Jim Henson: Commercials and Experiments

Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory

Working men and women leave through the main gate of the Lumière factory in Lyon, France. Filmed on 22 March 1895, it is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made, although Louis Le Prince's 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by seven years. Three separate versions of this film exist, which differ from one another in numerous ways. The first version features a carriage drawn by one horse, while in the second version the carriage is drawn by two horses, and there is no carriage at all in the third version. The clothing style is also different between the three versions, demonstrating the different seasons in which each was filmed. This film was made in the 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.

Distance-Landscape: Football Field

Study of the relationship between observer and landscape in the contemplative experience. The view building the landscape from the necessary distance. The delimitation of its borders against the total continuum of nature. The observer immersed in the path of his gaze across the landscape. Resting the gaze in the details that make the globallity. The view selecting the space included as a landscape.

The Magic Bond

The Veterans of Foreign Wars as a fraternal and social organization, with emphasis on their projects that benefit community life and cohesion.

Darts in the Dark: An Introduction to W.O. Mitchell

Canadian author, humorist and storyteller W.O. Mitchell talks about his career as a writer and performer. Known for his witty radio and television appearances, Mitchell shows a more serious side as he reveals his personal views on writing and on the meaning of life and death.

Inner Rap

Makulatura [which means both scrap paper and pulp fiction in Russian] is a duo of poets Evgeniy Alyokhin and Konstantin Speransky, who have been performing together since 2003. Blending classic literature references, mind-bending introspection, musings on modern love and an ironic attitude to their act, they create what faithful fans and listeners call “existential rap.” The film follows Makulatura on tour through several Russian cities.

Where are the African Gods?

A moving recording of the late writer and renowned jazz singer Abbey Lincoln is captured in this new film from Brooklyn-born director Rodney Passé, who has previously worked with powerhouse music video director Khalil Joseph. Reading from her own works, Lincoln’s voice sets the tone for a film that explores the African American experience through fathers and their sons.

Wè

As Black and LGBTQ+ History Month begin this February, material science clothing brand PANGAIA leads celebrations with a poetic film that honors these two communities. Following a year of isolation, and with it a deeper understanding of the importance of outdoor spaces and the environment, Wè is a portrait of the self-love and acceptance we have learned to show others and gift to ourselves.

The Thinnest Line

A fist-person story of the director of the documentary, who talks about the loneliness that entails living with an eating disorder and her vision now thar she is entering into adulthood.

Aus der Tiefe empor

Images and numbers illustrate the domestic political measures taken after the Nazis came to power to eliminate unemployment.

La marche

The End of Summer

A 16 year old girl recalls the last moments of her summer vacation, spent with friends in the Laurentians north of Montreal. She reminisces about their talks on life, death, love, and God. Shot in direct cinema style, working from a script that left room for the teenagers to improvise and express their own thoughts, the film sought to capture the immediacy of the youths presence their bodies, their language, their environment.

Scum Manifesto

Delphine Seyrig reads passages from a Valerie Solanas’s SCUM manifesto.

Land Without Bread

An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, as it was in 1932. Insalubrity, misery and lack of opportunities provoke the emigration of young people and the solitude of those who remain in the desolation of one of the poorest and least developed Spanish regions at that time.

Le Sourire

In the year that Cannes Film Festival handed out awards to Federico Fellini for La Dolce Vita, L'Avventura by Michelangelo Antonioni, and Kagi by Kon Ichikawa -- 'Le Sourire' won the Palme d'Or for Best Short Film in 1960. This quiet and intelligent film is a remarkable interpretation of a young monks perspective into a world of meditation, sacred geometry, and coming of age. A tribute to Buddhism, introspection and the wonders of nature...a short but lasting work of art.

La casa delle vedove

LA CASA DELLE VEDOVE portrays a group of widows who, he thinks, lived in a constant ‘dialogue‘ with death. In the house where they all lived ‘every colour was saturated with that special reddish shade that you see everywhere in Rome, and furthermore the rooms were filled with a stale, musty smell.‘

Propaganda Message

A cartoon film about the whole heterogeneous mixture of Canada and Canadians, and the way the invisible adhesive called federalism makes it all cling together. That the dissenting voices are many is made amply evident, in English and French. But this animated message also shows that Canadians can laugh at themselves and work out their problems objectively.

The Silence

There are children. There are those who abuse them. And there are those who know, but never tell.

To the Fair!

Promotional film extolling the wonders to be seen at the New York World's Fair.

Con Traje y Sin Zapatos

The House Is Black

Set in a leper colony in the north of Iran, The House is Black juxtaposes "ugliness," of which there is much in the world as stated in the opening scenes, with religion and gratitude.