settima

documentary

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.

Hanoi, martes 13 [Hanoi, Tuesday 13th] (Santiago Álvarez, 1968)

Dec

13

Tue

Hanoi, martes 13 (1968)

A collage image of President Lyndon B. Johnson. His face is a hole and footage of a military burial service can be seen. DP: Iván Nápoles.

December 7th (John Ford + Gregg Toland, 1943)

Dec

7

1941

December 7th (1943)

A Japanese person paints over the Japanese characters on their store's sign. AZUMA PHONE and SUS[HI obscured] can stay. DP: Gregg Toland.

“If that's Americanism, it's very hyphenated.”

– narrator

Black Sabbath – Live in Paris (Jacques Bourton, 1970)

Dec

6

Metal & Beer Fest

Black Sabbath - Live in Paris (1970)

Tony Iommi.

A heavy soundtrack for the Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest: Denver.

“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.

Sioux Ghost Dance (William K.L. Dickson + William Heise 1894)

Dec

1

Hornbill Festival

Sioux Ghost Dance (1894)

A Sioux troupe – these particular people were part of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show – perform a Ghost Dance in #ThomasEdison's Black Maria studio in New Jersey. DP: William Heise.

Indigenous dance for Hornbill Festival, Nagaland.

Salesman (Albert + David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin, 1969)

Mar

29

breakfast

Salesman (1969)

Bible salesmen enjoying breakfast at a soulless motel. DP: Albert Maysles.

Watched on Good Friday.

Weegee’s Coney Island [Coney Island] (Arthur “Weegee” Fellig, 1954)

Feb

10

Good Humor

Weegee’s Coney Island (1954)

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.

Space Coast (Ross McElwee + Michel Negroponte, 1979)

Jan

30

Space Coast (1979)

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.

Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (Robert Drew, 1963)

Dec

14

Alabama Day

Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (1963)

Bobby on the phone, seen from the back. DP: Gregory Shuker.

Alabama Day: filmed in Alabama.

 

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”

– Bob Dylan, The Times They Are a-Changin (1964)

In a then-groundbreaking new documentary format, Robert Drew and associates followed President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy during the crisis. And they filmed everything; from tense phone calls, private discussions, private moments (one of RFK's daughters on the phone with a bemused “Kerry”, Dept. Nicholas Katzenbach), and many, many shots in which nothing – which is everything – is said.