Rok 1971 - 258

Documentary on the construction of the Croatian A1 motorway

“This film was made without the use of a motion picture camera. Strips of geometric patterns, moire patterns and various precisely repeated designs were applied to the film stock and solarised. These images were then printed in positive and negative colour through special printing techniques…the pattern overlay combined with strong complimentary colours creates a three dimensional effect.” – Science News.

I planned the Divine Comprehension to be my magnum opus however, although it is complete, I never considered it finished. As in PROOF (and, in part, several other of my films) I dispensed with the narrative, creating sequence and short scenes that capture unexpressed emotions or feelings; an unanswered telephone call, the 1,000 Year Old Chinese Egg, fighting hamsters, a fish head floats by in a pristine stream, all tried together with reoccurring motifs. One such sequence includes the victims of the 1904 Slocum Disaster, the reclaiming of their bodies and the funeral service at their church - which is still stands today - all of which were captured in vintage Edison ‘Newsreel“ footage,.

Chester Grimes, made in 1971 by Herb Di Gioia and his partner, the late David Hancock, has not been available for public viewing in years. It tells the story of a 70-year-old logger who still worked in northern Vermont at that advanced age with his team of horses. Di Gioia, who lives in Sutton, Vt. and is well known in the world of film documentary and ethnography, pioneered “observational cinema” by focusing on exploring the lives of ordinary people.

Consisting basically of home movie footage of family, relatives, and myself during the mid-1940's I have included loops of certain sequences and actions that have attracted me. Invariably people find HOMECALL a very warm film; however, upon closer scrutiny quite another facet is visible. –D. D.

This film depicts a man in search of a relationship. However, after experiencing a number of situations, he realizes that the true relationship is with himself.

Camargue, south of France. In the middle of the swamps, birds and bulls are the only inhabitants in one of the last surviving wildernesses in France.

A televised film of Peter Stein's landmark 1971 production of Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt, staged at the Schaubühne. The staging, produced for broadcast by NDR Fernsehen, saw five actors (including Bruno Ganz) portraying Gynt over the two-evening, five-hour performance.

An animation film based on a Latvian folk tale.

A Superman flying beyond imagination: the Bucalo-Niosi-Scaramozzino trio's masterpiece parody.

A short film about ants and their everyday activities. The audio of the film is currently lost.

In February 1971, women in Troyes go on strike in a hosiery factory and organise a sit-in of the premises. Several workers talk about their liberation movement and the experiences that have changed their lives.

A film animation experiment in metaphoric imagery. This is a surrealistic garden where the earth seethes with strange, unusual shapes and activity, accelerated in movement, compressed in time. Insect-like creatures dart under and over the sand with elusive swiftness; Picasso-like faces stare momentarily upward, mutate, and disappear; wilted blossoms become suddenly animated. What happens on the screen is punctuated and accompanied by synthetic sound effects.

Portrays a combination of mounts, dismounts, floor skills and a variety of stunts ranging from beginning, medium to superior difficulty. Demonstrates spotting techniques. Includes combined movements for useful beam routines.

A Playground for Baboosh...

Surf movie with music by Pete Townshend.

Part of the Highlights Of The Ann Arbor Film Festival at the Whitney Museum's New American Filmmaker series, Ad Hominem is a political satire made with repetition, again and again rerunning a few TV images of President Nixon's face.

The title owes a lot to Dali because the film takes off from the fascination shared by the great Catalan and his friends Lorca and Bunuel with the wounds of the martyred saint Sebastian. But the text in the intertitles comes, of course, almost exclusively from Georges Bataille’s Eroticism. This film is a darker, more focused, companion piece to the slightly earlier Barbarêveuse. It really ought to be a treat for any self-respecting sado-masochist. RS

INT operating theatre, man is wide awake while he has an operation, acupuncture as anaesthetic. Fruit spooned into patient's mouth. Man gets up and walks out of room after operation. Patient interviewed after operation says he didn't have much pain.