It's Up To You
β 7 Β· 1948 Β· 16m Β· Documentary
A historical film contrasting the two Germanies β the good and the evil β which struggled for power between the two world wars.
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1961 Β· β 10
A direct-cinema portrait of Indianapolis 500 driver Eddie Sachs, filmed before, during, and after the 1960 race as he competes from pole position. Using pioneering mobile camera and sound techniques, the film captures the psychological intensity of racing and the personal cost of high-speed competition.
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The Art Director
1949 Β· β 6.7
A film's art director is in charge of the set, from conception to construction to furnishing. This short film walks the viewer through art directors' responsibilities and the demands on their talents. They read a script carefully and design a set to capture the time and place, the social strata, and the mood. They must be scholars of the history of architecture, furnishings, and fashion. They choose the colors on a set in anticipation of the lighting and the mood. Their work also sets styles, from Art Deco in the 20's to 30s modernism. Then it's on to the next project. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.
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The Wormwood Star
1956 Β· β 6.4
A portrait of artist, actress, poet and occultist Marjorie Cameron, presenting images of her paintings and recitations of her poems.
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1945 Β· β 10
Documentary short film reporting on the activities of the American Red Cross and the useage made of contributed funds for the previous year. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.
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Food and Magic
1943 Β· β 5.8
A sideshow barker uses magic and visual aids to alert the public that proper food management is both a resource and a weapon that could be to America's advantage if conserved properly in winning the then current World War. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive, Academy War Film Collection, in 2008.
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Pasadena Freeway Stills
1974 Β· β 6
Possibly the most lucid, vivid, and awesome demonstration of the building up of still images to create moving ones, Pasadena Freeway Stills simply, gracefully and powerfully shows us the process by which we are fooled by the movies. By doing so, Gary Beydler mines a very rich vein of associations and metaphor, without the slightest ostentation. Constructed as a thrilling arc of realization and, in a quite moving way, disappointment, the film is a beautiful articulation of our emotional entanglement with moving images, while simultaneously creating a form in which the illusion of cinema is brought into incredible relief as the film we're watching gradually catches up to the film Gary is holding up to the camera with his hands, one frame at a time. (Mark Toscano) Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2008.
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1966
A documentary abstraction recorded at night in Los Angeles backed by the music of Stockhausen. It is a preliminary effort to organise camera and audio images through a cybernetic editing model and a digital computer. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.
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Migration
1969 Β· β 6
"Whereas SQUARE INCH FIELD was composed largely in the camera, Rimmer's next film, MIGRATION, made full use of rear-projection rephotography, stop-framing, and slow motion. The migration of the title is interpreted as the flight of a ghost bird through aeons of space/time, through the micro-macro universe, through a myriad of complex realities. A seagull is seen flying gracefully in slow motion against a grainy green sky; suddenly the frame stops, warps and burns, as though caught in the gate of the projector. Now begins an alternation of fast and slow sequences in which the bird flies through time-lapse clouds and fog and, in a stroboscopic crescendo, hurtles into the sun's corona. Successive movements of the film develop rhythmic, organic counterpoints in which cosmic transformations send jelly fish into the sky and ocean waves into the sun." - Gene Youngblood. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2014.
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The Chair
1963 Β· β 7.5
Follows a crusading lawyer as he embarks on a campaign to save an African-American man, Paul Crump, from the electric chair. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 2007.
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The Man Who Skied Down Everest
1975 Β· β 6.8
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1979 Β· β 9
A bewitching, mysterious work of enveloping beauty, the filmβs ominous title and a dedication to Anne Frank deeply inform our reading of its haunting subtext. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive, in partnership with the National Film Preservation Foundation, in 2009.
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1971 Β· β 4.4
A truly major work, I Donβt Know observes the relationship between a lesbian and a transgender person who prefers to be identified somewhere in between male and female, in an expression of personal ambiguity suggested by the filmβs title. This nonfiction film β an unusual, partly staged work of semi-veritΓ© β is the first of Spheerisβs films to fully embrace what would become her characteristic documentary style: probing, intimate, uncompromising. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2014.
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