shot on Super 8, the images oscillate between abstraction, documentary portrait and poetry, with the fish coming in and out of focus, whilst the sound provides a grounding in the setting of San Francisco’s harbour and nearby Chinatown.

About the miserable reality of farmers. Directors are arrested for illegal screening. One of the legendary films that was oppressed by the age of repression.

America's first black, Jewish and female president must save the nation from a smelly and lethal threat.

Thai vampire movie.

While on vacation, a man takes an excursion to an unfamiliar neighbouring country. There, in the alpine confinement, he finds an ideal echo for the rage he had brought with him: rage towards the mountains, civilisation and mentality. At times, a sense of glee even surfaces with this unbridled rage. He needs these forays into the mountains. He uses his anger to get to the bottom of his discomfort.

A man looks into the camera.

This film was constructed using the so-called “photo-finish” technique employed in sporting events. The same principle was applied, precisely, to the motion picture camera. The subjects are explored and self-explored using a thin slit arranged horizontally halfway along the aperture plate as they enter the motion picture camera itself. The images then are formed as an extremely dense series of lines as in a primitive video screen, such as the Nipkow. The cinematic rhythms of the film vary with the accelerations and decelerations imposed beyond the synchronism between movie camera and subject: with motion from top to bottom, or else with the movie camera lying sideways, (in that case the line is vertical) then, from left to right and vice versa. Of course without a shutter or claw [in the camera]. This filmic technique is well known in scientific cinematography, and it is this very combination that I most urgently desired to encompass in my graphic compositional concerns.

Harun Farocki sits down with Vilém Flusser to discuss the front page of the German tabloid newspaper Bild Zeitung.

Film with a soundtrack featuring the music of S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and S. Janaki

A film about haircuts, clothes and image/sound relationships. - J.S.

A short film focusing on the lives and problems of the elderly in Poland circa 1986.

José Luis Guerín's great short film from 1986.

A documentary about the life of the greatest Brazilian boxer ever, Eder Jofre, who has been Bantamweight and Featherweight world champion. The film mixes footage of his fights and testimonies.

A bicycle ride through the streets of Shanghai between spring and summer 1984, from the suburbs to the center of the city.

Universal Hotel combines objective and subjective elements. In it, Thompson chronicles his research into experiments by Dr. Sigmund Rascher at Dachau in 1942, in which he nearly froze a Polish prisoner and then got a German prostitute to warm him up; Thompson uses photographs from archives in six countries and recounts a subjective dream set in what he calls the Universal Hotel.

Stalingrad, 1942: just as he is complaining about the "blockheads" who are in control, a German named Herbert gets hit. Fast forward forty years after the war to Munich's Hofgarten, where in front of the patched-up ruins of the Army Museum, Herbert reappears, mistakenly believing he is still in Stalingrad, which the victorious Germans have destroyed and rebuilt in the image of Munich.

Big Country Live 1986

تتناول السهرة قصة اجتماعية إنسانية بلمسة كوميدية، تركز على حياة المهمشين في المجتمع وطموحاتهم البسيطة التي تصطدم بالواقع المعقد. يُعرف العمل بأدائه التمثيلي العالي، خاصة في تجسيد شخصية الشاب ذو الاحتياجات الخاصة (الذي أداه محمد حسين عبد الرحيم) وعلاقته بمحيطه. The show presents a social and human story with a comedic touch, focusing on the lives of marginalized members of society and their simple aspirations that clash with complex realities. The production is known for its high-caliber acting, particularly in the portrayal of the young man with special needs (played by Mohamed Hussein Abdel Rahim) and his relationships with those around him.

A Life is about a man who lives by facing death.

The story is about how to drive a car even if your wife is sitting next to you, complaining endlessly, and expressing 'illegal' desires.

During the socialist society, the mentality of using people in the agricultural sector as brothers, and then, disregarding the love of young people, is the ancient way of marrying off criticized what happened.

Short documentary about the House Music movement in Chicago, featuring DJ, Frankie Knuckles and music group, JM Silk. This is filmed at their record release party at the Powerhouse Nightclub in Chicago in 1986.

Footage of Manhattan.

Bergner was one of the first contemporary artists to depict the plight of urban Aboriginal people and parallel their dispossession with that of European Jews.

Writes Viola: "Sodium Vapor was recorded over a period of several weeks in the hours between one and five in the morning on the streets of an industrial area in lower Manhattan. The title derives from an interest in the particular qualities of sodium vapor street lighting — its characteristic color temperature, the shadows it casts, and the eerie quality it seems to impart to the objects it illuminates. The essence of the work is the spell which the hour has over the physical spaces of the streets in the early morning. There is always the unseen presence of the large number of people surrounding you, most of them sleeping; the camera is awake in their dreamtime. The recording of these locations in the middle of the night rather than in daylight represents a transformation — like figure/ground reversal — of these physical spaces from the familiar thoughts and activities of the day to the nighttime shadows of emptiness and obscurity."

The violent text resonates with the harsh energy of the music videos—for instance Powietrza (More Air), 1986, in which the band frantically cries for oxygen in then politically oppressive Poland. Robakowski’s recurrent appearance in his own videos could easily be seen as narcissistic, but his collaboration with Mowska demonstrates where his allegiances lie—with the rebellious spirits.

The film tells about the musicians of the Zapyškis town brass band.

Experimental work by Isao Yamada (Color, 16mm).

Mattress dealer Moses Köhler, plagued by customer complaints of insomnia, skips early to a Cologne fair to study sleep habits. Concluding that modern life itself causes sleeplessness, he conceives the “disposable bed,” becoming the unlikely prophet of his own dream-induced nightmare.

At the center of the film is the character of Asan, a collective farm foreman. Asan is a principled man who makes many enemies among the lazy, drunkards, and dishonest people. As a result of these rumors, Asan is dismissed from his position, but this does not break him. He continues to act according to his conscience.

My mother lights 80 candles and becomes visible. When I set to work, it turned into an intense confrontation between mother and son. I finally learned the unvarnished story of my mother's life and began to understand why we both became who we are. I interwove the film image with two layers of sound: the Suite in C minor for violoncello, Bach, and dialogical texts spoken by mother and son, based on our conversations and describing how she gave birth to her seven children during the years of Hitler's fascism. I will continue to work on my mother's biography.

A lump of clay first tries to take the form of the objects he sees, but finally realizes that it is best to be himself.

A documentary portrait of Odadaa!, a remarkable drumming and dance troupe from Ghana West Africa, in the early years of their residence in the United States. Odadaa! was formed by master drummer, cultural interpreter, and NEA Heritage Award winner Yacub Addy in the early 1980s when he brought over a number of renowned musicians and dancers from Ghana to perform the traditional music and dances of the Ga and other Ghanaian peoples. Odadaa! grew in size, impact and professionalism over the many years following this film though maintained its traditional character.

Prominent heart surgeon Zbigniew Religa talks about his fears and hopes he had towards this operation, which was the first one successful heart transplant in Poland, made under his supervision. The doctor talks with great respect and affection about his patients and colleagues.

A humorous depiction of the consequences of arriving late to work.

Documentary about a woman writer.

Documentary film about Saratov.