Cinematic Era: 1997 Vintage

A documentary about the life and works of the maestros of Imaginary Painting School who made Iranian popular old style Khialisazi or Coffee-House Painting.

A middle aged housewife struggles to cope when her husband leaves her for a younger woman.

Experimental silent homage to the origins of cinema, recreating the apparent disappearance of a French photographer in the 1920s.

A TV adaptation of comedy novel by Jovan Sterija Popovic. In the manner of an experienced analyst, Sterija portrays the topic of finding a life companion as an essential need to build a life with seductive illusions, in which banality and kitsch are important building blocks.

Four teens are living on the edge as adulthood is around the corner. An outcast, an ex-convict, a drug addict, and a traumatized woman come together to get through the pain of life and find purpose in a painful world.

A quietly observed story of a man holding on to his precarious sense of identity in a mental hospital.

Live performance from the Metropolitan Opera, 25 March 1997.

A man buys a small animal from a pet store with the intention of returning it to the wild. Complications ensue. Part of the Sex and Violence series of short animations.

An investigating judge uncovers a corruption case in which his own politician brother is compromised.

"Before I Sleep" is one man's odyssey through Dublin city. It is a crowded hectic film, unmistakably Dublin, yet with one constant character - John Harte, a recently unemployed middle class man in a state of quiet anxiety.

Following the orders of a cruel politician, the police kill a group of communist comrades during a raid. The leader who is based in Kannur, Kerala, plans to avenge their deaths.

In “The Stalker“, Dawn Murphy stars as a young girl who’s being stalked by a sadistic burglar. He’s not just satisfied with stealing her things, he must drug her first! Druggings include chloroform, darts, and a needle! Will she survive? Plus see our first underwater footage!

A careless mother is going on a date with another fan and, in order to brighten up her daughter's loneliness, leaves her alone with a pink doll - the same doll that "wanders around the city and why it is vain to destroy little children". The girl considers the doll to be very realistic, therefore she associates it with herself, and herself with her mother. So begin the serious experiences of a girl who understands that this doll bought off her. At night, the girl dreams a terrible dream in which the doll embodies all her fears... "Pink Doll" creates the illusion of a spellbound fall into the abyss of children's dreams, fantasies and nightmares. The sensual effect is achieved by the game of scale and angle, the nervous rhythm of intraframe movement and graphic thickening of reality.

"Waiting for the Passion" is a volatile male character study of a college student who wants to leave America to escape the turbulent relationships he has with both his father and brother. Through a series of visualized letters and dramatically edited montage sequences the film captures the confusion and fear so many young people feel as their college days wind down.

Julian Nakaura, a priest of the Society of Jesus, was one of four young ambassadors sent to Rome by the Jesuits in 1582, as proof that Japan had converted to Christianity. Fifty years after the mission, which so fascinated European royalty, Julian was forced again to prove his faith, only this time before a Shogun, who wanted to force him to abandon his religion. Julian resists, as does Miguel Chijiwa, a fellow at the embassy to Rome, who become a martyr. Betrayed by Cristóvão Ferreira, who cannot bear the torture, Julian suffers an inglorious death ... or maybe not. All the while, a woman wants to discover her past...

A year in the life of the Palm Springs Follies, featuring beautiful, ageless performers from around the world in a show that is always Standing Room Only. The film intercuts colorful interviews with the participants and footage of auditions, rehearsals, and the actual performances.

The fantastic story of John Cabot's voyage of discovery in The Matthew, plus the extraordinary story of Bristol's maritime history from Cabot to Brunel and the S.S. Great Britain and much more, brought to life by Bristol's own TV star, comic actor Tony Robinson.

A horror / comedy that stars Hollywood B-Movie star Conrad Brooks ("Plan 9 from Outer Space") as Ricky, the perverted owner of an ice cream shop, decides to make his female employees ("The Scoopettes") dress sexy to lure customers. The "Scoopettes" are so hot the ice cream will never stay hard but everyone leaves with a smile and much much more! It becomes apparent that someone doesn't like Ricky's success when one of the Scoopettes is found murdered in the ice cream freezer. The killings of the girls continue one at a time. And the customers' are finding a little extra in their ice cream!

Collecting highlights from the debut season of the acclaimed PBS series "Sessions at West 54th," this compilation video captures performances by musical greats such as trumpet maestro Wynton Marsalis and Grammy-winning cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Other artists making appearances include Emmylou Harris, Ani DiFranco, Rickie Lee Jones, Shawn Colvin, Suzanne Vega, Sinéad O'Connor, Keb' Mo', Patti Smith and more.

The film is about a Flemish farmer, Kamiel Spiessens, who does everything he can to defend his land against a Dutch businessman. That man wants to build an amusement park on the land.

Mother Goose tries to teach her son, Simon Goose, how to rhyme using some of her famous nursery rhymes.

It delivers enough venom in one bite to kill a hundred people, yet it solely preys on other snakes. Through rare footage follow the King Cobra on its journey throughout the rainforests of India seeking food and a mate.

The movie takes place in a poverty-stricken, rent-controlled neighborhood on the outskirts of Paris. Algerian immigrants, many of whom are in France illegally, the place has earned the nickname of "100%Arabica". It's a rough neighborhood - crime is rampant, gangs of juvenile delinquents roam the streets, and the police are afraid to patrol the area. When the out-of-touch mayor decides that he wants to restore order to the area, he offers a subsidy to Slimane, the imam of the local mosque. If Slimane can get people off the streets, the mayor will continue the payments. Soon the byways of 100%Arabica are almost peaceful - but not because of something Slimane has done. The reason is that a new Rai Band, Rap Oriental, has taken the neighborhood by storm...

Upon his father's death, a young man (Benjamin Mouton) leaves his city job to run his family's Louisiana rice farm.

Filmed in 1997, Young Americans has a powerhouse cast of classic gay porn stars. These top adult models team up with four newbies and head off to the lush mountains of Southern California for some all-boy action. Oh right, the plot! Seven cute college guys spend a weekend of discovery. The shyness and limitations of college are soon swept away as they forget the books and get down to the detailed studying of their own beautiful youthful bodies!

Kedar Babu is a freedom fighter since the days of Mahatma Gandhi's call for a Civil Disobedience Movement. Kedar Babu lost his wife at an early stage of his marriage. Since then, he has brought up his only son Sangram with all paternal affection. In town, Sangram stays in the house of a landlord, Bahadur Suryakant Singh, where there is a gradual moral decline. This puts him in a state of dilemma and delusion. In the last encounter with his father. Sangram experiences a new perception of life, illuminated with anxiety.

History as immersion and dispersion in the fragments of the past, a visionary journey accompanied by the voice of Patty Pravo. Presented at the Taormina Festival '97.

In a backwoods cabin, a boy called Little Man lives with his dad (a trapper), his older sister Missy, and his younger sister Kid, who is feral, spends most of her time under the table, and can imitate the sound of any animal. Their mother is dead. One day, while dad's in town selling skins, Missy teases Kid and gets bitten. There's Hell to pay when dad gets home, and Kid runs off into the night to spend it with her animal friends. Little Man, who narrates much of the story as well as his reflections in a whisper, must sort out loss and emptiness.

An 8mm film drama. Written by Fusako Kumagai and directed by Kenji Onishi.

The piranha shares a notoriety with the shark and the wolf as one of nature's most relentless killers. It's very name has become synonymous with mindless consumption. The Piranha: Wolf in the Water explores the myth and mystique surrounding these exotic creatures while documenting the habits and behavior of the various species that comprise its widespread family. It's a world of cunning and savage justice acted out between predator and prey where the waters team with a menace that brings to mind vivid images of flashing teeth and shredded flesh.

Norma and Anita are two sisters who have a rocky relationship. They begin to drift further apart when they compete for the affections of Leo ...

A humorous story-musical about a pumpkin, the host of a vegetable garden, his wife and many relatives and friends. They all live nearby and often solve some of their living problems. Cucumbers want to play, and the carrot-girls are waiting for worthy suitors. Here there are festivals and folk rituals and the work around which life revolves of vegetable villagers.

A Dublin student writes a novel about a tavern keeper about the parishioners in his tavern (including the student), who in turn write novels featuring the innkeeper and the student, and other novel composers about other novelists.

In the summer of 1969, an unspeakable crime was committed in the small oil two of Black Diamond. The culprit was never caught. Twenty-fives years later, the town is being torn apart by two feuding oil barons. A young journalist enters the scene. He digs into the town's terrible past and promising to set the town aflame.

A group of young unemployed people from Le Mans (France) decide to create a new political party.

Supermodel/secret agent Shantay opposes the forces of darkness, and especially fashion villain Toyota Carter.

The First Lady is kidnapped by a megalomaniac. To save his wife, the President goes into battle against the madman who is protected by Amazons.

TV documentary exploring the musical world of James Bond through interviews with key figures and discussion of work of David Arnold.

Based on a play by Wole Soyinka, The Strong Breed, SO BE IT offers an emotionally searing allegory of present-day Africa's bloody internecine convulsions.

Jack Armstrong who left the life of violence behind him must use his military skills once again.

Experimental film by Hiroyuki Sekine.

David is a garage electrician, who dreamt all of his life of becoming a magician, but had no luck in it. His girlfriend Batya wants an ordinary life, but David is still looking for his dream, so he links up with Romanian immigrant Shimon, who is an expert magician.

From 1977 to his untimely death in 1993, Amos Guttman directed six films, all of them deeply personal reflections of his own life. Interviews with lovers, family and friends--including some of the most important people in Israeli cinema--tell the gripping story of a strikingly handsome, charismatic and deeply passionate gay man who has become a revered cult figure in Israeli cinema.Interviews with the late filmmaker and fascinating footage of him on the set convey the same passion that comes through in scenes from his films, lovingly selected by documentarian Ran Kotzer. Like Fellini, Guttman transformed his dreams and everyday conversations with friends and family into integral parts of his pictures. He is most remarkable for his striking and original use of the frame. Every shot is a treasure. Amos Guttman dared to portray subjects that were taboo in his society, and his search for the right of individual expression is the connecting link of his works.

In this special VHS released by the Takarazuka Revue, four stars of the four troupes at the time (Flower, Moon, Snow, Star) perform songs from popular musicals, accompanied by interviews and studio recording footage.

Tomake Chai is a triangular love story of Nadi, Sagar and Mukta. Nadi and Sagar love each other but Mukta, the daughter of Sagar's father's friend also loves Sagar. Sagar's father doesn't approve of their relationship because of the difference in their financial status. In the course of events Sagar loses his memory and Sagar's father dies of this shock. Will he get his memory back?

Chinese movie

Fifteen years have passed since the spectacular images of Jean-Paul Janssen's "Life at Your Fingertips" introduced the general public to free climbing and its embodiment: Patrick Edlinger. We witnessed the birth of a sporting phenomenon that would leave a lasting mark on generations of climbers. But fifteen years later, in 1997, beyond the myth, where is Patrick Edlinger? Gilles Chappaz found him on some of the most beautiful walls of the Verdon Gorge and other cliffs during the filming of Maurice Rebeix's documentary "Roc'n Wall 97," where he shares his climbing practice and philosophy with the younger generation, including Liv Sansoz and Arnaud Petit.

About the artist and poet of the "silver age" Maximilian Voloshin.

See how Pirk got stranded in the past! Star Wreck V: Lost Contact was the first film to use live actors instead of cartoons. Real sets would have cost too much, so we decided to try bluescreen, just for fun. Our expectations weren't high, but it worked. So the movie was shot against a cheap blue bed-sheet and the blue background was replaced with spaceship bridges. The story was a parody of Star Trek: First Contact. The Korg send a ship back in time to 20th century Earth. The Kickstart, being the only functioning P-fleet ship around, has to follow. The Korg plan to assassinate rockstar Jeffrey Cochbrane (Played by Rudi Airisto and a pair of sunglasses) and his band Dethdestro before their concert attracts the attention of Vulgars. This would stop humanity's first contact aliens and change the future. If that wasn't bad enough, all Jeff wants to do is play loud and drink too much, but now Pirk and his crew must force him to save the world...

No one's getting along at the Univers'l strip mall in So Central LA on April 29, 1992, the day the Rodney King verdicts come down. An African-American liquor store owner has a nervous crush on a Vietnamese manicurist. A rich Beverly Hills housewife who wants to help "you people" by building a womens' shelter has just had her Mercedes stolen. The Iranian dry cleaners have destroyed a dress, a group of Swedish equestrians is hopelessly lost, and Kong, the Korean landlord, is missing. With a relentless hyperkinetic visual energy and creeping sense of impending terror, UNIVERS'L captures one long day in a rundown mini-mall when the riots engulf the city.

Can Fear be a self fulfilling prophecy? A husband, a wife and their best friend return from a ski vacation. The husband suspects that his wife has fallen in love with the friend. He confronts his friend rather than his wife. The friend dismisses the accusation. Is he lying? and if not, how will these doubts affect him, and will he view the wife differently from now on? And the wife: Is she indeed in love? if so, will she do something about it? If not, will she sense the suspicions around her? could she not? And the husband: should he discover that he was wrong, would he be able to stop that which he had begun with mere words? An anxiety that settled in the mind of one, takes over his life and rocks the lives of two

A young single man in New York City goes out for one final night of drinking in this short film about the realization of alcoholism.