Five Film Exercises: Film 4

A dirge-like hula song illustrates humanity's woes. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2010.

Fischinger's abstract designs accompanied by Gitta Alpar singing. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2000.

This is one of those abstract animated films in which colored, richly textured light moves in a black, three-dimensional space. The pictures and the electronic score are unified in a strict structure made of three main sections which progressively develop three subsections. This film may look like it was made using computers or video to the uninitiated, but only animation and much optical printing are to be seen herein. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with iotaCenter and National Film Preservation Foundation in 2007.

Bambi is nibbling the grass, unaware of the upcoming encounter with Godzilla. Who will win when they finally meet? Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2009.

A short educational Claymation film about dinosaurs. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

In this Puppetoon animated short film (an Academy Award Best Short Subject, Cartoons nominee), legendary American folklore figure John Henry (voice of Rex Ingram) goes to work for the C&O Railroad, which shortly thereafter buys an automatic steel-driving engine, The Inky-Poo. John Henry matches his strength against the engine, saying that any man can beat a machine because a man has a mind. Can he prevail? In 2015 this film, deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with UCLA Film & Television Archive in 2009.

Wallace and Gromit have run out of cheese, and this provides an excellent excuse for the duo to take their holiday to the moon, where, as everyone knows, there is ample cheese. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive.

Wallace's whirlwind romance with the proprietor of the local wool shop puts his head in a spin, and Gromit is framed for sheep-rustling in a fiendish criminal plot.

A short film about a mother and her son, she teaches him life skills later on the son gets niked by a man so the young donkey can be his work slave and his mother saves him. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with the UCLA Film and Television Archive in 2013.

The animation referred to as Early Animations or Quacked Jokes is an anomaly among Beckett's films. It was probably not intended to be shown outside of his sphere of friends, being a collection of early experiments and directions. While lacking the sophistication and artistry that is found in his six finished works, this film provides invaluable insight to his first attempts at animation and clues to some of his later work. - Pamela Turner. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with iotaCenter and National Film Preservation Foundation in 2007.

Music: Carl Stone. Colored pen-and-ink drawings, like topological maps of biomorphic objects, grow and evolve from the red star. Once the master image is formed, this continuously throbbing, pulsating sight is used to ring changes based on years of optical work. Music and picture work together to create a mood of ecstatic tranquility. The bright colors, beautiful music, surprise at the end, etc. make this a good film for young children. Awards: Sinking Creek Film & Video Festival, 1973; Washington National Student Film Festival, 1974; Brooklyn Independent Filmmakers Exposition, 1974; Vanguard Int'l Competition of Electronic Music for Film, 1974; Humboldt Film Festival, 1974. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with iotaCenter and National Film Preservation Foundation in 2007.

Two short fragments resulting from experiments in controlling the mechanical development of the instrument. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.

Early 'visual music' film by John Whitney. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 1999.

Garry Trudeau's classic characters (Mike Doonesbury, Zonker, etc.) examine how their lifestyles, priorities, and concerns have changed since the end of their idealistic college days in the 1960s. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

The Scarecrow trades Jasper a handful of beans for his harmonica. Jasper plants the beans and climbs up the resulting beanstalk and, at the top, finds a beautiful girl in a golden cage playing a golden harp. Jasper rescues her from the Scarecrow, brings her down the beanstalk, and spends the rest of his days dancing to the music his girlfriend plays on the harp. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with UCLA Film & Television Archive in 2009.

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

A woman's nightly domestic rituals—from putting her baby to bed to making love—unspool in a playful parade of surreal, straight-from-the-id images. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

Background is a 1973 American short documentary film directed by Carmen D'Avino. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. The original version was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

The film is based on a poem by James Weldon Johnson depicting the power of the southern black American preacher's telling of the biblical creation story.

Begins with a three beat announcement drawn out in time which thereafter serves as a figure to divide the four sections. Each return of this figure is more condensed, and finally used in reverse to conclude the film. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2004.