settima

ShortFilm

Have I Told You Lately That I Love You? (Stuart Hamisch, 1958)

Feb

24

technology

Have I Told You Lately That I Love You? (1958)

Straight after dinner, the child returns to his teevee while his mother stands silently in the doorway.

A film about technology on what would've been Steve Jobs' 70th birthday

“The most precious thing that we all have with us, is time.”

– Steve Jobs

A nuclear family goes about their machine-driven day while slowly forgetting to communicate.

Unsere Afrikareise [Our Trip to Africa] (Peter Kubelka, 1966)

Feb

22

National Wildlife Day

Unsere Afrikareise (1966)

A frame (source) shows a freshly killed zebra on its side. The film stock's perforations and sound track are visible. DP: Peter Kubelka.

Wild animals for this year's first National Wildlife Day (USA). A second one is on September 4.

“For me, Afrikareise is, in its own genre, the most intense sound film that exists. Sound and images are in synch like in nature (even if it isn’t about the natural sound of something). The sound becomes the acoustic portrait of the visual action.”

– Peter Kubelka, via

Commissioned to film a rich Austrian couple's hunting trip, Kubelka sat on the material for several years before editing it in something more than the sum of its parts.

War Machine (Duvet Brothers, 1984)

Jan

21

the passing of Orwell

War Machine (1984)

A repurposed TV still of a battle ship billowing thick black smoke with the text WAR MACHINE superimposed over it.

A scratch video from 1984 on the date George Orwell died (1950). Date of production is either 84 or 85.

All My Life (Bruce Baillie, 1966)

Jan

18

roses

All My Life (1966)

A still of a red rose bush next to a fence. Image via à pala de walsh. DP: Bruce Baillie.

Roses for the end of the Wars of the Roses (note: January 18 is when Henry VII married Elizabeth of York in 1486; the wars would continue until June 16 the following year).

“All my life, hold me close to your heart But all else above Hold my love, darling, just hold my love”

– Ella Fitzgerald, All My Life (Sidney D. Mitchell & Sammy Stept), 1936

In one continuous shot, the camera tracks a fence and rose bushes while Ella Fitzgerald's 1936 debut song All My Life is playing.

Egged On (Charles R. Bowers, Harold L. Muller + Ted Sears, 1926)

Jan

17

inventions

Egged On (1926)

Charley working his Rube Goldberger-esque egg-rubberizing contraption.

An invention for Benjamin Franklin's birthday. Inventor Charley (Charles R. Bowers) comes up with an ingenious method to make eggs break-proof for transport by rubberizing them.

“… as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.”

– Benjamin Franklin in his autobiography

Bowers was an almost-forgotten silent era comedian, filmmaker, and animator. In more recent years, his groundbreaking stop-motion comedy has found a new, well-deserved, interest.

Escrime [Fencing] (Étienne-Jules Marey, 1890)

Jan

4

revolvers

Escrime (1890)
Escrime (1890)

Footage of Marey at work. Note the mobility of his invention. (via).

A revolver to commemorate Samuel Colt's sale of 1 000 revolvers to butcher Captain Samuel Walker in 1847.

“Art and science encounter each other when they seek exactitude.”

– Étienne-Jules Marey

However, where there is bloodshed, there can be art. Scientist Étienne-Jules Marey studied movement, and further adapted an existing revolver-style camera gun invented by astronomer Jules Janssen in 1874. The revolution in Marey's invention was not in the least in its mobility. Unlike Muybridge, whose locomotion experiments required a huge, cumbersome setup, Marey could strap on his “gun”, and shoot moving footage while following his target around. His chronophotograph Escrime can be considered Marey's first successfully captured moving footage.

À propos de Nice – point de vue documenté [À propos de Nice] (Boris Kaufman + Jean Vigo, 1930)

Jan

1

New Year's Day

À propos de Nice - point de vue documenté (1930)

Exuberant prostitutes, Jean Vigo (5th from the left), and people who appear to be men in drag, dance on a landing with confetti all around them. In the moving footage they can be seen high-kicking with increased vulgarity, the camera posed below them. DP: Boris Kaufman.

Confetti for New Year's Day.

“In this film, by showing certain basic aspects of a city, a way of life is put on trial… the last gasps of a society so lost in its escapism that it sickens you and makes you sympathetic to a revolutionary solution.”

– Jean Vigo in his manifesto Vers un cinéma social

X2000 (François Ozon, 1998)

Jan

1

2000

X2000 (1998)

A young, naked man holding a drink observes two men asleep in a sleeping bag on the floor. On the wall behind them the text “2000” spelled out with tinsel garlands. DP: Pierre Stoeber.

Cali: de película (Luis Ospina, 1973)

Dec

26

Feria de Cali

Cali: de película (1973)

A child hands a man in indigenous garb a small liquor bottle during the cabalgata, the parade of horseback riders. The man's horse is painted to resemble a zebra. DP: Carlos Mayolo.

A parade for Feria de Cali, Columbia.