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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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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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Black Sabbath – Live in Paris (Jacques Bourton, 1970)
Dec
6
Tony Iommi.
“Heavy boots of lead
Fills his victims full of dread
Running as fast as they can
Iron Man lives again”
– Black Sabbath, Iron Man (1970)
Despite its title, Live in Paris was filmed in Théâtre 140 in Brussels by Yorkshire Television and is Sabbath's first recorded live concert.
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Sioux Ghost Dance (William K.L. Dickson + William Heise 1894)
Dec
1
Hornbill Festival
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Salesman (Albert + David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin, 1969)
Mar
29
breakfast
Bible salesmen enjoying breakfast at a soulless motel. DP: Albert Maysles.
Watched on Good Friday.
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Weegee’s Coney Island [Coney Island] (Arthur “Weegee” Fellig, 1954)
Feb
10
Good Humor
Two chubby ladies on Coney Island's beach eating chocolate-coated ice cream bars on a stick, I guess Good Humor bars. The women both wear black shapeless bathing suits. One of them has a pink towel over her shoulders and her hair in rollers. The framing shows only part of the couple, but tells you all you need to know. DP: Weegee.
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Space Coast (Ross McElwee + Michel Negroponte, 1979)
Jan
30
A woman and man eating at a wooden table. It's dark, there's one candle, and the guy wearing Ray-Bans® holding his #beer has got something to say.
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Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (Robert Drew, 1963)
Dec
14
Alabama Day
Bobby on the phone, seen from the back. DP: Gregory Shuker.
In what he dubbed “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door”, George Wallace, Alabama governor, blocked Black students from walking into the University so he could uphold his inaugural promise of “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever”. This prompted a national crisis, resulting in the President issuing Executive Order 11111, making the #NationalGuard step in.
“Come Senators, Congressmen,
Please heed the call,
Don't stand in the doorway,
Don't block up the hall”
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Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (Les Blank, 1980)
Dec
12
National 12 Hour Fresh Breath Day
Three representatives of the garlic festival. Their tees read: THE GARLIC TO SHARE WITH A FRIEND, MINE DOESN'T STINK, and WE LEAVE YOU BREATHLESS. DP: Les Blank.
“When he shows the 1978 film Always for Pleasure, about the food, music and indigenous culture of New Orleans, [Les Blank] has been known to whip up a pot of red beans and rice in the back of the theatre. [cont. below]
“Can you smell the garlic?”
– Alice Waters. During screenings, the audience would reply with “YES!”
“At presentations […] Blank can occasionally be spied tossing several heads of garlic into a toaster oven so that the aroma wafts over the audience at just the right mouth-watering moment.” (via)
