Envío 23

Frank Zappa: The Freak Out List(en)

On the liner notes to Freak Out!, the 1967 debut album by Zappa's original band the Mothers of Invention, Zappa listed some seventy-two names on the liner notes and cited them as influences. The Freak Out List intends to explore who these artists are and what influence they had on Zappa's music. This listing encompasses all sorts of music, from classical composer Edgar Varese to R&B star Johnny "Guitar" Watson to jazzman Eric Dolphy to flamenco guitarist Sabicas. You can hear for instance, how the esoteric classical influence of Varese shaped Zappa's long-form epics like "Lumpy Gravy" or how Dolphy's instrumental prowess led Zappa to incorporate jazz-fusion on albums like Weasels Ripped My Flesh! (1970), which even included a song titled "The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue." Interviews with various Zappa biographers and music historians as well as musicians George Duke, Ian Underwood, and Don Preston, all of whom played in the Mothers at one time or another, help add additional context.

Orchard Street(en)

This short film documents the daily life of the goings-on on Orchard Street, a commercial street in the Lower East Side New York City.

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City(de)

A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.

Petrol - Carburant - Kraftstoff(de)

Night Flight: Born Again(en)

Documentary tribute to what VH1 called “the single greatest rock omnibus program ever aired” and Brooklyn Vegan named “the most consistently weird and awesome thing on cable television in the ’80s.” This ‘Best Of’ episode features some of the most memorable moments of Night Flight's near-decade long run including restored interviews and segments from Kate Bush, New Wave Theatre, David Lynch, Prince, Wendy O Williams, Divine, Billy Idol, Johnny Rotten, and much more Night Flight treasures from the archive.

The Beginner's Guide to Spinning in Loops(en)

From June 2021 to June 2022, Justin "Jastun" Bland records whatever that is in front of him. He presents an abstract montage of collected videos varying from onscreen recordings to filming special, intimate & mundane in-real-life moments. This short captures our daily routines in life and how we choose to spontaneously record them.

The Other Line(sr)

Druga linija aka The Other Line is a product of many years of research of neo-avant-garde cultural and art scene in Novi Sad, Serbia (late 60s and 70s), which has been marginalized until today. This artistic movement was directly connected not only with important art centers of the former Yugoslavia, but also with existing flows of world art during its brief and productive activities (7e Biennale de Paris, 19th Berlinale). The cultural and artistic emancipation of that time had implied individual freedom of expression and strong reaction to established boundaries. This avant-garde movement had become threat to communist establishment, the authors' work were sabotaged, the films were sealed off, five artists were taken to trial, two were sent in prison. How is it that the retrograde mechanism of shutting down and removing the most creative and representative progressive impulses of our surrounding is still so current to this day?

From Pompeii to Xenia(en)

From Pompeii to Xenia puts in echo times of innocence struck by disaster: the lightning tornado which had beaten down on the American city of Xénia in 1974 answers, at thousands of kilometers in distance and centuries apart, the mythical eruption of Vesuvius in 79. The extended panorama, derived through the crossing of history and from an intimate story and urban sociology, is the cinematic reconstruction of a personal history: of its historical and geographical conditions to its processing.

Second Shift(en)

A correctional officer’s daily routine of gaining access into a correctional facility.

Six Positions(en)

Six Positions (1998) is about task of a funeral home director.

A Week in the Hole(en)

A Week in the Hole chronicles a factory employee’s adjusting to the materials, time, space and personnel during his first day of work.

bleared eyes of blue glass(xx)

The "bleared eyes of blue glass" in the title of this experimental short expand on a verbal image from Virginia Woolf's novel The Waves, considered the most experimental among the 20th-century British writer's literary works, from which the young filmmaker took inspiration for his film, borrowing passages and visions to explain his own understanding of what cinema is. A film that plays with water - precisely - and light, and yet in a very dark b&w lit up by rare flashes of colour, making a journey in the night in which the shadow of a man gradually acquires substance.

The Contact Enigma(en)

Three people become connected through mysterious circumstances involving electronic devices which spontaneously appeared in their world.

One Second in Montreal(en)

A silent succession of black-and-white photographs of the city of Montreal.

Einstein on the Beach: The Changing Image of Opera(en)

The creative processes of avant-garde composer Philip Glass and progressive director/designer Robert Wilson are examined in this film. It documents their collaboration on this tradition breaking opera.

P.M.(es)

Controversial cinéma vérité analysis of Havana’s lumpenproletariat in waterfront bars and cafés shortly after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.

La deuxième femme(fr)

Over the course of more than fifteen years, Clémenti films a series of intimate diaries, starting from daily encounters. In La deuxième femme, we see Bulle Ogier and Viva, Nico and Tina Aumont, Philippe Garrel and Udo Kier, a performance by Béjart, a piece by Marc’O, concerts by Bob Marley and Patti Smith (not always recognisable)... It’s like a maelstrom of psychedelic images that are passed through a particle accelerator.

Rouge ! L'Art au pays des soviets(fr)

The Life of Python(en)

Celebrating their 30th anniversary, Monty Python presents exclusive new material and so-called classic bits. Disc : 1 Contains 1:It's The Monty Python Story 2:Pythonland 3:The Last Python Mayday Special 4:From Spam to Sperm:Monty Pythons Greatest Hits An Animated South Park Tribute Disc:2 1 The Last German Episode Fliegender Zirkus #2: Schnapps with Everything

The Dreamer That Remains: A Portrait of Harry Partch(en)

The Dreamer That Remains is a documentary produced by Betty Freeman and directed by Stephen Pouliot in 1972. Here is the director’s original cut along with his commentary. If you’ve never seen Partch or his instruments before, this is the place to start.