Gone for a Better Deal

Drunk and disillusioned Roman, Marcellus Gallio, wins Jesus' robe in a dice game after the crucifixion. Marcellus has never been a man of faith like his slave, Demetrius, but when Demetrius escapes with the robe, Marcellus experiences disturbing visions and feels guilty for his actions. Convinced that destroying the robe will cure him, Marcellus sets out to find Demetrius — and discovers his Christian faith along the way.

A cowboy helps a pretty young woman find lost gold. Restored by the Academy Film Archive with additional funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Short film about nurse service in wartime. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

Film of "Dropped Objects" falling from 8,000 ft. altitudes with skydivers as performers. This film of a conceptual artist's work is a document of Skyworks but also meant to be expressive as an art film. A film of meditation revealing the cosmic breath as Skyworks pieces fall at the rate of 120 to 135 miles per hour. A breathing language of light and knowledge. Performance-controlled flight. Gyres cycling in and out - the mystic spiral. A perception of light and space as energy lines alter the environment temporarily. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2016.

The Story of Koula, one of the Marshall Plan films, was made in Greece in 1951. It neatly exemplifies the capacity of Europe to ‘talk back’ to the USA within the framework of cultural aid programmes. And as such it can introduce a little‐explored topic: the politics of the avant‐garde in Greece in the post‐Civil War years and in particular the role of US cultural aid. This post‐war perspective throws light on the better‐known National School associated above all with Manolis Kalomiris, who dominated Greek music and musical life in the interwar period. The second part of this paper scrutinises the agenda and achievements of the Kalomiris circle, and that in turn enables useful generalisations about romantic nationalism in music. The third part of the paper reflects on the pre‐World War I achievements of Heptanesian traditions, again caught between singularities and dependencies. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.

This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastover's refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive women-folk. Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by giving us some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with New York Women in Film & Television in 2004.

An animated short consisting of 4 segments: bowl, garden, theatre, marble game. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Harvard Film Archive in 2015.

A documentary abstraction recorded at night in Los Angeles backed by the music of Stockhausen. It is a preliminary effort to organise camera and audio images through a cybernetic editing model and a digital computer. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

In 1870s India, Charulata is an isolated, artistically inclined woman who sees little of her busy journalist husband, Bhupati. Realizing that his wife is alienated and unhappy, he convinces his cousin, Amal, to spend time with Charulata and nourish her creative impulses. Amal is a fledgling poet himself, and he and Charulata bond over their shared love of art.

"Color/form, light/shadow, flatness/depth, figuration/abstraction, landscape/paint, all collaging and colliding in an exploratory, arrhythmic, kinetic dance constructed a frame at a time by Fred Worden on his optical printer. This early film now reveals itself as a revelatory early warning sign of Worden's filmmaking to come, comprising ten minutes extrapolated from only four frames of source imagery." (Mark Toscano) Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2009.

Krumins’ fantasy sets the world of flora and fauna on its ear. At one moment grotesque greenish mushrooms grow, wither and reverse their life-cycle, at another, strange crustacean-like animals speed around on a bed of feathers, next a room is inundated with giant ladybugs… Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2009.

A joyous, chaotic and colorful romp through nature; A psychedelic dance troupe rehearses in a studio.

A romance between two young lovers is complicated by their prohibitive parents. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

The bizarre adventures of the cartoon character Foska, drawn by 22 animators working in collaboration. Each animator worked on his or her own sequence only and did not know what action preceded or followed his or her sequence, except that the first drawing of a sequence is the last drawing from the previous sequence. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2010.

An animated comedy short from the 1920s. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2008.

A portrait of artist, actress, poet and occultist Marjorie Cameron, it shows images of her paintings and recitations of her poems. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2006.

A symbolic reflection on issues of female sexuality, art and identity constructs.

A motley cast of characters offer their thoughts on what’s most important in life. Experimental short film preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2011.

Odds & Ends is a sly comment on the collage film and Beat culture. To discarded travel and advertising footage found at a local film laboratory, Belson Shimane added a mélange of animation—assemblages, cutouts, color fields, and line drawings—and faux hipster narration by Jacobs (credited via the anagram Rheny Bojacs) punctuated by a bongo backing. Strung together with doublespeak and non sequiturs, the monologue skirts the edge of nonsense as Jacobs waxes on about poetry, jazz, “reaching the public,” “having a good time,” and—although “money doesn’t count”—the “possibility of subsidy” through grants. Footage of champagne, tropical beaches, and exotic peoples intermingle with rhythmic drawings and stop-motion flights of fancy. The visuals race on through dazzling transformations, both amplifying and undercutting the patter. —National Film Preservation Foundation. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Iota Center Collection in 2006.

Animated short film. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2009.