Cinematic Era: 1997 Vintage

representing the new era of snow skiing: Raw, Powerful, Aggressive, bordering on reckless abandon. Controlled only by a State of Mind.

The titular Dr. Benderfax is an esteemed researcher (read: mad scientist) willing to go the extra mile for his experiments investigating a rare psychic phenomenon known as the “Telefaximial Field.” Unfortunately for the good doctor and his lovely assistant Nurse Clench, many of the “volunteers” end up in the morgue. Actually on brief reflection, it’s probably more unfortunate for the patients. After some finagling the medical duo end up in a local nuthouse and use this fresh batch of patients to further their research. Just as they’re on the verge of a major breakthrough, in saunters Dr. Andrew… Fresh out of college in 1992 Tom Hosler decided to make his “first and only feature script worthy of production.” Armed with a savings account and several credit cards, the film was shot over the course of many weekends. After multiple years of post-production, the film finally saw the light of day in 1997.

It’s been 16 years, and finally the Diary ends, an unintended ending that visits familiar territory.

Absorb these images, “breathing slowly, quietly, and very calmly. Sinking softly, silently…” Drift into a relaxing reverie.

The waters of the Atlantic brought the slaves from Africa to Brazil, their bodies in chains but their souls inexorably tied to mother Africa. This Brazilian- made film takes us to both shores, to show how spiritual life, dance and song came with the captive people and took root in the new soil. Among the many traditions were the language and gods of Yoruba and Jejes from the Republic of Benin. When a group of freed slaves returned to Africa to rediscover their roots they were looked upon as outsiders. They became tradespeople - tailors, accountants and builders- and they actually brought Portuguese culture to Africa. Today, when Brazilians revisit Africa, they teach the Africans the culture that these descendants of slaves keep alive in Brazil. The documentary is a testimony to some of the ironies of the diaspora.

A creation myth made in melted wax. Technique: Human body parts molded in silicone, cast in colored wax, melted with a blowtorch, and shot in reverse.

This award-winning documentary traces the life of independent-film mogul Earl Owensby, from poverty-stricken childhood to becoming a millionaire several times over.

Lured to Western Australia by the promise of a new life in a land of milk and honey, British Group Settlers endured untold hardship and disappointment in the years following the First World War. For many Britons the end of the First World War brought a sigh of relief and a period of optimism. However, this optimism quickly faded as thousands of ex-servicemen and unskilled civilians swelled the queues of Britain’s Labour Exchanges to form part of a growing underclass of unemployed.

Images from an aerial tram leaving Manhattan are followed by images of a nearly static bird, of bugs fighting, and of light bending as it passes through glass. Near the film's end the tram lands in Manhattan, as if it had reversed direction; as in all of Murray's films, the images and the editing can pull several ways at once. There are no absolutes, and even the light by which we see is altered by the material it passes through. – Fred Camper

Chantal Akerman reads a script detailing the woes that befell her on the day she thought about "The Future of Cinema". The camera continuously rotates 360 degrees around her apartment as she rereads the script at an exponentially increasing speed. At its heart, an homage to Godard.

Fly on the wall documentary following The Badloves recording and touring their second album The Holy Roadside.

King Diamond at Vega, Copenhagen, Denmark 01) Out from the Asylumn 02) Welcome Home 03) The Invisible Guests 04) Sleepless Nights 05) The Spider`s Lullabye 06) Eye of the Witch 07) The Trial (Chambre Ardente) 08) The Graveyard 09) Waiting 10) Meet Me at Midnight 11) Trick or Treat 12) Up from the Grave 13) Abigail 14) Halloween 15) Cremation

Shot in black and white and filmed in the Samoan language, Sima Urale's debut short film was the first film by a Samoan woman director. O Tamaiti is the story of a young boy forced to play parent in devastating circumstances. According to NZ On Screen, "O Tamaiti marked a powerful debut, winning an impressive trolley of awards, including best short at the Venice Film Festival, Best NZ Short, and another at the Chicago Film Festival".

Ironic movie imbued with humanistic over-excitement about the contacts with extraterrestrial civilizations. The film’s name Kobrin took from Hegel’s «Philosophy of Religion», but in his film work Kobrin granted the ability to speak to the «kitchen» philosopher – Semen Semenovitch.

This film takes a stark look at the present efforts and problems associated with the location and observation of possible life-threatening collisions by comets and asteroids, as well as plans humankind many eventually have to have for its protection.

Directed by Wa'hah El-Raahib.

A portrait of a Palestinian-Israeli author – prominent in modern Arabic literature – during the last weeks of his life. Habibi, a resident of Nazareth, was an MP for the Israel Communist Party for nineteen years and an Israel Prize for Literature laureate. This travelogue confronts Habibi at significant places in his life: Haifa, Jerusalem and Acre (important for his homecoming after 1948). The title echoes the memorial words on his tombstone in Haifa.

A young man, on a tumultuous path of self destruction, must fight to overcome his personal demons in search for higher ground.

Short film starring Mónica Bardem, Pilar Bardem, Txema Blasco .

On the verge of the election, the director Avi Mograbi aims to make a documentary on the most maligned Israeli politician, Arik Sharon. Against all his prediction, Mograbi discovers that Sharon is friendly and welcoming, completely different from the man who was thought to be...

Short film by Richard Hamilton commissioned by BBC Channel 4 as part of the 'TV Sculpture' programme. Hamilton reexamines a film he shot of his 1957 exhibition with Victor Pasmore titled 'an Exhibit'. The work reflects Hamilton's interest in television as a sculptural object. Premiered 20 September 1997.

Weathered Secrets traces the development of barns as an indispensible element of the rural economy, examining the role barns have played in the many facets of rural life.

To some, the Shroud of Turin is a sacred artifact; to others, it's a fraud. Even if it is not the actual burial shroud of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, it is a powerful representation of one of the most dramatic days in history.

El día, la noche y los muertos is an award-winning documentary about Mexico’s Day of the Dead Festival.

The Best Snowboarding of 1997

From the bridges of Porto to its estuary, two men are paying tribute to the elegant Douro River. Through Luís de Camões and Prince Henry the Navigator, through its Viking ships and dizzying bridges, the Douro is a great witness to the history and culture of Portugal. Jean Rouch and Manoel de Oliveira are walking alongside while reciting a poem written by de Oliveira himself. During their walk, they reflect upon documentary-making, the charm of the river, and what it represents to them.

The Vietnam War and the helicopter, the two go hand in hand. The story of how the helicopter revolutionised how war was carried out and the enduring images of the conflict in Vietnam.

The Rolling Stones - Live at TWA Dome, St Louis, MO 1997 Recorded at TWA Dome, St Louis, MO on 12th December1997 Tracklisting: 01 Intro 02 Satisfaction 03 Let's Spend the Night Together 04 Flip the Switch 05 Gimme Shelter 06 Wild Horses (with Dave Matthews) 07 Anybody Seen My Baby 08 Saint of Me 09 Corina Corina (with Taj Mahal) 10 Out of Control 11 Waiting on a Friend 12 Miss You 13 All About You 14 I Wanna Hold You 15 It's Only Rock'n'Roll 16 The Last Time 17 Like a Rolling Stone 18 Sympathy for the Devil 19 Tumbling Dice 20 Honky Tonk Women 21 Start Me Up 22 Jumping Jack Flash 23 You Can't Always Get What You Want 24 Brown Sugar

A man in a decaying room looks at an old photograph of himself and tries to recreate the happiness he once felt.

Seven days in the life of Lloyd and his self-mutilating misadventures.

Jenny & Jenny meet every day. Jenny & Jenny talk every day. They write to each other. They both have a broken heart and joy. They are cousins. They are 17. They live in Bat-Yam.The movie follows one summer in the life of Jenny & Jenny.

The film follows an unnamed man who spirals into paranoia after obtaining a mysterious handgun, suspecting everyone around him of plotting against him.

Erotic lesbian vampires are out to have some fun and drink some blood from young willing victims.

Daijiro Akagi, a prodigal son who has been out of touch for three years, turns up at his father’s first anniversary memorial service and declares, ‘I’m going to buy Tsutenkaku and turn it into the Akagi family mausoleum.’ However, with no source of funds, he enlists the help of his younger brother, Kojiro—a man of cunning but little else—to raise the money. Their plan progresses steadily, but…

In one of New York's toughest areas, the world's first black volunteer ambulance association (the Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps, or "Bed-Stuy Vollies") struggles on a shoestring budget to serve a neglected neighborhood.

Rapture is a short film about one man's fixation on an ideal and his ineffective attempts at replicating this ideal in his own disturbed and polluted mind. Rapture's quiet visuals are complemented by an inventive and disquieting sound treatment.

The story of a man and a woman who dance through walls and partitions in a city made of cells, boxes, rooms, and recesses that are explored from the inside, layer after layer. It is the story of a vision, which at times is unique and coherent, and other times gears down, leaving one eye after another in every room of the city. Still, beyond the explosive transformation of bodies, identities, forms, places, and glances, the sinuous choreography of the human couple remains in the spectator’s mind, one and primeval.

On the basis of "Notes from the escape of Edmund K. (policeman)" and archival photos, the director reconstructed the "raid" in the Kielce-Katyn area in September 1939. The family of a policeman, along with a column of fugitives, loses their luggage, hopes and illusions along the way.

The impact of Andres Caicedo words and stories on the gangs of the colony of San Fernando (Cali) as told by one of his members: The Angel of the Swamp.

The point of departure for this discussion is the question of whether the collapse of the Soviet Union is dramatic material. Müller answers with this Brechtian sentence: "Oil resists the five acts." He describes how difficult it is to make a dramatic adaptation of structures or massive processes that are not bound to biographies.

This video addresses the complex and rich cultural history inherited by the children of immigrants. While official History is often presented as a single truth, "truth" is multi-layered and multi-valent. Through a layering of stories from Italian immigrants, images from Super 8 family films, and remembrances of my grandmother, "America il Paradiso" seeks to express the complexity of history.

A painter who has lost the meaning of life due to war recalls a story from his childhood in a brief moment when he tries to commit suicide. The child picks up the doll that was left in the field and hides it at the base of a tree by the river. However, the doll is swept away by a flood, and the child who is trying to find the doll loses even an umbrella. After the flood stopped, the child went to the stream... He found a small fish in an umbrella hanging from a tree branch, took the fish in his hand, and released it to the stream...

About three friends on an existential journey. Niki, a young Danish woman, shares an upscale Bohemian life with two brothers, Paul and Julian, in New York City, supported by the brother's inheritance.

A rather liberal and pictorial interpretation of a number of Western musical forms with a considerable homosexual bias. Playing largely off the mood of different musical genres, it is a humorous commentary on musical association, and a celebration and critique of "gay identity."

24 hours in the life of a person who comes home from work, spends and has spent the night with friends. The day, and the work, begin with murmur and rumor.

Describes the events of July 4, 1776; early celebrations of the day; and the symbols, patriotic music, fireworks, monuments and statues associated with this holiday. Shows celebrations of the holiday both past and present. The power of this holiday, its patriotism, hometown pride and national unity is just as strong today as it was in 1776.

In Metal Cravings, Elise Hurwitz focuses on film’s emulsion.

A cinematic investigation about death and the power of photography, El Día Que Me Quieras is a meditation on the last photo taken of Ernesto Che Guevara, when he was lying dead on a cement pile surrounded by those who captured him in Bolivia, in 1967

“The visual harmony of the landscape is disturbed by a screen that allows us to see into the distance (television). The film is composed of six scenes that feature a television in the landscape. The speed of the television (in NTSC) is 30 frames per second, and never changes in this film. But the landscape views pass at different speeds.” - Yo Ota

Two girls meet in an airport. They're taking different planes - to meet their respective dads. They're blasé travellers and pretty fed up with being treated as "air parcels". On the spot they make a quick decision.

A man returns to the mountains after a long time and encounters a supposedly extinct ancient human species known as “Upi.”