Среда [Sreda / Wednesday / Wednesday 19.7.1961] (Viktor Kosakovskiy, 1979)
Jul
19
Wed
Adult twins who, like director Kosakovskiy, were born on Wednesday 19, 1961. DP: Victor Kossakovsky.
Среда [Sreda / Wednesday / Wednesday 19.7.1961] (Viktor Kosakovskiy, 1979)
Jul
19
Wed
Adult twins who, like director Kosakovskiy, were born on Wednesday 19, 1961. DP: Victor Kossakovsky.
“Telephones were still working, we are told, and the air-conditioning and refrigerators in many houses were still on.” La Soufrière – Warten auf eine unausweichliche Katastrophe [La Soufrière: Waiting for an Inevitable Catastrophe] (Werner Herzog, 1977)
Jul
13
Herzog and crew make their way up the volcano (via). DPs: Edward Lachman & Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein.
Someone at a theme park or national park*
– narrator
The highest peak in the Parc national de la Guadeloupe is called La Grande Soufrière. The volcano had erupted before and was bound to do soon again. Hastily, the 76,000 islanders were evacuated with one farmer staying put. For Herzog reason to halt the editing of Herz aus Glas and make his way to the island.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for July is, for unknown reasons, mostly not date-related and follows some sort of vacation narrative.
“On July 4, 1976 I and my camera toured the state of Colorado with governor Richard D. Lamm, as he traveled in parades with his children, appeared at dinners, lectured, etc. On July 20, I spent the morning in his office in the state capitol and the afternoon with himself and his wife in a television studio, then with Mrs. Lamm greeting guests to the governor’s mansion and finally with Governor Lamm in his office again. These two days of photography took me exactly one year to edit into a film which wove itself thru multiple superimpositions into a study of light and power.”The Governor (Stan Brakhage, 1977)
Jul
4
1976
And July 20
– Stan Brakhage
Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu (David Loeb Weiss, 1980)
Jul
1
1978
All set for the July 2, 1978 edition of The New York Times, hot off the press.
Production of the last hot type copy of The New York Times on the nigh of July 1, 1978. The ETAOIN SHRDLU in the title refers to the accidental string of letters that sometimes would end up in print when using the hot type method.
That Linotype setting, and narration, was provided by Carl Schlesinger. That same old, but now digitally set New York Times, provided a lovely farewell when the man passed. Read it here
“We had never been around such opulence, zillions of dollars being spent every five minutes on this huge, unwieldy thing. It was mind-boggling to us because we had been making films for three hundred dollars, and seeing this incredible waste – that was the worst of Hollywood.”6-18-67 (George Lucas, 1967)
Jun
18
1967
The opening credits with the date 6-18-67 superimposed over it. DPs: Charles Braverman, George Lucas, David MacDougall & David Wyler.
– pre-blockbuster George Lucas
Wyszedł w jasny, pogodny dzień [He Left on a Bright, Sunny Day] (Krzysztof Wojciechowski, 1972)
Jun
13
Old people exchanging food and memories outdoors. DPs: Witold Stok & Ryszard Wróblewski.
Deň radosti [A Day of Joy] (Dušan Hanák, 1972)
Jun
12
1971
Exuberant revellers. DPs: Martin Gazík, Alojz Hanúsek & Oskár Šághy.
“Love! Love!”Wholly Communion (Peter Whitehead, 1966)
Jun
11
1965
Allen Ginsberg reciting in front of an enraptured audience at the Royal Albert Hall. DP: Peter Whitehead.
– anonymous poet interrupting Harry Fainlight
“This nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free.”Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (Robert Drew, 1963)
Jun
10
1963
An energetic Bobby arrives at the White House in his limousine. DP: Gregory Shuker.
– JFK
“One thing I find appalling is when people who were [Vichy President] Pétain supporters come up to me and tell me what they did for the Resistance. Sometimes it's unreal. “Oh, Mr. Gaspard, if only you knew what we did, what I did for the Resistance.” Go ahead, pal, tell me all about it. I try to stay calm. I'm a salesman, and I want to sell my product. The company doesn't pay me to do politics and pick fights, so sometimes I find myself obliged to listen to a song and dance of some guy who shows me a drawer and gets his wife to confirm that there was indeed a revolver in that drawer during the war, a revolver which he was supposedly ready to use on the Germans. Only he never actually used it. History doesn't lie.” Le chagrin et la pitié [The Sorrow and the Pity] (Marcel Ophüls, 1969)
Jun
5
Sorry I Was on a Boat Day
Two smiling farmers. The interviewer asks “What did you think about?” One of them replies “Surviving. That's it.” Screenshot via. DPs: André Gazut & Jürgen Thieme.
Someone makes an excuse on Sorry I Was on a Boat Day (USA)
– Émile Coulaudon aka Colonel Gaspard, former head of the French Resistance in Auvergne
Marcel Ophüls documents the people of Clermont-Ferrand as the microcosm of Vichy France, part of Europe's only country that happily collaborated with its occupier, Nazi Germany. What were their justifications, their excuses, their motivations? Was it survival, habit, greed? Comfort, conformity, obedience, fear?
And what is yours?