Hunting Keys

Agitprop short made in West Germany. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.

Short film about the Manzanar Japanese American internment camp. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2011.

A model Cuban revolutionary tragically dies at work and, as a badge of honor, is buried with his labor card in his suit pocket. When his widow attempts to apply for his pension, the pension office demands the original labor card. Desperate, his nephew embarks on an increasingly chaotic and surreal quest through the Cuban bureaucratic system to secure permission to exhume the body, only to be met with endless forms, contradictory regulations, and apathetic officials.

When Edward Creighton leads the construction of the Western Union to unite East with West, he hires a Western reformed outlaw and a tenderfoot Eastern surveyor. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation in 2000.

Farmer Frank and his ward hunt brother Jesse's killers, the back-shooting Fords.

Many times during his presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson said that ultimate victory in the Vietnam War depended upon the U.S. military winning the "hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people. Filmmaker Peter Davis uses Johnson's phrase in an ironic context in this anti-war documentary, filmed and released while the Vietnam War was still under way, juxtaposing interviews with military figures like U.S. Army Chief of Staff William C. Westmoreland with shocking scenes of violence and brutality.

"Whereas SQUARE INCH FIELD was composed largely in the camera, Rimmer's next film, MIGRATION, made full use of rear-projection rephotography, stop-framing, and slow motion. The migration of the title is interpreted as the flight of a ghost bird through aeons of space/time, through the micro-macro universe, through a myriad of complex realities. A seagull is seen flying gracefully in slow motion against a grainy green sky; suddenly the frame stops, warps and burns, as though caught in the gate of the projector. Now begins an alternation of fast and slow sequences in which the bird flies through time-lapse clouds and fog and, in a stroboscopic crescendo, hurtles into the sun's corona. Successive movements of the film develop rhythmic, organic counterpoints in which cosmic transformations send jelly fish into the sky and ocean waves into the sun." - Gene Youngblood. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2014.

Blue Movie was made for the international Dome Show where it was projected down onto the muslin surface of David Rimmer's geodesic dome. The audience lay on the floor looking up at it, the inside of each eye finishing the globe. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

"Treefall" was originally made for a dance performance at the Vancouver Art Gallery, April, 1970. Structured in the form of two loops of high-contrast images of trees falling, reprinted and overlapped. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2014.

With an irresistible humour, Rimmer speculates in The Dance on the nature of the film loop. We see a (1920s) couple whilring around a dance floor at a dizzying pace... Uncanny in its ability to evoke complexity of responses from a simplicity of means. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2015.

In Flesh Flows we see a balance of Beckett’s keen drawing ability, in the probing erotic forms, and his technical acuity, which transforms the carnal images into a compelling, transcendent experience. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with iotaCenter and National Film Preservation Foundation in 2007.

Don Diego Vega pretends to be an indolent fop as a cover for his true identity, the masked avenger Zorro. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

Documentary short film reporting on the activities of the American Red Cross and the useage made of contributed funds for the previous year. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

Jury foreman Edward Weldon's questioning leads to the death sentence for Ethel Saxon. His daughter Stella claims to have killed her lover, the gangster Garboni, just as Saxon was to sit in the electric chair.

The Big Show, the only feature-length motion picture produced by the Miller Brothers, is a behind-the-scenes melodrama set within their show. The story: Bill, a war veteran who has been defrauded by his brother, rescues Ruth, the elephant girl, and joins the company. Secretly engaged to Bill’s “bad brother” Norman—allegedly an oil millionaire—Ruth rebuffs her rescuer’s affection. Her elephant, however, knows a villain when he smells one and eventually gives Norman his just deserts. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with the National Film Preservation Foundation New Zealand Project in 2012.

Her First Kiss, where the glamorous Ethel Teare trades her fancy gowns for the rough attire of Minnie Spuds, the gawky farm girl who Chester tries to swindle. Whether dangling from a ladder, teetering over a cliff in a horse-and-buggy, or wielding a mop, Minnie may be from the sticks but never misses a beat. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive, New Zealand Project, in partnership with Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation in 2013.

Don’t expect much in the way of a plot from Kick Me Again. When a married student falls for her portly dance instructor, Puffy is forced to flee in a ballet tutu from the clutches of her jealous husband. The usual slapstick complications ensue before the cross-dressing funnyman finally locates a new suit of clothes. The viewing pleasure comes not from the run-of-the-mill gags and storyline but from seeing a master wring every ounce of comedy from his ungainly outfit. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive, in partnership with Universal Pictures, in 2013.

Gracias Amigos was a 1944 propaganda short produced by the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs to educate the American public about the contributions of Latin America during World War II. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive, Academy War Film Collection, in 2012.

When The Hand of God creates Adam, he must learn the ways of the world, and can only hope for company.

A sideshow barker uses magic and visual aids to alert the public that proper food management is both a resource and a weapon that could be to America's advantage if conserved properly in winning the then current World War. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive, Academy War Film Collection, in 2008.