Official Opening of McTaggart Esplanade (1927)

A mother and her twins talk about each other. The device of miming each others words, gives a disconcerting twist to the children's cruel honesty and their mother's unconditional adoration.

The dangers of drinking and driving are illustrated to a teenager returning from a beach party, where after having "one too many beach beers" he runs over a young mother and her child. This black and white short is not to be confused with the later color film, with same title, from 1968 (some sources indicate 1965).

(1985) An animated satire on the question of self image for African American women living in a society where beautiful hair is viewed as hair that blows in the wind and lets you be free. Lively tunes and witty narration accompany a quick-paced inventory of relaxers, gels and curlers. Such rituals are all-too familiar to African American women-and indeed to all women confronted with an unattainable ideal of beauty. This short film has become essential for discussions of racism, African American cinema and empowerment. Used by hundreds of groups as diverse as museums, churches, hospitals and hair stylists. (http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c297.shtml)

Unscrupulously ambitious, Brutus Jones escapes from jail after killing a guard and, through bluff and bravado, finds himself the emperor of a Caribbean island.

God sends a note to his supporters below, and they obey his every command.

A short Surrealist animation from Denmark which begins with a zoom into a Paul Delvaux painting, then reverses the process by pulling back from a continually changing picture.

A writer is persecuted by an enormous and abusive letter 'A'.

We begin on planet Earth, with a demonstration of measuring distances using triangulation. Then, an imaginary voyage begins from earth to the moon, on to Mars, Saturn, the closest star (besides the sun), and beyond to the edge of our universe. The film depicts imagined landscapes, and it speculates on universes beyond ours. It ends with philosophical musings about the significance of Earth.

19th century carnival ride.

A Lumière street scene of Paris showing the traffic of horse carriages.

The parade occupies only a small portion of the screen, the crowds are a seething mass that do really move and the Independence Bell is nowhere to be seen.

A brief scene at a sheep slaughterhouse.

In the early inscriptions, this film is presented as a “lyrical bounce from reality” but not “senseless extravagance.” The plot involves a trek official to the advice of “There will be a hole in the sky even if you go back”, the procession of two people with a wardrobe and a march of people defending the established rules (“Down with walking backwards”). The formal aspect in the movie is a lot of trick shots using a mirror, photographs and negatives.

Early Balkan footage.

Early Balkan footage.

Early Balkan footage.

Early Balkan footage.

In mud flats along the coast of Brittany we watch acera, small ball-shaped mollusks that are about two inches in diameter. They rest in mud; then, in water, they dance, their skirt-like hood spreading like a dervish's cassock. They spin and spin. The film adds musical accompaniment. We watch them mate and secrete eggs: acera are both male and female, and can form chains with other acera in which they simultaneously mate as a male and as a female. The eggs hatch, and the cycle begins again.

Early Balkan footage.

Early Balkan footage.