experimental cinema & avant-garde (shorts) - 80's
List activity
161 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
63 titles
- DirectorJean PainlevéAn enthusiastic grandfather sits with children in a Parisian park talking about pigeons. First. their physical appearance - eye, wings and tail, and color - and their varieties. Then, he encourages the children to imitate their walk. He points out courtship and mating rituals, then provides an illustrated discussion of how they eat. This section is punctuated by a flock of pigeons fighting over a small, hard ball each wants to eat; the narrator's describes it as if it were a soccer match. He concludes with a discussion of pigeons taking off, landing, and flying; he uses slow motion and stop-time photography to show his audience.
- DirectorStan BrakhageAn experimental short film of flashing images made by Stan Brakhage.
- DirectorStan BrakhageDante's Divine Comedy depicted as thousands of abstract paintings by Stan Brakhage himself.
- DirectorToshio MatsumotoA static shot of the sky with moving clouds is subdivided into regular geometrical regions, which are then individually and rhythmically manipulated.
- DirectorHarry SmithAn anthology of Harry Smith's films 1-5, 7, and 10, unfortunately without the divisions clearly marked.
- DirectorToshio MatsumotoStarsToshio MatsumotoEngram is a three-part piece involving visuals such as photos inside of photos, movies inside of movies, photos inside of movies, and so on.
- DirectorToshio MatsumotoStarsHiroko HoriuchiAn experimental film that attempts to create through the 'breathing' of visuals and music, the rhythm of Ki, the Japanese ideogram that symbolises the energy permeating the whole universe.
- DirectorToshio MatsumotoIn Shift, Matsumoto utilizes early digital video effects to transform architectural structures into cascading geometric waves and impossibly bubbling surfaces.
- DirectorToshio MatsumotoPictures from a Buddhist temple cut up and manipulated.
- DirectorJon MoritsuguPart AC/DC, part Jacques Derrida. An experimental film made as a response to the critical theory aspects of the filmmakers degree and academic film criticism.
- DirectorJon Moritsugu
- DirectorEvgeniy YufitStarsAndrey Myortvy
- DirectorEvgeniy YufitStarsAndrey Myortvy
- DirectorEvgeniy YufitStarsAleksandr AnikeyenkoIgor BezrukovYelena BogdanovaA group of mountain climbers has been specially selected to carry out a secret military mission. The fate of humanity depends upon their success. The rules of the mission require the death of each participant once his or her task is accomplished.
- DirectorEvgeniy Yufit
- DirectorEvgeniy YufitThe irrationality of the human psyche, sadomasochism and suicide are leitmotifs of this film. Documentary footage of marching pioneers, airplanes and pilots provided an unexpected counterpoint to the main action of the film. The combination of documentary footage, poetic narration and the stark asceticism of northern nature enhance the atmosphere of The Suicidal waders and give the self-destructive heroes a heroic and noble image.
- DirectorEvgeniy YufitStarsAndrey Myortvy
- DirectorGleb AleynikovIgor Aleynikov
- DirectorIgor Aleynikov
- DirectorGleb AleynikovIgor Aleynikov
- DirectorGleb AleynikovIgor Aleynikov
- DirectorGleb AleynikovIgor Aleynikov
- DirectorJan SvankmajerThe last moments of a creature made out of fruits and vegetables.
- DirectorJan SvankmajerStarsHugh CornwellSvankmajer's music video for Hugh Cornwell's "Another Kind of Love."
- DirectorJan SvankmajerThree surreal depictions of failures of communication that occur on all levels of human society.
- DirectorJan SvankmajerStarsMiroslav KucharA man sits down to watch a football match, which seems to consist of the players being violently mutilated in various inventive ways.
- DirectorJan SvankmajerA human body gradually reconstructs itself as its various component parts crowd themselves into a small room and eventually, after much experimentation, sort out which part goes where.
- DirectorJan SvankmajerTwo pieces of meat fall in love.
- DirectorJan SvankmajerStarsPetr CepekIn this animated version of Edgar Allan Poe's story, a traveller arrives at the Usher mansion to find that the sibling inhabitants are living under a mysterious family curse: The brother's senses have become painfully acute, while his sister has become nearly catatonic. As the visitor's stay at the mansion continues, the effects of the curse reach their terrifying climax, and he must choose between his concern for his hosts' safety, and his own.
- DirectorStephen QuayTimothy QuayStarsWeiser QuayOscillating hands each hold a pen; a man made of wire has a malevolent look and an oscillating eye as he pokes at a bump on his forehead
- DirectorStephen QuayTimothy QuayWeiser QuayA doll interacts with lifeless objects like screws, magnets, spoons and a cereal bowl filled with similar metal objects.
- DirectorStephen QuayTimothy QuayStarsFeliks StawinskiInside a box full of curio, a puppet who is recently freed from his strings explores a dusty and forlorn commercial area. The explorer becomes ensnared into miniature tailor shop by baby-faced dolls.
- DirectorKeith GriffithsStephen QuayTimothy QuayLoosely based on the Mesopotamian "Epic of Gilgamesh", here Gilgamesh is portrayed as a grotesque, Picasso-esque being who uses a tricycle to patrol his box-shaped kingdom that hovers above a dark abyss.
- DirectorCasandra StarkStarsLaura Mae JessonRichard KernCasandra StarkA woman flees her abusive partner to go live with her artist sister. When the partner follows her, the two sisters exact revenge and descend into madness.
- DirectorCasandra StarkStarsJack NatzCasandra StarkA young man and woman have a dispute over housework which escalates into violence. After a brief angry period of separation they reunite in an unexpected way on the rooftop of their apartment building.
- DirectorGus Van SantStarsFrank BirneyDavid WordenKen ShapiroGus Van Sant's early short film about "The Discipline of D.E.," which is an extremely efficient way of doing things.
- DirectorJudith BarryRichard KernSonic YouthStarsSonic YouthLydia LunchLung LegMusic video of Sonic Youth with Lydia Lunch spliced with scenes featuring Lung Leg.
- DirectorRichard KernStarsLydia LunchEmilio CubeiroMarty NationFINGERED is an art film that's constructed like a regular movie. Lydia Lunch plays a phone sex operator/prostitute that gets together with a guy she's been on the phone with. After a semi-hardcore sex scene, the violence begins. The man cuts someone's throat for looking at Lydia's character, then they go for a drive. The two abduct a hitch hiker and rape her in a junkyard.
- DirectorRichard KernStarsTom TurnerAmy TurnerBobAbout a deformed guy and his girlfriend.
- DirectorRichard KernStarsWilliam RiceDavid WojnarowiczRobin RenziA fan follows an artist home and tries to get his attention by literally coming apart.
- DirectorRichard KernStarsAdrienne AltenhausMagot DamianCruella De VilleA No-Wave erotic horror exploring the aesthetics of kink, sadism, mutilation and suicide.
- DirectorRichard KernStarsLung LegAmy TurnerTom TurnerRichard Kern's "sequel" to Submit to Me features more mutilation and more Lydia Lunch.
- DirectorRichard KernStarsLydia LunchNorman WestbergBrian MoranA woman goes through a series of sexual assignations that involve varying degrees of violence. A voiceover provides her musings on sex, violence, power and control.
- DirectorRichard KernNick ZeddStarsNick ZeddDon HoustonMagot DamianA woman contemplates suicide in her NY apartment. Her boyfriend returns home to find her corpse in the bath and takes his sexual pleasure from it.
- DirectorRichard KernStarsAdrienne AltenhausNick ZeddGary RayA woman takes each of her boyfriends - one poor and one rich- for a drive in her new car. Each argues with her and insists on taking the wheel. She beats one of them up, before crashing into a group of youths and, finally, a wall.
- DirectorRichard KernStarsLung LegDavid WojnarowiczKaren FinleyA young woman rebels against her family's petit bourgeois respectability, conservatism and religiosity.
- DirectorCraig BaldwinUsing instructions for constructing a rocket as a frame, the film explores the exploitation of Zaire (as was), by Western governments and corporations culminating in the establishment of a German rocket research company in the country.
- DirectorShirley Clarke
- DirectorBarbara HammerStarsBarbara HammerBrief glimpses of an elderly woman being wheeled into and around a grocery store and a nursing home, where a few other elderly women are found. Hammer experiments by slowing the footage down, cutting each frame alternately with it's own negative, blending two different images together with alternating frames of each, blurring the footage, and increasing or decreasing the speed of the film and rate of the cuts; ultimately creating a stroboscopic portrait for the viewer.
- DirectorBarbara HammerIn Tourist, Barbara Hammer depicts a trip to Europe: the flow of images is manipulated with a syncopated rhythm, to alter the perception of places that appear well-known and to instill a feeling of anxiety.
- DirectorBarbara HammerHow women view their own sexuality is compared with the images of women and sex from the male point of view.
- DirectorAdam DavidsonStarsScotty BlochClebert FordBernard JohnsonA woman misses her train and buys lunch in a café. When she returns to her table, a man is eating her salad.
- DirectorJordan Belson
- DirectorLarry CubaA choreographed sequence of graphic events constructed from simple elements repeated and combined in a hierarchical structure. The simplest element is a linear ribbon-like figure that appears, follows a path across the screen and then disappears. The highest level is the sequential arrangement of these graphic events into a score that describes the composition from beginning to end.
- DirectorLarry JordanMostly on black space, the figures in blue perform a very compact and jewel-like opera in surreal form to Erik Satie's piano music.
- DirectorErnie Gehr
- DirectorHollis FramptonJoyce WielandStarsHollis FramptonJoyce WielandTwo filmmakers spy upon each-other in various locations, each trying to capture the other on film.
- DirectorJoan JonasStarsJoan JonasRuth MaleczechTilda SwintonThis short film shot in Iceland and New York, which is based on a thirteenth-century Icelandic Laxdeala Saga, features Tilda Swinton as a young woman whose dreams foretell the future.
- DirectorPhilip S. SolomonUsing chemical and optical treatments to coat the film with a limpid membrane of swimming crystals, coagulating into silver recall, then dissolving.
- DirectorPhilip S. SolomonA non-narrative short subject in which experiments in night photography, lightning storms and World War II night bombing are combined ,with their similarities in pulses and shapes, to create an unsettling vision.
- DirectorTakashi ItôStarsBin ShimadaHaunting light and haunted spaces, otherworldly movement and abstracted time. A ghost visits an apartment complex.
- DirectorTerry BeyerKenneth O'Connell