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Unsere Afrikareise [Our Trip to Africa] (Peter Kubelka, 1966)
Feb
22
National Wildlife Day
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.
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War Machine (Duvet Brothers, 1984)
Jan
21
the passing of Orwell
A repurposed TV still of a battle ship billowing thick black smoke with the text WAR MACHINE superimposed over it.
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All My Life (Bruce Baillie, 1966)
Jan
18
roses
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.
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Egged On (Charles R. Bowers, Harold L. Muller + Ted Sears, 1926)
Jan
17
inventions
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
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Escrime [Fencing] (Étienne-Jules Marey, 1890)
Jan
4
revolvers
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
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À propos de Nice – point de vue documenté [À propos de Nice] (Boris Kaufman + Jean Vigo, 1930)
Jan
1
New Year's Day
Exuberant prostitutes, Jean Vigo (5th from the left), and some 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.”
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X2000 (François Ozon, 1998)
Jan
1
2000
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.
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Couro de Gato [Cat Skin] (Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, 1962)
Dec
27
Junkanoo
A man plays a small hand drum, the tamborim, with a cat skin head. DP: Mário Carneiro.
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Cali: de película (Luis Ospina, 1973)
Dec
26
Feria de Cali
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.
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St. Louis Blues (Dudley Murphy, 1929)
Dec
20
Walter “Wolfman” Washington – 1943
Bessie “the Empress of Blues” Smith, singing her blues away. DP: Walter Strenge .
Featuring rhythm and blues, funk or blues, for Walter “Wolfman” Washington's birthday (1943)
“I hate to see the evening' sun go down
I hate to see the evening' sun go down
It makes me think I'm on my last go 'round
Feeling' tomorrow like I feel today
Feeling' tomorrow like I feel today
I'll pack my grip and make my getaway”
Saint Louis woman with her diamond rings
Pulls that man around by her apron strings
Wasn't for powder and the store-bought hair
The man I love wouldn't go nowhere, nowhere
I got them Saint Louis Blues; just as blue as I can be
He's got a heart like a rock cast in the sea
Or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me”
– Bessie Smith, St. Louis Blues (W. C. Handy)