My top 100 short films
Mostly avant-garde short films, with not that many narrative based ones. All under 60 minutes, though a few are a little featurey in flavour! All wondrous and close to my heart.
Hortillonnages, amiens (2015 - Jacques Perconte) would have been in position #90 but is not listed on IMDb. Although I try and get every favourite I have seen listed, this one does not appear to have been released in a cinema and so therefore does not qualify for an IMDb listing. Include that and it's technically a top 101!
Hortillonnages, amiens (2015 - Jacques Perconte) would have been in position #90 but is not listed on IMDb. Although I try and get every favourite I have seen listed, this one does not appear to have been released in a cinema and so therefore does not qualify for an IMDb listing. Include that and it's technically a top 101!
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100 titles
- DirectorMarguerite DurasStarsMarguerite DurasA short film Marguerite Duras which documents the Tuileries Gardens.
- DirectorLarry JordanAn experimental short from Larry Jordan in which a horse rider and gymnast are filmed.
- DirectorNathaniel Dorsky
- DirectorMaya DerenAlexander HammidStarsMaya DerenAlexander HammidA woman returning home falls asleep and has vivid dreams that may or may not be happening in reality. Through repetitive images and complete mismatching of the objective view of time and space, her dark inner desires play out on-screen.
- DirectorDick RickardStarsDon WilsonWalt DisneyMilt KahlFerdinand is a quiet, gentle bull who only wants to stop and smell the flowers. After he is stung by a bee, the townspeople believe he is ferocious and take him to the bullfight.
- DirectorJirí BartaStarsOldrich KaiserJirí LábusMichal PavlícekThe story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin with a twist.
- DirectorOrson WellesStarsOrson WellesJeanne MoreauRoger CoggioIn Macao, a wealthy merchant named Charles Clay hires two people to recreate a story of a sailor who is paid to impregnate a man's wife.
- DirectorNathaniel DorskyThe experimental filmmaker reflects on the specific moods of the traditional rainy winter in his town of San Francisco, a period of darkness but also of verdant renewal.
- DirectorSteven ArnoldStarsRuth WeissAn experimental short film by Steven Arnold in which manikins in a department store come to life.
- DirectorLewis Klahr
- DirectorStephen QuayTimothy QuayStarsMagdalena CieleckaIn a technologically developed but feudal world beautiful Duenna is forced to choose between love and the task for which she was created.
- DirectorDeimantas NarkeviciusThe everyday scenes are of both the city and countryside, close-ups of people when they are relaxing, and hard at work, and of big crowds at an official outdoor gathering. The interior views are of private and public spaces. The images are suggestive of the ordering of the people's lives.
- DirectorKenneth AngerStarsKenneth AngerBobby BeausoleilDonald CammellEgyptian gods summons the angel Lucifer - in order to usher in a new occult age.
- DirectorNathaniel DorskyStarsNathaniel DorskyJerome HilerIt is a "silent tone poem" recording the daily events of Dorsky and his partner, artist Jerome Hiler around Lake Owassa in New Jersey and in Manhattan.
- DirectorAmir NaderiStarsSoheila AhmadiRasool ChamaniZohreh GhahremaniOne of Naderi's most beautiful films, a kind of magical realist parable that follows a boy's daily chore: bringing an elegant glass bowl to get filled with ice, and then returning home. The simplicity of this ritual stands in contrast to a world in which every glance and every gesture seems loaded with hidden meaning.
- DirectorAlexandre LaroseA dream-like walk through nature. A little girl in red, a dock, a lake.
- DirectorAdolfo ArrietaStarsAnne WiazemskyAdolfo ArrietaXavier GrandèsIn the Monkey Island, populated by men and frog women, spies covet sacred frogs.
- DirectorDave FleischerMyron WaldmanStarsJack MercerA 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.
- DirectorTom PalazzoloA "tour de force" of late 1960s civic and political countercultures, Love It/Leave It juxtaposes the annual Naked City contest in Roselawn, Indiana, neighborhood characters, and American consumerism with the foment of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago (replete with cameos by William S. Burroughs, Mayor Richard J. Daley, and Allen Ginsberg). The film reaches a crescendo with the insistent refrain of the Vietnam-era expression "love it or leave it."
- DirectorDon HertzfeldtStarsJulia PottWinona MaeSara CushmanA little girl is taken on a mind-bending tour of her distant future.
- DirectorBill ViolaWith a title referring to Japanese folklore, wherein things done on the first day of a new year are significant, the film - an ardent dream entirely shot in Japan - stands as a spiritual allegory equating light and dark with life and death.
- DirectorVladimir TarasovStarsAleksandr KaydanovskiyVasiliy LivanovAleksandr PashutinPeople survive on an alien planet in the hope of returning to Earth. Fantastic cartoon based on Kir Bulychyov's novel.
- DirectorLewis KlahrLewis Klahr's first film in 16mm, THE PHARAOH'S BELT was given a special citation for experimental film by the National Society of Film Critics in 1994.
- DirectorJirí TrnkaStarsOtýlie BenískováJana WerichováTrnka's sci-fi vision of the future in which machines and robots try to substitute themselves into the most beautiful human relationships. A cybernetic robot is supposed to substitute for the loving grandmother of a little girl. The wise grandmother, however, comes back and the girl finds the warmth of her grandmother's loving arms again. Trnka's artistic ideas in this film can be described as both poetically fragile and dramatically cautionary.
- DirectorJohn ParkerBruno VeSotaStarsAdrienne BarrettBruno VeSotaBen RosemanThis film, with no dialogue at all, follows a psychotic young woman's nightmarish experiences through one skid-row night.
- DirectorRon FrickeCarefully picked scenes of nature and civilization are viewed at high speed using time-lapse cinematography in an effort to demonstrate the history of various regions.
- DirectorPatrick BokanowskiReworked and colored images of people playing at the seashore.
- DirectorManuel HuergaStarsEulàlia BesJorge de JuanBárbara de Lema
- DirectorMarguerite DurasStarsMarguerite DurasFrom the end of a night to dawn. An uninterrupted traveling shot. From Bastille to the Champs-Elysees, by way of the Boulevard des Italiens, Avenue de l'Opera, and Rue de Rivoli, a depopulated Paris offers itself to Marguerite Duras' mysterious and profound voice.
- DirectorBruce ConnerAn experimental film from Bruce Conner which combines found footage of trains and small towns.
- DirectorAna VazStarsClaudia PereiraAna VazGuilherme VazThrough acts of memory and imagination Sacris Pulso narrates a displaced journey of its author. She returns to her genesis' through the re-construction marking the encounter of her parents' in 1985 in Brasilia, Brazil, in juxtaposition with other 8mm found footage sourced in Australia.
- DirectorLev AtamanovA Graceful passenger charmes the seamen with a marvellous dance. And when the storm comes, she reaches coast in a jump-weed and helps the ship to throw an anchor and rescues it from destruction.
- DirectorManoel de OliveiraStarsAntónio CruzA painter wanders around the city of Oporto painting what he sees: old and modern buildings, people arriving and leaving work in the factories, children playing.
- DirectorGraham HeidWilfred JacksonStarsElvia AllmanMarie ArbuckleBarbara BrewsterAs a thunderstorm approaches, birds, mice and other creatures try to stay safe and dry in an old mill.
- DirectorArtavazd PeleshianA reflection on the relationship between wildlife and humans.
- DirectorHermine Freed
- DirectorDaïchi Saïto
- DirectorSantiago ÁlvarezAn agit-prop documentary marking the death of Vietnamese nationalist leader Ho Chí Minh, using found footage to link his work to worldwide political movements including the Cuban revolution and resistance within the USA to the Vietnam war.
- DirectorJoost Rekveld
- DirectorPat O'NeillStarsJoel LorimenBeth BlockGeorge LockwoodA moving meditation on industrialization, focusing on the eerily desolate Owens Valley in California, made arid by the diversion of water from there to the city of Los Angeles.
- DirectorAlexandre LaroseThis project was inspired from the director's recurrent dream of falling from skyscrapers.
- DirectorCharles DekeukeleireStarsYvonne Selma
- DirectorWallace McCutcheonEdwin S. PorterStarsJack BrawnThe fiend faces the spectacular mind-bending consequences of his free-wheeling rarebit binge.
- DirectorNathaniel Dorsky
- DirectorStephen QuayTimothy QuaySteve Martland's Street Songs realized in eerily beautiful animation.
- DirectorGregory J. MarkopoulosStarsGeorge EmmonsAnn WellsPsyche 1947, made while a student at USC, shows Markopoulos' developing style and his sensuous use of colour and composition. Shot in the Hollywood hills, the film was inspired by an unfinished novella by Pierre Louÿs.
- DirectorGeorges SchwizgebelA series of repeated and transforming visual cycles, an animation painted on celluloid that examines transformation in the world around us.
- DirectorAleksandr PetrovStarsAleksandr KaydanovskiyThe man decides to die, but falls asleep at the last moment. He dreams that he died and ended up on another planet, very similar to the Earth, but the people living here do not know sin.
- DirectorEduard GalicSlow death of Istrian towns, far from the sea and abandoned by its residents. The houses can't be sold even for the peanuts.
- DirectorNathaniel Dorsky
- DirectorLewis KlahrA cut-out animated collage on the theme of change and lost time, underscored by Dory Previn's 'Theme to Valley of the Dolls', Jefferson Airplane's 'Lather' and John Cale reciting Andy Warhol's diary entry 'A Dream' from Songs for Drella.
- DirectorLen LyeWith the screen split asymmetrically, one part in positive, the other negative, the film documents the evolution of simple celled organic forms into chains of cells then more complex images from tribal cultures and contemporary modernist concepts. The images react, interpenetrate, perhaps attack, absorb and separate, until a final symbiosis (or redemption?) is achieved.
- DirectorErnie GehrAn experimental short in which San Francisco is viewed from an elevator moving up and down 24 floors.
- DirectorMichael RobinsonStarsMichael JacksonElizabeth TaylorTired of underworld and overworld alike, Isis escourts her favorite son on their final curtain call down the Nile, leaving a neon wake of shattered tombs and sparkling sarcophagi.
- DirectorPat O'Neill
- DirectorOskar FischingerExperience in animating a silhouette, with brief essays on three-dimensional dolls, charcoal drawings, cut paper. The main silhouette of the film explores the actions of two bellies in a tavern.
- DirectorJoris IvensStarsRoger PigautA travelogue of Valparaiso, Chile, a city built on steep hills. Life is a constant struggle against geography. Neighbourhoods are reached by series of ramps, staircases, and funicular railway elevators. The poorest residents on the hilltops have trouble obtaining water for drinking and washing. There are community dances, a travelling circus, a race course. Boys feed the harbour sealions; a fashionable woman walks her penguin. The ever-present onshore breeze provides fresh air and an ideal environment for kite-flying. The film's second half is in colour, making the switch with the tale of the city's bloody pirate past.
- DirectorJames Davis
- DirectorMan RayStarsKiki of MontparnasseAndré de la RivièreRobert DesnosTwo people stand on a road, out of focus. Seen distorted through a glass, they retire upstairs to a bedroom where she undresses. He says, "Adieu." Images: the beautiful girl, a starfish in a jar, city scenes, newspapers, tugboats. More images: starfish, the girl. "How beautiful she is." Repeatedly. He advances up the stair, knife in hand, starfish on the step. Three people stand on a road, out of focus. "How beautiful she was." "How beautiful she is." "Beautiful."
- DirectorBill Alves
- DirectorBotborg
- DirectorJean-Daniel PolletA short film documenting the seas and shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
- DirectorOtar IosselianiStarsTatyana ChanturiaGia ChiraqadzeAkakiy ChikvaidzeA young happy couple moves from a poor district to a new housing estate. Their relationship gets progressively worse as their comfort and possessions increase.
- DirectorTakashi Makino
- DirectorJean-Marie StraubStarsBarbara UlrichJoseph RottnerJean-Marie StraubTwo men on a walk. We see their back, we hear their voices, from time to time the sand creaks.
- DirectorOskar FischingerMental imagery of music is visualized with two-dimensional shapes dancing to the rhythm of Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.
- DirectorWalerian BorowczykA bizarre, semi-abstract animated film, based around the theme of angels being processed by a nightmarish factory. It has been interpreted as an allegory of the concentration camp experience and as a portrait of the industrialisation and collectivisation of the Soviet period.
- DirectorLewis KlahrSuperman's pal Jimmy Olsen gets his own story. Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy meets boy!
- DirectorHilary HarrisStarsBettie de JongBettie de Jong performs the same dance nine times, starting and ending in a reclined position. As the film proceeds the camera becomes more and more adventurous.
- DirectorClu GulagerStarsMike HertelJack GrindleJohn McCaffreyA group of boys spend their day outdoors exploring, wreaking havoc and letting their imaginations run wild.
- DirectorJonas MekasThe short film is a montage of sped up video clips of The Ringling Brothers Circus in action set to a musical track. The film is separated into four segments, each segment which focuses on different acts within the circus. The later segments often incorporate clips from earlier segments, mostly as background to the featured acts. The speed of the video clips match the tempo of the soundtrack music.
- DirectorBen RiversA family's place in the wilderness, outside of time; free-range animals and children, junk and nature, all within the most sublime landscape. The work aims at an idea of freedom, which is reflected in the hand-processed Scope format, but is undercut with a sense of foreboding. There's no particular story; beginning, middle or end, just fragments of lives lived, rituals performed.
- DirectorDimitri KirsanoffStarsNadia SibirskaïaYolande BeaulieuGuy BelmontA couple is brutally murdered in the working-class district of Paris. Later on, the narrative follows the lives of their two daughters, both in love with a Parisian thug and leading them to separate ways.
- DirectorChristopher MaclaineA short film which documents a Scottish dance festival.
- DirectorCarsten AschmannDriving through the mountains. The sounds of chords, beauty, art and death echo through the places and elements. The trip ends in the city of Venice which appears exhausted and deserted.
- DirectorWerner NekesAn experimental short film that depicts habitable and uninhabited locations in a dizzying fashion.
- DirectorHans RichterStarsWerner GraeffWalter GronostayPaul HindemithHans Richter, noted for his abstract shorts, has everyday objects rebelling against their daily routine.
- DirectorNathaniel Dorsky
- DirectorPeter B. Hutton
- DirectorNathaniel Dorsky
- DirectorAnthony GrossHector HoppinA tone poem: two woodland sprites dance about, atop power lines and among flowers and leaves, while being pursued. Everyone spends some time pulling levers to switch trains, too.
- DirectorBruce ConnerBruce Conner reconstructs his own film Looking for Mushrooms (1962) by expanding each frame five times in length and adding footage of similar mushroom hunts he did in Frisco.
- DirectorPat O'Neill
- DirectorRené LalouxStarsOlivier CruveillerJean-Claude DreyfusAmong the aged master painter Wang-Fô's impeccable paintings, exists a mediocre and unflattering portrait of the pale Celestial Emperor that has merited him execution, nevertheless, how is this possible?
- DirectorUb IwerksStarsWalt DisneyThe demons of hell play music for Satan, whose delight turns to wrath when an insubordinate refuses to become food for Cerberus.
- DirectorZdenko GasparovicA short film which documents the animator's satirical outlook on life using only music and images to convey the message.
- DirectorAl Razutis
- DirectorPeter B. Hutton
- DirectorShûji TerayamaStarsHiroshi MikamiTakeshi WakamatsuKeiko NiitakaA young man, haunted by his past, travels the land in search of the lyrics to a lullaby his mother used to sing to him.
- DirectorBen RussellTrance dance and water implosion, a line drawn between secular freak-outs and religious phenomena. Shot in a single-take at a sacred site on the Upper Suriname River, the minor secrets of an animist are revealed as time itself is undone. Rites are the new Trypps, embodiment is our eternal everything.
- DirectorAleksandr SokurovStarsAleksandr SokurovAleksander Sokurov brings the treasures of the Hermitage back into the light by making films about artists and their paintings. He has chosen the painter Hubert Robert, who spent a long time in Italy, and whose preference was for creating ancient ruined landscapes and naturalistic portrayals of times past. He was successful with the wealthy, who bought his works from him. The camera pans across the paintings while Sokurov speaks of a happy era, when the artist was at one with the spirit of the times, and agreed with the taste of his clients. Just how far removed from us this is, is shown by pictures of a "Nô" performance which are inter-cut on the screen. No words are necessary to describe what everybody knows today.
- DirectorAlain TannerStarsAlain TannerJohn BergerThe construction of a new city in India in 1951 by the French architect Le Corbusier.
- DirectorKarel ZemanStarsKarel ZemanAn artist takes inspiration from the rain outside.
- DirectorPeter LiechtiWhile on vacation, the director takes an excursion to an unfamiliar neighboring canton. There, in the alpine confinement, he finds an ideal echo for the rage he had brought with him: rage towards the mountains, civilization and mentality.
- DirectorOskar FischingerA short painted film by Oskar Fishchinger which films images to the music of Johann Bach.
- DirectorTatsuo SatôMasaaki YuasaA young anthropomorphic cat goes on a psychedelic journey with his sister in order to save her soul.
- DirectorIvan MaksimovThe author of the work in a grotesque form tries to convey to the viewer that school education can not only make people better, but also, with an inappropriate approach to training, turn them into notorious monsters. We follow one lesson in school of fantastic, but such recognizable monsters.
- DirectorAlfred MachinStarsPitje AmbrevilleBerryerMademoiselle SaunièresDutch girl Johanna loves poor Joachim, but marries the weathy Miller. When the miller finds out, he takes revenge.
- DirectorBarbara HammerAn experimental movie where the viewpoint starts in a placid pond high inland, and follows the flow of water down to the sea. The movie experiments with viewing both the air, the water, and the surface of the water at the same time. The tempo changes from calm to frenzied later in the movie as the water is more disturbed.