This film marks the end of our series for now, which makes the Indian production Hungry Autumn by Goutam Ghose from 1974 the final stop of this journey through roughly 25 years of festival history. In 1978, the film won a Main Prize in Oberhausen: a documentary about the Bangladesh famine in 1974 and one of the first Indian documentaries to be censored. People on the margins of society were a theme that Ghose repeatedly took up again in his later feature films, too.

András Monory Mész’s Távolban egy Bíbor Vitorla (A Purple Sail in the Distance), Hungary 1978, was the diploma film of the actor, director and cinematographer at the University for Theatre and Film Art in Budapest. A mixture of feature film elements and found footage with music by Steve Reich, it was awarded the Main Prize of the International Jury in Oberhausen in 1980.

Lutka Snova (The Dream Doll) by Zlatko Grgić and Bob Godfrey is a Yugoslavian-British co-production by Zagreb Film and Bob Godfrey Films from 1980. A lonely old man finds his true love, an inflatable sex doll, only to lose it again. But there is a kind of happy ending after all. Lutka Snova was screened in Oberhausen in 1980 and was nominated for the Best Short Animation Oscar in the same year.

Jerzy Kucia’s Krag (The Ring), a Polish production from 1978, is an experimental documentary juxtaposing the unconscious cruelty of nature and the deliberate cruelty of humans. Kucia himself called his films “emotional documentaries.” A horse pulls a wagon, people enjoy themselves by the water, while the processing of the images as well as the soundtrack create a disturbing atmosphere. The scriptwriter, animation filmmaker, artist, producer and teacher taught in Vancouver, London and Mumbai, among others. Krag was shown in Oberhausen in 1978.

Zdenkó Gasparovich’s Satiemania (Yugoslavia, 1978) is an animation to Erik Satie’s piano music. Drawn in a wealth of different styles, taking inspiration from Otto Dix or George Grosz through to underground comics, the film shows people, bars, supermarkets and more, a wild ride through the urban jungle. Satiemania won multiple awards, was nominated for an Oscar and won the Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen in 1979.

Gerrit van Dijk was a Dutch animator, filmmaker, actor and painter who studied painting at first and then switched to film which he regarded as a logical continuation of painting. Quod Libet from 1977 is a surreal game with pornographic elements and was screened in Oberhausen in 1978. Van Dijk was awarded Golden Bears in Berlin for two of his short films, for Pas de Deux in 1989 and for I move, so I am – which was also screened in Oberhausen – in 1998.

The French production Toute Révolution Est un Coup de Dés (Every Revolution Is a Throw of the Dice) from 1977 by Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub was screened in Oberhausen in 1978. As with almost all films by Huillet and Straub, this film is based on a literary text, in this case Stéphane Mallarmé’s poem “Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hazard.” Straub had been a frequent guest in Oberhausen since the 1960s, alone at first, later with Danièle Huillet. Their most recent film in Oberhausen was Il Viandante (The Wanderer), which was screened in the 2002 International Competition.

In Frame (1976), Ken Kobland films a coastal landscape from a moving car, overlaying the screen image with a second, smaller and delayed image: An experimental approach to a place and an example of Kobland’s typical use of visual effect. Frame was screened in Oberhausen in 1977. In 2017, Oberhausen dedicated a Profile to Ken Kobland. His most recent film in Oberhausen was The Dress (co-director EJay Sims), which was shown in the International Online Competition in 2022.

Küzdők (The Struggle) is a Hungarian animation by Marcell Jankovics from 1977. A sculptor creates a statue that begins to carve its creator with a chisel. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1977 and in the same year won the Short Film Palme d’Or in Cannes.

A hamlet in the mountains in which only the old people remain – the young have long moved to the coast. Aleksandar F. Stasenko’s documentary Put (The Road), a Yugoslavian production from 1976, follows them as they work over seven years in their spare time to build a four-kilometre long road to their native village. Deriving visual poetry from harsh realism, Stasenko’s film is an ode to perseverance which was screened in Oberhausen in 1977.

Military technology that goes rogue and destroys everything: Václa Mergl’s animated allegory Krabi (Crabs), produced in Czechoslovakia in 1976, appears astonishingly topical in the age of AI. The film is based on a short story by Anatoly Dneprov and is one of a series of science fiction short films made by the Czechoslovakian animator, artist, writer and director Mergl. It was screened in Oberhausen in 1977.

In 1976, Werner Herzog learned of the imminent eruption of the volcano La Soufrière on Guadeloupe and that some residents had refused to be evacuated. He sets out at once with two cameramen – Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein and Ed Lachmann. The resulting film is La Soufrière – Waiting for an Inevitable Disaster from 1977, a visually powerful reflection on the forces of nature and death, accompanied by Herzog’s typical voiceover. The film was shown in Oberhausen in 1977.

Labyrinth Tale by Shūji Terayama (Japan 1976) is an experimental film in which two men carry a door which leads into a different world each time it is opened – the maze of reality. In Oberhausen, Terayama was awarded the Will Wehling Memorial Prize for this film in 1976. The writer and director frequently caused controversy with his long and short films – for example the erotic film The Fruits of Passion with Klaus Kinski from 1981, based on themes from the “Story of O.”

WARNING: This film shows disturbing images of industrialised chicken farming!

Black chicks fatten up slower than other chicks, so in the food industry they are eliminated and end up in the dumpster – under the mallet, along with other rejected chicks. Aleksandar Ilić’s short film Malj (The Mallet), a Yugoslavian production from 1977, shows the factory processes as a dark allegory on discrimination and segregation based on biological characteristics. Ilić was a Yugoslav writer, editor and director. He was one of the most important filmmakers in former Yugoslavia and modern Serbia, primarily of documentaries and of popular science films, and worked on more than 500 films until his death in 2012. Malj was screened in Oberhausen in 1977.

The Canadian documentary Whistling Smith by Marrin Canell and Michael J.F. Scott from 1975 is the portrait of an unconventional cop in the streets of Vancouver, who is tough on the drug users, petty thieves and prostitutes on his beat, but also acts as their counsellor and friend. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, the film made a star of its protagonist, Bernie “Whistling” Smith, and was nominated for the Best Short Documentary Oscar in 1976. It was screened in Oberhausen in the same year.

An exercise in analogue animation, George Griffin’s THE HEAD (USA 1975) is a self-portrait of the artist as a not-so-young man. Griffin combines several animation techniques, including flipbooks, stop motion and altered documentary footage, in a self-referential homage to the pioneering processes of Émile Cohl, with music by Fred Israel. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1976.

The Yugoslavian production PROZOR (The Window, 1976) by Živko Nikolić paints a haunting and stylized picture of the silent daily life of a peasant women in a remote village, marked by the oppression of a patriarchal society. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1976, where it was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize as well as two Special Mentions.

L´EMPREINTE (Footprint) is the only animated film by French graphic artist and cartoonist Jacques Armand Cardon, inspired by his graphic novel "La véridique histoire des compteurs à air". A boy wears a device on his back which he takes off at some point. The impressions left by the device fit perfectly with the boots of a large man who presses the boy to the ground until he can only crawl. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1976, where it won the Prize of the Catholic Film Work.

In his FRG-produced film INVENTUR (Inventory), more precisely INVENTUR – METZSTRASSE 11 from 1974, Želimir Žilnik portrays the tenants of an old building in Munich. Most of them are foreigners, so-called “guest workers” from Yugoslavia, Italy, Turkey and other countries, who introduce themselves briefly and talk about their worries and hopes. The film follows a strict formal structure, opening up all the more haunting insights into a world that no longer exists.

Nedeljko Dragić’s animation DNEVNIK (Diary) from 1974 shows a loose series of associative pictures of the wonders and alienations of modern life in different drawing styles. Dragić, who was born in Croatia, was one of the best-known animators of his time and received the Will Wehling Memorial Prize at the West German Short Film Festival in 1975 for this film.

TEREMOS INFÂNCIA (We Shall Have a Childhood) is a Brazilian production by Aloysio Raulino from 1974, which was screened in Oberhausen in the same year, where it won a prize of the “Jury of Seven.” The documentary portrays Arnulfo Silva, who grew up in the streets as an abandoned child and talks about the hardships and humiliations of his childhood – and calls for more attention for street kids.

The Belgian animated short TROMBLON STRIKES AGAIN by Jean-Michel TEheux and Jacqueline Peycker from 1976 was screened in Oberhausen in the same year. The film, which is accompanied by a psychedelic-sounding soundtrack, was produced at the Animation department of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels de la Cambre in Bruxelles.

Werner Nekes‘ HYNNINGEN (1973) was screened in Oberhausen in 1974. The film plays with double exposures: superimposed images of the interior and exterior of a house, a half-transparent figure walking back and forth in front of an open window. Werner Nekes, who grew up in Oberhausen and died in Mülheim/Ruhr in 2017, had a long-standing connection to our Festival, many of his short films were screened in Oberhausen.

This video may potentially trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy. 

The Canadian animated short HOT STUFF by Zlatko Grgić from 1971 is a playful warning against various fire hazards, starting with a freezing caveman who is given fire by a god to a contemporary forgotten flat iron. Oberhausen screened this film, which was produced for the Dominion Fire Commission, in 1972, when it was awarded the diploma of the ICO-GRADA Jury.

Zoran Tadić's short documentary PLETENICE (The Braids) from 1974 was shown in Oberhausen in the same year. Tadić is one of the most important Croatian directors, both as a documentary filmmaker and as a director of fictional films, which made him one of the best-known Croatian genre directors from 1981 onwards. In 2013, Oberhausen dedicated a joint profile to him, Petar Krelja and Krsto Papić.

The less-than-two-minute animation SISYPHUS by Hungarian animator Marcell Jankovics from 1974 tells the story of the Greek myth of Sysiphus in 1,600 ink drawings. The film was shown in Oberhausen in 1975 and was nominated for an Oscar for ‘Best Animated Short Film’ in the same year.

In LEONARDUV DENIK (Leonardo's Diary) by Jan Švankmajer (1972), Švankmajer mixed images from Leonardo da Vinci's paintings with real film footage. The film is accompanied by brass music and drums, while bombs are dropped, sporting competitions take place, accidents happen and Leonardo's drawn eye turns in its own cave. The film was shown in Oberhausen in 1974.

The 1973 animation FRANK FILM by American director Frank Mouris was shown in Oberhausen in 1974. For the film, he combined 11,592 newspaper cuttings into collages and played two superimposed soundtracks that tell the story of Mouris' life. The film won the Oscar in the ‘Best Animated Short Film’ category in 1974 and was added to the National Film Registry in 1996.

The legendary Jan Švankmajer’s JABBERWOCKY from 1971 takes its title from a nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll in his 1871 novel “Through the Looking Glass”, which is recited at the beginning of the film. Meanwhile, a wardrobe moves through the forest, a child’s sailor suit comes alive and puppets eat other puppet. In the 1960s and 70s, Oberhausen presented a number of films by Švankmajer, in 1969 he won the Grand Prize of the International Jury for BYT (The Apartment).

The less-than-three-minute avant-garde animation UFO’S from 1971 is a US production directed by Lillian Schwartz and Ken Knowlton, who mixed visuals of a colour-changing row of rotating balls with the sounds of electronic, sometimes dissonant beeps. Schwartz was one of the female pioneers of computer art. Oberhausen screened the film in 1973, when it won the Diploma of the ICO-GRADA Jury.

The metaphorically charged short film LA MORT DU RAT (Death of a Rat) by the French filmmaker Pascal Aubier from 1973 shows the work of a man who falls behind while packing beans, is hollered at by his boss and vents his frustration at home. At the end, a cat eats the rat. Aubier has directed a number of short and long films and is also known as an actor. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1974.

The three-minute documentary CINEMA from 1972 was screened in Oberhausen in 1973. The film documents the work of an itinerant film projectionist who shows films with the simplest of means in Afghanistan, a country practically without cinemas. Schroeder, born in Berlin in 1939, was one of the major figures of the New Swiss Film.

The documentary USTANAK U JASKU (Uprising in Jazak) from 1973 is a film by the multiple-award-winning Serbian director Želimir Žilnik, one of the foremost representatives of the Yugoslavian Black Wave of the 1960s and 70s. People from Jazak describe their uprising during the occupation of their village in World War II. Oberhausen screened the film in 1973.

The documentary portrait of an old woman and her goat, DRUGE (Friends) by Zoran Tadić from 1973 was screened in Oberhausen in the same year. Tadić is considered one of the most important Croatian directors and made more than 20 films between 1959 and 1997. With Krsto Papić and Petar Krelja, he was one of the pioneers of the Croatian documentary film wave of the 1960s, to whom Oberhausen dedicated a Profile in 2013.

This three-minute appeal for donations was commissioned to raise funds for the second season of the New American Film Series at the Whitney Museum of Art. Suzan Pitt, creator of classics like ASPARAGUS (1979), which was also screened at Oberhausen, made WHITNEY COMMERCIAL in 1973 and it was projected at the end of each programme for two or three years, until the Museum agreed to sponsor the series on its own, which continued to run well into the 2000s.

TUPAMAROS by Jan LIndquist, Sweden 1972, focuses on the Uruguayan guerrillas of the Tupamaros and was filmed at the height of their operation. Filmed clandestinely, it analyses at unusual length for Oberhausen (50 minutes) theory and practice of the guerrilla struggle in Urugay. It is also part of a movement in the 1960s and 70s, when many Swedish filmmakers were involved in the liberation struggles of the global south. In 1973, the film was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize (ex aequo) in Oberhausen. The Kurzfilmtage Archive still holds a print of the film.

The Canadian production STREET MUSIQUE is an animated film with real live elements by Ryan Larkin from 1972, his first film following the Oscar-nominated WALKiNG. It’s an imaginative visual improvisation to the music of a group of street musician for which Larkin employed various animation styles. It was awarded the first prize of the International Animation Film Jury in Oberhausen in 1972.

BEHIND THE LINES is a political documentary by Margaret Dickinson made in 1971. This UK production shows the struggle against the Portuguese colonial regime in Mozambique. It was filmed in Niassa in 1970 and supported by the Mozambican liberation movement FRELIMO. Margaret Dickinson was a director and editor who made several films; she is also the author of “Rogue Reels. Oppositional film in Britain, 1945-90,” a pioneering history of the independent cinema in Britain that accompanied the radical politics of the 1960s and 70s. BEHIND THE LINES was screened in Oberhausen in 1972.

AL PAREDÓN (To the Wall) by the Colombian director Mario Mitrotti, a Venezuelan production from 1970, is a concise and acerbic satire on political power structures, funny and disturbing. Mitrotti, who died in 2024, was a lifelong campaigner for audiovisual creators, working at local, regional and international levels. He produced three feature films, dozens of shorts, music videos, soap operas and over 1,500 commercials during a 50-year-career in the industry. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1971, where it won the Grand Prix Interfilm.

AND SO THEY LIVE from 1940 is a stark documentary showing poorly educated “mountain peoples” living in poverty and stricken with disease. Their solace comes in strong family bonds and the prospect of improved educational opportunities. It was shot in Kentucky; cameraman John Ferno had worked for Joris Ivens and Henri Storck. Director Irving Lerner had a long career as a director, editor and producer; his best-known film is probably the thriller MURDER BY CONTRACT from 1958. In Oberhausen, AND SO THEY LIVE was screened in 1971 as part of the retrospective “The Bitter Years – Social American Documentaries of the 1930s.”

In 1971, Oberhausen screened the Canadian production COSMIC ZOOM by Eva Szasz from 1968. An eight-minute zoom which first takes us into the infinity of space and then back to the smallest particle of life, the atom. Unlike POWERS OF TEN by Charles and Ray Eames, which was made in the same year, COSMIC ZOOM works mostly with drawings and completely without words.

BUTTERFLY ⴕ 1975 is a Dutch collage animation from 1973 by Peter Brouwer with Gerrit van Dijk, which traces the destruction of a butterfly’s habitat with the simplest means. Prophetic then and still topical today.

In 1971, Oberhausen presented a retrospective on “Canadian Animation Film”. We’ve picked BLINKITY BLANK by grand master Norman McLaren from 1955 as a representative of this programme. The film was engraved directly on blank film, the images and the soundtrack, a mixture of classical music and synthesizer sounds, mesh perfectly.

Another film by the great Dutch experimental filmmaker Frans Zwartjes: LIVING from 1971 is part of his five-part series “Home, Sweet Home”, which he made between 1969 and 1971. Zwartjes and his wife and muse Trix move seemingly aimlessly through the empty rooms of an apartment, the camera moves with them – a fascinating mixture of the private and the uncanny. The film was shown in Oberhausen in 1972.

In 1971, Oberhausen presented a retrospective entitled “The Bitter Years – Social American Documentary Films of the Thirties”. This film was part of the programme: THE RIVER by Pare Lorentz, USA 1937. The portrait of the Mississippi and its significance for the United States won Best Documentary in Venice in 1938, its script was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. But above all, the film shows the disastrous consequences of agriculture and timber practices on the environment. The film was sponsored by the US government to raise awareness of the New Deal.

The Polish animation DROGA (Road) by Mirosław Kijowicz from 1971 is a short parable about decisions and their consequences, which was shown in Oberhausen in 1972. Kijowicz, set designer, screenwriter, director and animator, produced a series of short films and in 1978, with Lionel Jeffries, WATER BABIES, an live action animated feature film for children. From 1960 to 1966 he was associated with the Cartoon Film Studio in Bielsko-Biała, from 1966 with the Miniatur Filmowych Studio in Warsaw, and taught at Villanova University in the USA in the early 1980s.

Canadian animation film pioneer Evelyn Lambart was the first woman Norman McLaren hired for his “Studio A” and collaborated with McLaren on several films in the 1940s and 50s. In the early 1960s, she began making her own films, for which she used cut-out animation: she transferred the paper cut-outs onto a lithographic plate and then painted and animated them. THE HOARDER from 1969 is one of the films created in this way. A fable in splendid colours, suitable for children. The film was shown in Oberhausen in 1971.

None other than Walerian Borowczyk was the cinematographer of the French production AU BOUT DES FUSILS by Peter Graham from 1972. It shows the scandalous practices of pheasant hunting in the Sologne, with clear echoes of the hunting scene in Renoir's LA REGLE DU JEU. The film was shown in Oberhausen in the same year and was awarded the prize for the overlooked film by the Protestant Film Work jury.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, Oberhausen screened a number of films by Frans Zwartjes. In 1972, the festival showed this short portrait by René Coelho, FRANS ZWARTJES, FILMMAKER. The Dutch production from 1971 shows Zwartjes and the people he regularly worked with: the composer Lodewijk de Boer, his wife Trix Zwartjes and the actress Moniek Toebosch. A rarely seen insight into the working methods of this experimental film pioneer.

SEAN, made by American documentary filmmaker Ralph Arlyck in 1969, is a 14-minute portrait of four-and-a-half-year-old Sean, who lives with his parents in the Haight Ashbury neighbourhood of San Francisco. Sean talks about police presence, why he doesn't like to wear shoes, marijuana and the freewheeling lifestyle of the people around him. Arlyck uses his limited means with captivating precision, which not only earned the film numerous awards and a screening at the White House, but also the admiration of François Truffaut, with whose film THE WILD CHILD the film was released in French cinemas in 1970. In 2005, Arlyck returned to the adult Sean with the long documentary FOLLOWING SEAN. SEAN was shown in Oberhausen in 1971.

One of the most famous films of the Yugoslavian ‘Black Wave’ is Želimir Žilnik's CRNI FILM (Black Film) from 1971, which was shown in Oberhausen in the same year and won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. The director invites six homeless men into his flat. His attempts to help the men, in a state where homelessness does not officially exist, come to nothing. A dark satire and social criticism, for which Karpo Godina operated the camera.

BLACK PLUS X by the American artist Aldo Tambellini (USA 1966) was shown in Oberhausen in 1970. In the 1960s and 70s, Tambellini was one of the pioneers of intermedia art, working with lumagrams, video, videograms, painting, photography, installation and film. In BLACK PLUS X, he filmed the everyday life of a black community in summer. The ‘X’ in this experimental film is a process by which a black person appears white through the mere projection of the negative image.

While a group of explorers search for the remains of Noah's ark on Mount Ararat, a hermit up on the mountain works on transforming his hut into a new ark – and then the rain sets in. L'ARCHE DE NOÉ (Noah’s Ark) by Jean-François Laguionie (France 1967) is the second short animation by the animator, director and producer who would go on to win the Palme d'Or for Best Short Film at Cannes in 1978 for LA TRAVERSÉE DE L'ATLANTIQUE À LA RAME. Laguionie created numerous short and several feature-length animated films up until the 2010s. This film was shown in Oberhausen in 1971.

DÉLICIEUSE CATASTROPHE by Piotr Kamler, a French production from 1970, creates a surreal world full of repetitive movements that is disrupted by an intruder. Kamler, born in Poland, worked as a director and writer in France in the circle of Pierre Schaeffer, the pioneer of electro-acoustic sounds. Many of his short films, in which he experimented visually with a wide range of materials and processes, were made in collaboration with composers of musique concrète or electroacoustic researchers. DÈLICIEUSE CATASTROPHE was screened in Oberhausen in 1971.

Lee Savage’s MICKEY MOUSE IN VIETNAM from 1968 hardly needs an introduction. At slightly more than a minute, the 16 mm underground film has become one of the most famous anti-war films ever. When it was screened in Oberhausen in 1970, it won a Special Mention. The film was believed lost until 2013, when it was uploaded on YouTube for the first time. Rumour has it that this was because the Disney company, who were not amused at the copyright infringement, tried to buy all existing copies.

BIRDS from 1968 is one of the first films made by Frans Zwartjes, the Dutch pioneer of experimental film. He films his wife, Trix, in his characteristic style: an almost voyeuristic camera, no narrative structure, quick edits, erotic tension, repetitive actions. For Zwartjes, the focus was always on the way everything is filmed. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1970, where it won the prize for the overlooked film from the International Jury.

MASKA CRVENE SMRTI (The Mask of the Red Death) from 1969 is a mix of collage and animated paintings, based on the short story by Edgar Allan Poe. It was co-directed by Pavao Štalter, who was also the main animator and artist, and Branko Ranitović. An exceptional and disturbing work that was praised as one of the most impressive adaptations of Poe’s work into the medium of animation. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1970.

The animation NIJE PTICA SVE STO LETI (Not Everything that Flies Is a Bird) is Borislav Sajtinac’s first own production from 1970 and won a prize from the International Jury at Oberhausen in 1970. The story of a man who is renovating his house while being terrorised by a monstrous bird was intended to be read as a parable of the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. The film was subject to severe criticism at Oberhausen, in particular from directors from South American communist countries.

„A wall blocks the path of two people. One man submits, while the other refuses to admit defeat.”

This is the opening title card of the animated film ZID (The Wall) by Ante Zaninović, a Zagreb Film production from 1966 which was screened in Oberhausen in the same year. Its dark humour and derisive wit are reinforced by a congenial score, and it has been reviewed as an exemplary work of the “second wave” of Zagreb animation. Zaninović was a writer, animator and director who made a number of shorts and a television series, “Professor Balthazar”.

Using a variety of drawing techniques, Ryan Larkin reproduces the way people walk in his 1968 production WALKING, while the soundtrack adapts with music suited to each style of walking. In 1970, the film was nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, which it didn’t win, and was also screened in Oberhausen.

The animated film ZUCKERKANDL by the legendary animators’ couple John and Faith Hubley (USA 1968) is a profile of the fictitious philosopher Alexander Zuckerkandl which can easily be interpreted as a parody on Sigmund Freud. It was made into a comic book in the same year and screened in Oberhausen in 1970.

TRIGGER WARNING: This film contains stroboscope effects that can trigger epileptic seizures!

An early experiment with computer-aided animation, AROUND PERCEPTION by Pierre Hébert, produced in Canada in 1968, was screened in Oberhausen in 1970. It shows a succession of geometric forms in vivid colour, with sound effects created by registering sound shapes directly on the soundtrack. Hébert worked at the National Film Board of Canada from 1965 to 1999 and is known for his cross-disciplinary and experimental approach to animation.

THE BALLAD OF CROWFOOT from 1968 is a montage of photos, etchings and newspaper clippings from archives documenting the history of the First Peoples of Canada and the legendary Chief Crowfoot. It’s set to a ballad written and performed by Mi’kmaq singer and songwriter Willie Dunn. Dunn also directed, working with a crew of Canadian Indians. In 1970, it was screened in Oberhausen. Thanks to the National Film Board of Canada for making it available on YouTube!

Hungarian filmmaker Zoltán Huszárik is considered one of the greatest visual poets of Hungarian cinema. CAPRICCIO from 1970, produced at the famous Béla Balázs Studios, is a poetic and experimental narrative of a rural winter, but also an allegory on life and death as embodied by snowmen, not without an element of tongue-in-cheek humour. It was screened in Oberhausen in 1970.

Robert Breer’s experimental animations are now considered classics of the American avant-garde film. In 69, produced in 1968, he probes our limits of perception, animating comparatively simple forms with increasing speed, which ends in almost stroboscopic effects. Screened in Oberhausen in 1970.

Jiří Brdečka was a Czech writer, animator and film director. His animation METAMORFEUS from 1969 is a retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice which looks as if ancient murals and mosaics had come to life and was indeed based on frescos from Pompeii. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1970.

The Dutch production A FAN by Franz Zwartjes from 1968, screened in Oberhausen in 1969, was one of the forerunners of the emergence of so-called experimental cinema in the 1970s. Zwartjes produced a large body of work that is rarely remembered today, dealing with his traumas and obsessions. His rapid, repetitive editing style is very marked in this short black and white piece and creates a minimalist and haunting portrait of his protagonist.

John Whitney Sr. was an American animator, composer and inventor, widely considered to be one of the fathers of computer animation. He made a number of versions of PERMUTATIONS, including the 1969 version which was screened in Oberhausen in 1969. Among his most famous works were the animated title and dream sequences from Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 film VERTIGO, which he collaborated on with the graphic designer Saul Bass. In 1960, he founded Motion Graphics Incorporated, which used a mechanical analogue computer of his own invention to create motion picture and television title sequences and commercials.

Kazimierz Urbański’s TREN ZBÓJA (Train Robber) is a Polish animation from 1967 which was screened in Oberhausen in 1969. Urbanski, a writer and director, made a number of animated shorts. He also founded the Animation Film Studio in Cracow in 1966 and lectured at the Warsaw Fine Arts Academy and the Łódź Film School.

Jan Švankmajer was a frequent guest in Oberhausen with his surrealist short films. BYT (The Flat) from 1968 was screened in 1969 and won the Grand Prize of the International Jury. BYT is one of his darkest shorts, showing a man trapped in an apartment where the objects revolt against him. In a bleak ending, the man resigns himself to defeat.

The British production DARLING, DO YOU LOVE ME? by Martin Sharp and Bob Whitaker from 1968 stars a pre-“Female Eunuch” Germain Greer, who parodies her media persona as a terrifying woman who alternately cajoles, pursues and assaults a mild little man with cries of "Darling, do you love me?" until he succumbs to her strangling hands. The directors were well known for their work in graphic design: Sharp for his ferocious cartoons in the satirical magazine Oz, Whittaker for his photography on various Beatles album covers. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1969.

A DANCE PARTY IN THE KINGDOM OF LILLIPUT, a Japanese production from 1964 by Takahiko Iimura, was screened in Oberhausen in 1969. This absurd experimental comedy featuring Sho Kazakura was inspired by Franz Kafka and consists of a number of short scenes and chapters – “an anthology of discontinuous happenings and events”, as the director put it.

The Polish production SCHODY (Stairs) by Stefan Schabenbeck from 1968 was screened in Oberhausen in 1969. It’s a clay animation showing a man who gets lost in a labyrinth of stairs that grows more and more reminiscent of the paintings of M.C. Escher. Schabenbeck is an independent Polish animator who made a number of shorts in different animation techniques.

After a short festival break, Oberhausen Revisited returns with Hayashi Seiichi’s short animation KAGE (Shadow) from 1968, which was screened in Oberhausen in 1969 – a film about the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, eerily and disconcertingly combined with a rather happy-sounding pop song by The Peanuts. Hayashi was a comic artist for the magazine Caro and became well-known for his manga series Red Colored Elegy, published in Japan from 1970 to 1971 and released in North America in 2008.

Death as an opponent in badminton, bird droppings as a bad omen and savior, and dialogues in a fantasy language. The short film DE DÜVA (The Dove, 1968) by the American filmmakers George Coe and Anthony Lover is a humorous, absurd parody of some of the best-known films by the Swede Ingmar Bergman, including SMULTRONSTÄLLET (Wild Strawberries, 1957) and DET SJUNDE INSEGLET (The Seventh Seal, 1957). DE DÜVA was screened in Oberhausen in 1969.

In NUPTIAE, American filmmaker James Broughton examines weddings, marriage and the union of opposites on 16 mm colour film. With a strong sense of the tension between desire and reality, NUPTIAE is an experimental semi-home movie. The film was shown at Oberhausen in 1969.

In PIONIRI MALENI (Little Pioneers), Serbian filmmaker Želimir Žilnik, one of the major representatives of the Yugoslavian Black Wave of the 1960s, portrays children in former Yugoslavia in the 1960s, contrasting the life socially neglected children with a TV show full of happy children. The film was shown in Oberhausen in 1968, the year of production.

Instead of birds, people fly and a lasso swings across the frame. In the Polish production HOBBY, Daniel Szczechura reorganises figures, space and power relations. In 1968 the film won the main prize for animated films of the International Jury in Oberhausen.

A restless car ride that ends in a heart attack: In ZAWAŁ SERCA (Heart Attack, 1967), the film character's racing heart seems to communicate itself directly to the audience. The film was shown in Oberhausen in 1968. Wojciech Wiszniewski is considered one of the most interesting representatives of the creative movement in Polish documentary film. One of his best-known short films - ELEMENTARZ (ABC Book, 1976) - was kept under wraps by the Polish censors and only released after his death.

In ARÈS CONTRE ATLAS (Arès vs. Atlas, 1967), French filmmaker Manuel Otéro explores the absurdity of war against an orange-yellow, blue and green backdrop of nature scenes. The idyllically animated film language is almost antithetical to the content. The film was shown in Oberhausen in 1968.

An early short film by Claude Miller, who later enjoyed success with feature films such as THE LITTLE THIEF and GARDE À Vue (also known as THE INQUISITOR). In JULIET DANS PARIS (Juliet in Paris, 1967), he tells the story of a young student who finds herself in strange and bloody situations in Paris. The leading actress Juliet Berto also played in Jacques Rivette's fantastic CÉLINE AND JULIE GO BOATING from 1974. JULIET DANS PARIS was shown in Oberhausen in 1968.

Why is fortune so capricious? asks Danish filmmaker Jørgen Leth in his cult film DET PERFEKTE MENNESKE (The Perfect Human, 1967). For 13 minutes a Danish couple performs everyday rituals – as a model of an illusory perfect human being. In 1968, the film won a main prize of the International Jury and the Prize of the City of Oberhausen at our festival.

The pioneer of experimental Japanese animation, Yoji Kuri, opens up a surreal space in THE ROOM (1967). In his typical minimalist cartoon style, Kuri combines harmless and morbid motifs: birdsong, locomotive noises, severed body parts and confused mumbling are playfully linked with questions of seclusion and expansion. THE ROOM was shown in Oberhausen in 1968.

The Canadian George Dunning is best-known as the director of the Beatles film YELLOW SUBMARINE. His beautiful short THE LADDER from 1967 was painted on cel with broad strokes and, typical of Dunning’s style, makes playful use of the film frame. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1968.

UNA VITA IN SCATOLA (Life in a Tin), Italy 1967, by Bruno Bozzetto packs the whole cycle of life into six minutes of animation. Bozzetto is a cartoon animator and director whose shorts were often of a political and satirical nature, though he is best-known for creating Mr. Rossi, a hapless little man who appears in a number of his short films and three feature-length films. This film was screened in Oberhausen in 1968.

HOP JAN (Heave Ho) by Vlatko Filipović is a Yuvoslavian production from 1967 from the famous Sarajevo Documentary School. It is a beautiful and intense masterpiece depicting the backbreaking work of building a dam in Sarajevo, which was screened in Oberhausen in 1967 and again in our Sarajevo Documentary School Theme in 2009.

The Polish experimental animation CZAR KÓŁEK (The Charm of the Wheels, 1966) by Kazimierz Urbański uses cut-outs on a background of non-camera effects, accompanied by music by Krzysztof Penderecki. A swarm of locusts teases a herd of horses, a wheeled vehicle arrives, shapes change into motorcycles, images of industrial production appear, while the film becomes more and more dynamic. Urbanski was an animation filmmaker, theorist and educator who was particularly interested in studies of movement.

THE POP SHOW from 1967 is one of Fred Mogubgub’s best-known films – a quick collage of pop icons of the late 1960s, featuring Gloria Steinem, who starts off drinking Coca Cola and goes on to more and more bizarre beverages. It was screened in Oberhausen in 1967 and won a Main Prize of the International Jury.

MUHA (The Fly) by Aleksandar Marks and Vladimir Jutriša (1967) comes from Zagreb Film and was screened in Oberhausen in 1967, where it won the Grand Prize of the International Jury. A man is irritated by a tiny fly and tries unsuccessfully to squash it. Eventually the fly grows so big it shatters the scene and the film almost turns into a horror movie. Finally, the man and the fly start to negotiate.

THE GREAT SOCIETY by Fred Mogubgub from 1967 is a beautiful example of 1960s pop art – a parade of consumer goods set to the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”. It’s produced in Mogubgub’s typical style of quick jump cuts and works almost like a subliminal commercial – and indeed Mogubgub was not only close to the New York pop art movement but also a successful advertiser. This film was screened in Oberhausen in 1967.

A prisoner and a guard interact in KLATKI (Cages) by Mirosław Kijowicz, a Polish production from 1967. It’s an allegory about captivity and freedom, animated in simple lines and with a beautiful jazz soundtrack. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1967 as part of the Polish programme, which won a Special Mention from the International Jury.

The year ends with LES ESCARGOTS (The Snails) by René Laloux and Roland Topor from 1966, a multiple award-winning animation in which a hapless farmer on a distant planetoid strives in vain to make his vegetables flourish. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1967. Laloux is best known for his 1973 surreal classic LA PLANÈTE SAUVAGE (Fantastic Planet), another collaboration with Topor.

CHRISTMAS CRACKER by Norman McLaren is the perfect fit for this holiday – a short animation in three differently animated segments that take a playful look at Christmas: a rendition of "Jingle Bells" in which paper cut-out figures dance, a dime-store rodeo of tin toys, and a story of decorating the perfect Christmas tree. This film received multiple awards and an Oscar nomination and was screened in Oberhausen in 1966.

Krešo Golik‘s documentary OD 3 DO 22 from 1966 follows the long working day of a woman who works in a factory, condensing 19 hours into a little more than 10 minutes. It was screened in Oberhausen in 1967 and won the International Film Critics’ Fipresci Prize.

TONARI NO YAROU (The Man Next Door) by one of the pioneers of Japanese experimental animation, Yoji Kuri, was produced in 1965 and screened in Oberhausen in 1966. A man is disturbed by the noise from the other side of the wall, and his solution does not work out – a black comedy in Kuri’s typical cartoonish style.

RUKA (The Hand) from 1965 was the last short animation released by Czech sculptor and animation filmmaker Jiří Trnka. A powerful metaphor of repression, which was aimed by Trnka at the communist oppression, it won a Grand Prize of the International Jury in Oberhausen in 1966, but remained banned in the Czech Republic until the end of communism.

THE SECRET CINEMA, “a paranoid fantasy” by Paul Bartel from 1966, is about a woman who is manipulated by people around her so a director can film her to screen the results in a theatre. Shown in Oberhausen in 1967, it’s the debut film of the director who went on to make, among others, EATING RAOUL (1982) or SCENES FROM THE CLASS STRUGGLE IN BEVERLY HILLS (1989).

AND MILES TO GO by S. Sukhdev, an Indian production from 1967, is a propaganda film “dedicated to all the forces of rationalist thought that are opposed to the path of violence” and a call to the citizens of India to be active participants in the future of their country.

ENTER HAMLET by Fred Mogubgub is a collage of pop art images and a word by word animation of Hamlet’s famous soliloquy, spoken by Maurice Evans. It was commissioned by the School of Visual Arts and screened in Oberhausen in 1966.

MOSAIC is a wonderfully simple and yet complex experimental animation by Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart from 1965, which was screened in Oberhausen in 1966. A single square multiplies and goes through ever more complex movements and variations, to a precise and spare score by the master himself.

Jan Švankmajer’s SPIEL MIT STEINEN (A Game with Stones) from 1965 was screened in Oberhausen in 1966. An Austrian production, it is an experimental stop motion animation where the game with stones is also a game with time.

"This is the story of a ship and of a sports delegation whom the ENEMY tried to stop from participating in the Tenth Central American and Caribbean Games." In his 1966 documentary CERRO PELADO, Santiago Álvarez pays tribute to Cuba’s sporting triumphs despite US attempts to prevent the Cuban athletes from participating in the games.

I KNOW AN OLD LADY WHO SWALLOWED A FLY by Derek Lamb from 1964 was screened in Oberhausen in 1966: a short cartoon animation that illustrates the eponymous nonsense song by Canadian folksinger Alan Mills, sung here by Burl Ives.

60 CYCLES by Jean-Claude Labrecque, a Canadian production from 1965, tracks the Tour du St. Laurent bicycle race. Not only was it the first film to use a 1,000 mm lens in an opening shot that was to become famous, the music by Don Douglas, Gordon Fleming, and Tony Romandini is absolutely thrilling! The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1966.

ARCHANDEL GABRIEL A PANÍ HUSA (Archangel Gabriel and Mistress Goose) by Jirí Trnka, 1965, was awarded the main prize of the international jury in Oberhausen in 1965. The puppet animation is based on a story from Boccaccio’s “Decamerone”: A philandering monk tricks a beautiful but dull lady who will only surrender to the Archangel Gabriel.

Daniel Szczechura is one of Poland’s best-known animation filmmakers. KONFLIKTY from 1960 is a mixture of real-life and animated sequences, a parody on early cinema and a mockery of the audience who protest when the animator changes the finale. Screened in Oberhausen in 1965.

An experimental animation with vocals by none other than Yoko Ono, Yoji Kuri’s animated AOS (1964) won a principal prize of the international Jury in Oberhausen in 1965. Its black humour, surreal imagery and obsession with sexuality are typical of the director’s style.

Dušan Makavejev’s documentary NOVA DOMAĆA ŽIVOTINJA (New Domestic Animal) from 1964 is a beautiful but fairly dark observation on the transition from horses to cars in rural Yugoslavia, which was screened in Oberhausen in 1965.

THE HAT is an anti-war story from 1964 by the pioneering American animation filmmaking couple Faith & John Hubley. It was screened in Oberhausen in 1965 and stars Dizzy Gillespie and Dudley Moore as the two border guards. This version is from a slightly yellowed print, but well worth watching.

LA GAZZA LADRA is an Italian animation by Giulio Gianini and Emanuele Luzzati from 1964. It was screened in Oberhausen in 1965 and nominated for an Oscar in 1966. The story of a magpie that forces three kings who hunt birds to make peace was also part of a series of homages to Giacomo Rossini and is set to the overture of Rossini’s eponymous opera.

The French production JULES ET BAJUS by Peter Kassovitz from 1965 tells the story of two fishermen, one lucky, the other not, played by amateur actors. Peter Kassovitz is a French actor, director, writer and producer who has made a number of short and long films. Among his best-known works is the 1999 version of JACOB THE LIAR, which he wrote and directed. He has also appeared, among others, as an actor in LA HAINE by his son, Mathieu Kassovitz.

BEZ NASLOVA (Untitled) by Borivoj Dovniković-Bordo is a very short Yugoslavian animation from 1964, screened in Oberhausen in 1965: A political satire in which a man with a drum is waiting for his cue. Dovniković-Bordo was a director, writer and animator who made numerous short films well into the 1990s.

This short feature, THE MEETING by Mamoun Hassan from 1964, won the Prize of the Festival in 1965. It was his first completed work; at the time, Cahiers du Cinéma called it “one of the most beautiful films of this festival […] Mamoun Hassan has succeeded in creating a world in which the feelings of solitude and sadness – but also of joy and love – become tangible.” Hassan’s career later led him away from directing to become Head of the BFI Production Board in the 1970s, Managing Director of the NFFC in the 1980s and Head of the Directing Department at the National Film and Television School.

Walerian Borowzcyk’s LES JEUX DES ANGES from 1964 is widely regarded as his masterpiece. Based on a series of paintings by Borowczyk, the film opens with a train ride and takes the viewers into a nightmarish world of torture and murder that has been interpreted as evoking the concentration camps as well as the Soviet gulags. Screened in Oberhausen in 1965, it won the prize of the City of Oberhausen.

This time, it’s THE MARCH by James Blue from 1963, a multiple award-winning documentary about the 1963 civil rights March on Washington. Made for the Motion Picture Service unit of the United States Information Agency, it was authorized only for use outside the US. Only in 1990 did Congress authorize this film to be shown in the US. It was screened in Oberhausen in 1965.

CICLÓN (Hurricane) by Santiago Álvarez from 1963 was the director’s first film and the first Cuban film to be recognized beyond the island itself. It shows hurricane Flora devastating the Cuban provinces of Camagüey and Oriente in October 1963 and was screened in Oberhausen in 1965.

This time it’s FOTEL (The Chair) by Daniel Szczechura from 1963, a Polish animation screened in Oberhausen in 1964, where it won a Principal Prize of the International Jury. A witty tale of the machinations of power that unfold when a new committee member is to be elected at a general meeting.

This time we’re presenting THE HUTTERITES by Colin Low from 1964, which was screened in Oberhausen in the same year. It’s the portrait of a pacifist religious community still following the rules laid down by their founder, Jacob Hutter, in the 16th century. There are still hundreds of scattered Hutterite communities in the US today.

ZABAWA (A Game, 1960) by Witold Leszczyński is a study of a fairly risky game of one-upmanship on the road, screened in Oberhausen in 1964. Leszczyński was a multiple award-winning Polish film director and screenwriter who directed over thirty films between 1959 and 2007. He died during the shoot of his film STARY CZLOWIEK I PIES (The Old Man and the Dog) in 2007.

Jan Lenica's DIE NASHÖRNER (Rhinoceros) from 1963 is based on Ionesco's eponymous play about the dangers of conformity. It was produced by Boris von Borresholm, one of the signatories of the Oberhausen Manifesto. Lenica was a frequent guest in Oberhausen and this film, screened in 1964, won one of the prizes of the City of Oberhausen.

The Yuvoslavian production ZADUŠNICE (All Souls Day, 1963) by director Dragoslav Lazić shows the celebration of masses for the dead in villages of Pomoravlje and was screened in Oberhausen in 1964. Dragoslav Lazić went on to have a prolific career well into the 2010s as the director of short and long films and television series.

This time it's AI (Love) by Yōji Kuri, the "bad boy of Japanese alternative animation". The fairly misogynistic story of a woman in obsessive pursuit of a man nevertheless won two big prizes in Oberhausen in 1964, a Principal Prize and the Animation Prize.

The Polish production MIASTO (The City, 1963) by Miroslaw Kijowicz tells the story of a man in the desert who builts an imaginary city, until it all becomes too much for him and he looks for another desert. Kijowicz, born in Leningrad, was a director and writer and continued to make films until 1991.

The consumer satire AUTOMANIA 2000 by the British-based animation team of John Halas and Joy Batchelor was screened in Oberhausen in 1964, nominated for the Oscar and won a BAFTA award in the same year. Halas & Batchelor are best known for their adaptation of George Orwell's ANIMAL FARM, having founded Halas & Batchelor Cartoons in 1940. For over 50 years, it was one of the leading animation studios in Western Europe, producing more than 2,000 films.

A very special dance film this time: Harry Kramer in SACKGASSE (1963), directed by Harry Kramer and Wolfgang Ramsbott. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1964. Kramer was a German dancer and artist, internationally known as a representative of Kinetic Art and a participant of documenta III in 1964. Together with Wolfgang Ramsbott, he shot five experimental 16mm films between 1956 and 1965.

In CZERWONE I CZARNE by Polish animator Witold Giersz, a bullfight goes back and forth. Under the influence of the raging audience, the relationship between bull and Torero goes from enemies to drinking buddies and back, until the two return to their paint pots in the end.The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1964, Giersz went on to make animated short films for more than four decades afterward.

When Geoffrey Jones´ film SNOW was screened in Oberhausen in 1964, the devastating winter of 1962/63 was still present in most people´s mind. Using material from that winter, Jones shows the hard work necessary to keep the trains, which were the backbone of the British transportation system in the 1960´s, running even in extreme weather conditions. Edited to play their own soundtrack reminiscing musique concrète, the infrastructure workers appear to be a well-oiled machine cooperating to keep the tracks free.

We are going to take a short festival break and will continue revisited on 7 May.

Walerian Borowczyk’s film RENAISSANCE was screened in Oberhausen in 1964. Stuck in an eternal backwards time loop, a room filled with memorabilia reassembles after an explosion until the bomb itself gets reconstructed only to immediately go off again. Aside from the question of how durable human memory will be in the end we are also made to wonder just how real – or fabricated – it actually is.

The last of our revisited films for the festival year of 1963, DONNE DI LUCANIA by Giovanni Vento, shows us a sinister village seemingly inhabited mostly by women. While the men are away, possibly looking for better paid work in the larger cities, the women are occupied with taking care of the homesteads left behind.

Another film by Ernest Pintoff that was screened at our festival in 1963 is THE OLD MAN AND THE FLOWER (1962, USA). The film is narrated by Dayton Allen and shows an old man talking to a sunflower that doesn’t want to start anything.

The film ZA BOREM, ZA LASEM (Beyond the Forest, Beyond the Woods, 1962, Poland) by Wladyslaw Nehrebecki shows a Polish custom where little girls throw wreaths of flowers into the water to find a suitor. A folk festival takes place on the riverbank, and after grotesque scenes, a fun peasant wedding follows. Nehrebecki was a Polish animator and cartoon director and is best known for his animated characters Bolek and Lolek. The film was screened at our festival in 1963. 

LABIRYNT (1963, Poland) by Jan Lenica is a short film about a lonely woman who has a series of surreal visions. Lenica adopts the techniques of collage and cut-outs in the film. He was known for his poster illustrations and collaborations on the early works of Walerian Borowczyk. The film won several Awards, including the Main Prize of the International Jury at our festival in 1963. 

The film NINGEN DOUBUTSUEN (Human Zoo, 1962, Japan) by Yōji Kuri is based on a poem by Shuntarou Tanikawa and shows that people can be as bad as animals. Kuri is one of the most influential figure in Japanese independent animation and was the unofficial leader and most prolific of the "Animation Association of Three" collective. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1963. 

THE HOLE (1962, USA) is an animated short film about two construction workers who talk about the nature of accidents and the possibility of a nuclear war. The film was screened at our festival in 1963 and won an Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Cartoons in the same year. 

The film MAŁY WESTERN (1961, Poland) by Witold Giercz is one of Giercz’s best known films and tells the story of a cowboy and his white horse as well as two villains who are being punished. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1963. 

THE APPLE (1959, Great Britain) by George Dunning is an animated short film about a man’s unsuccessful attempts to fetch an apple from the high branch of a tree without being caught by the park ranger. Dunning was best known for his Beatles inspired film YELLOW SUBMARINE. THE APPLE was shown at our festival in 1963 and won the Prize of the City Oberhausen. It also won a BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film in the same year. 

PRAVDA (JUSTICE) (1962, Yugoslavia) by Ante Babaja is a short film based on the eponymous novel by Croatian writer Vladan Desnica about a street fight where passers-by are unsure if they should intervene or not. The film was part of our festival in 1963 and won the Main Prize of the International Jury. Babaja is best known for his film BREZA (The Birch Tree), which is regarded as one of the classics of Croatian cinema. 

SUROGAT (The Substitute, 1961, Yugoslavia) by Dušan Vukotić is a short film about a simple man, who comes to the beach and uses inflatable objects for all of his needs. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1962 and won a Special Mention by the International Jury. In the same year, the film won an Academy Award in the Category Best Short Subject, Cartoons. Vukotić is one of the best known members of the Zagreb school of animated films. 

The film SCIENCE FRICTION (1959, USA) by Stan VanDerBeek, one of the most influential US experimental filmmakers and known for his use of collage techniques, uses stop motion animation of still photographs from politics and science in the nuclear war. The scientists in question are being used by politicians in the space race and people and items are projected upwards, including iconic structures like the Eiffel Tower. The film was screened at our festival in 1962 and won the Main Prize for Best Experimental Film by the Oberhausen Industry.

EL NOVENO (1960, Spain) by Basilio Martín Patino is a short documentary about an annual Fiesta in Salamanca to commemorate the end of tribute payments to the Duke of Alba in 1852 - a popular holiday that includes bull fights. It was Martín Patinos first short film. He was known for his works in the New Spanish Cinema and for his creative approach to documentaries. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1962. 

The short film MUNRO (1960, Czechoslovakia/USA) by Gene Deitch was screened at our festival in 1962 and won a Special Mention by the International Jury. Munro is a four-year-old boy who is drafted to the Army. It takes a while to convince everyone that he is not old enough to be in the Army and when he finally is sent home, he receives a warm welcome. But he fears being send back to the army. Deitch, who is best known for his work for Terrytoons, won an Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Cartoons with MUNRO in 1961. 

The film ALFA – OMEGA (1961, Italy) by Bruno Bozzetto, is a satirical cartoon showing the life of a modern "Everyman" in six episodes. The film was screened at our festival in 1962 and won the International Critics‘ Award at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in 1962. Bozzetto is known for his political and satirical short works. 

MOTO PERPETUO (1959, Argentina) is a musical documentary short by Osias Wilenski, combining images of city life and its perpetual repetition with the music of Paganini's Moto Perpetuo, played by N.Chumachenko. It was screened at our festival in 1961. 

Another film by award-winning director Ernest Pintoff was shown at our festival in 1961. THE INTERVIEW (1960, USA) shows a reporter interviewing a jazz musician in which the "square" journalist and the "hip" musician have some trouble understanding each other. With music by none other than Stan Getz, the film won the Grand Prize of the International Jury in Oberhausen in 1961 and was nominated for a 1961 Bafta Award in the Category Best Animated Film. 

MARINE SNOW – THE ORIGIN OF OIL (1960, Japan) by Shinkichi Noda and Tetsuro Onoma is a beautiful example of cooperation between scientists and filmmakers. In this instance, the amazing images of sea plankton are a collaboration between the filmmakers and microscopy and other experts. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1961.

The film LINES: HORIZONTAL (1961, Canada) by Norman McLaren is an experimental short film in which horizontal lines move on the screen against a background of changing colors and in response to music which was composed specifically for this film. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1961 and won the Award for Best Arts and Experimental at the Canadian Film Awards in 1961.

MUZYKANCI (THE MUSICIANS) (1960, Italy) by Kazimierz Karabasz, a film about a single rehearsal of an amateur brass band made up of Warsaw tram drivers. The film won multiple awards, including the Main Prize of the International Jury at our festival in 1961. Karabasz was known for his documentaries and taught the documentary programme at the Łódź Film School for many years.

The film MEIN KIND (MY CHILD) (1955, Germany) by Joris Ivens “is an appeal by the International Democratic Women's Federation against a new war, calling on all mothers of the world to protect their children.”  It was screened in Oberhausen in 1961 and won the Critics’ Award at the Kultur- und Dokumentarfilmwoche Mannheim in 1956 and the 1st Prize at the Filmfestspiele Montevideo in 1956.

CHILDREN OF THE SUN (1960, USA) by Faith and John Hubley is an animated short film about children who grow up poor and malnourished as opposed to children who grow up happily and with enough to eat. The film was produced in cooperation with UNICEF and screened at our festival in 1961. The Hubleys were known for their animated short films, commercials and sponsored projects.

The film UN GIORNO IN BARBAGIA (1958, Italy) by Vittorio De Seta captures the lives of Sardinian women taking care of home and fields while their shepherd husbands are away with their flocks. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1961. De Seta was considered Italian cinema's great imaginative realists of the 1960s.

In THE LITTLE ISLAND (1958, United Kingdom) by Richard Williams, three men representing Truth, Beauty and Good settle on a tiny island. A philosophical argument without words, the film won the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film in 1959 and was screened at our festival in 1960. It was Williams', who is best known as the animation director of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, first film.

O MÍSTO NA SLUNCI (A PLACE IN THE SUN, 1959, Czechoslovakia) by František Vystrčil is an animation about two men who fight for a spot in the sun until they realize that they can both sit in the sun and enjoy it together. The film won the Prize of the Gutehoffnungshütte Sterkrade AG at our festival in 1960 and was nominated for an Oscar in 1961.

UZEL NA KAPESNÍKU (THE KNOT IN THE HANDKERCHIEF, 1958, Czechoslovakia) by Hermína Týrlová tells the story of a boy, who ties a knot in his handkerchief to remember repairing his leaky faucet, but the handkerchief is alive and flees to explore the outside world. The boy and the handkerchief experience different adventures. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1960. Týrlová was known for her animations and has often been called the mother of Czech animation.

THE VIOLINIST (1959, USA) by Ernest Pintoff was screened at our festival in 1960 and tells the story of Harry, the Violinist who learns a lesson through changing the way he plays. The film is voiced by Carl Reiner. Pintoff won the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film with this short film in 1960.

YŪREISEN (The Phantom Ship) (Japan, 1956) by Noburō Ōfuji is a short film that was screened at our festival in 1960. The film tells the story of the ship without dialogue. Ōfuji was well known for his traditional animated films as well as being one “of the most notable auteurs of anime of the first half of the 20th century” and the Ōfuji Noburō Award gets awarded in his honour every year, at the Mainichi Film Awards (en-academic.com).

SERENAL (Canada, 1959) by Norman McLaren is, according to the National Film Board of Canada, a „gay fantasia of patterned sound in which Norman McLaren salutes the West Indies, painting the spirit of fiesta on film to the lively beat of an island tune by Trinidad's Grand Curacaya Orchestra.“ The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1960.

WORKS OF CALDER (USA, 1950) by Herbert Matter is a short film shown at our festival in 1960. With several different pictures of nature, the sun, and a little boy walking on the beach as well as the sculptor Alexander Calder and his work, Matter shows how Calder was inspired by nature. Matter was primarily known as a photographer.

FROM KAISER TO FUHRER (USA, 1959) by Isaac Kleinerman is part of a documentary series hosted by Walter Cronkite, examining outstanding events and personalities of the twentieth century. This specific episode discusses the years preceding WWII in Germany and the rise of Adolf Hitler. It was part of our festival in 1960.

We Shall Never Die (Israel, 1959) by Alina and Yoram Gross is an experimental short film, "dedicated to the millions who died at the hands of Nazi criminals", which was screened at our festival in 1960. Gross is perhaps best known for his adaptations of children’s characters from books and films but maintained an interest in experimental film throughout his career and established several awards for young filmmakers in this field.

Skyscraper (USA, 1959) is another experimental short film by Shirley Clarke, documenting the construction of a new skyscraper, the Tishman building on prestigious Fifth Avenue. The film was nominated for an Oscar and won the Venice Film Festival award and several other awards. This film was also shown at our festival in 1960.

Bridges-Go-Round (USA, 1958) by Shirley Clarke is an experimental work, consisting of a montage of images of New York’s various bridges. With two different soundtracks the film gives the bridges either the image of an urban jungle (jazz version by Teo Macero) or an alien landscape (electro-acoustic version by Louis & Bebe Barron). Screened in Oberhausen in 1960. This link shows both versions.

Motýli tady nežijí (Butterflies Do Not Live Here) (Czechoslovakia, 1958) by Miro Bernat is a documentary about the life of Jewish children forced to live in Theresienstadt and about their drawings from the Teresian ghetto. The children were later executed by the Nazis. The film won the Palme d'Or - Short Film in 1959 and was screened at our festival in 1960.

Another short film by Walerian Borowczyk and Chris Marker which was screened at our festival in 1960 is SZKOLA (The School) (Poland, 1958). In this black and white film, a Polish soldier is lined up against a wall and forced to do various training techniques. It is part animated and part still photography.

LES ASTRONAUTES (The Astronauts) (Poland, 1956) by Walerian Borowczyk and Chris Marker is a short film about the adventures of an inventor who builds a spacecraft to have adventures, in which he visits “human” planets, peeps at women and gets involved in intergalactic warfare. The film was screened at our festival in 1960.

ENERGETICALLY YOURS (USA, 1957) was designed by legendary artist and cartoonist Ronald Searle for the Standard Oil Company and is a cartoon of the history of the usage of energy by mankind. The film was screened in Oberhausen in 1959 and features the music of composer Lyn Murray.

FLEBUS (USA, 1957) by Ernest Pintoff and Gene Deitch and narrated by Allen Swift is about Flebus, whom everyone likes, but who grows desperate when he meets the one person who can’t stand him. The film was screened at our festival in 1959. 

With FREE RADICALS (USA, 1958) Len Lye participated in our festival in 1959. This black and white animated short film is said to be one of Lyes best works. The film won second prize at the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels and in 2008 Free Radicals was selected by the U.S. Library of Congress as a “classic film” that it would “preserve for all time.”  

THE JUGGLER OF OUR LADY (USA 1957) by Al Kouzel and Gene Deitch is an animated adaptation of the eponymous book by R.O. Blechman, narrated by Boris Karloff, about a juggler who decides to become an ascetic and then a monk. Kouzel worked at Terrytoons and directed the film, while Deitch was known for his illustrations and animations, including for Tom and Jerry and Popeye. 

UNDER NIGHT STREETS (GB 1958) by Ralph Keene is a documentary film about the track workers and track cleaners who maintain the London Underground system every night, while the trains are not running. Keene, a well-known documentary filmmaker, won the Special Mention of the International Jury at our festival in 1959. 

HARLEM WEDNESDAY by Faith and John Hubley (USA 1959) was screened at our festival in 1959, showing the paintings of Gregorio Prestopino, which convey the sights and sounds of a day in Harlem to the music of Benny Carter. The Hubleys were known for their experimental film works and won several Oscars for their short films. 

HIGHWAY 1958 by Hilary Harris (USA 1958) was screened at our festival in 1959 - a fast moving Road Movie, shot from a moving car. Harris, who is regarded as one of the pioneers of time-lapse film, won a Bronze Medal for his work at the International Experimental Film Festival in Brussels in 1958.

We screened Joan and Peter Foldes’s ANIMATED GENESIS from 1952 for the first time in 1959. This short, a rough outline of the story of creation and evolution, is often abstract and almost psychedelic. It received the ‘Prix pour la couleur - court métrage’ at Cannes in 1952 – a prize for the best colour short.

Peter Burness’s PINK AND BLUE BLUES from 1952 was screened in Oberhausen in 1959. It is one of the many productions centering on the cartoon figure of Mr. Magoo, a short-sighted elderly gentleman whose misfortunes largely stem from his poor eyesight. This short was nominated for Best Short Subject at the 1953 Academy Awards.

Continuing after our festival break with Kenneth Anger’s FIREWORKS from 1947, screened in Oberhausen in 1959, is a milestone of gay cinema. This dream-like, experimental short which is “widely regarded as the first gay narrative film ever made in the U.S.” (Matthew Hays) stars the director himself as the main character. The film contains strong homoerotic imagery, coupled with elements of surrealism and horror. 

Karel Zeman’s PAN PROKOUK VYNÁLEZCEM (Mr. Prokouk, the Inventor), originally from 1949 and screened at our festival in 1958, is one of several films about the titular character created by the director. The strikingly detailed and fluid depiction of small machinery stands out in this black-and-white stop-motion film.

Dušan Vukotić’s COWBOY JIMMY from 1957 is an animation that ticks off all the familiar Western tropes. We screened the comic book-style animation in 1958.

Ion Popescu-Gopo’s film SCURTĂ ISTORIE (A Brief History) from 1956 is a humorous and, indeed, brief animation that tells a story of natural and human history. We screened this film in 1958, one year after it won a Palme d’Or at Cannes for the best short film.

Another live-action film directed by Norman McLaren and animated by Evelyn Lambart, A CHAIRY TALE from 1957 is part pixilation, part reminiscent of puppet animation. The film tells the story of a man who tries to sit down on a chair that repeatedly dodges his attempts. Reminiscent of silent-film era slapstick, this short was screened at our festival in 1958, and was nominated in the category “Short Subject (Live Action)” at the Oscars that same year.

An unusual festival entry, Ward Kimball’s MAN IN SPACE from 1955 is an episode from the television show ‘Disneyland’ and was shown at our festival in 1958. Walt Disney himself addresses the viewer, as does the director. The film, made even before Sputnik 1 was launched, explores the topic of manned space travel and explains scientific concepts and technological advances through animation. Not only does the film strive for credibility by interviewing pioneering engineers; our contemporary knowledge gleaned from years of manned space travel makes this film and its predictions also an intriguing watch, one that was nominated as Best Documentary Short at the 1957 Oscars.

A little known fact about our festival is that there simply was no edition in 1957. Therefore we are now continuing our journey through our festival years with an entry from 1958: Max de Haas’s MASKERAGE. Filmed at the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, the film shows the museum’s extensive collection of masks from colonised nations. Through the use of lighting and sound, the masks appear as objects of terror - an act of Othering other cultures’ means of artistic expression that contemporary viewers may find insensitive. Nevertheless, the film may function as a foil contributing to the current discourse of repatriation of cultural artefacts.

Břetislav Pojar’s film O SKLENIČKU VÍC (A Drop too Much) from 1954 was screened at our 1956 festival. The stop-motion film, which won the Prix du film de marionettes at Cannes in the year of its release, boasts an astounding level of realism. The sets believably mimic the outdoors as well as interiors, an effect that is enhanced by carefully measured depths in the cinematography.

We screened Hans Fischerkoesen’s DER SCHNEEMANN (The Snowman) from 1944 for the first time in 1956. Often dubbed the ”German Walt Disney”, Fischerkoesen worked under Hitler, who hoped to build an animation industry rivalling America’s. This film is a product of that period in Fischerkoesen’s career, and indeed one can recognise Disney’s influence on Fischerkoesen in the titular character’s expressively animated physicality.

Today’s film, Jószef Misik’s KERMESSE FANTASTIQUE from 1948, is a lush piece of stop-motion animation. Screened in 1955, this film impresses with its rich, warm colours and stunningly fluid and inventive animation, resulting in a beautiful piece of Gay 1890s nostalgia.

Norman McLaren’s NEIGHBOURS, screened in 1955, is a brightly coloured, bizarre piece of pixilation. Created with an anti-war message in mind, and twice nominated at the 1952 Oscars (both as Short Subject and documentary Short Subject), the film proved controversial: both for its politics and for being a fictional film that won the documentary category.

Today’s film, Norman McLaren’s A PHANTASY, from 1949 and screened at our 1955 festival, is another entry from the prolific animator’s vast oeuvre. In this film, McLaren layers analogue and synthetic sound over a fluidly animated, liminal dreamscape; creating an elegant piece of animation that is both soothing and unnerving.

Albert Lamorisse’s CRIN BLANC, CHEVAL SAUVAGE (White Mane), which we screened in 1955, is a classic story of friendship between a child and an unruly animal. Employing traditional Western movie imagery in shots of the picturesque Camargue region of France, the film won the 1953 Palme d’or at Cannes.

Paul Haesaerts's VISITE A PICASSO starts out as a regular art history documentary, but then surprises viewers with an appearance of Picasso himself, creating art on camera (a year before Henri-Georges Clouzot’s famous LE MYSTÈRE PICASSO).

Another wonderful documentary by former Honorary President of our festival, Bert Haanstra.  In THE RIVAL WORLD from 1955, screened in Oberhausen in the same year, Bert Haanstra's portrays insects as a complex, disease-bearing species, and the ways in which people across the world try to protect themselves – cutting-edge science in 1955.

Today's film is Roger Blais's CANADA'S ATOM GOES TO WORK, screened at our second festival in 1955. A document of a time when nuclear energy and radiation were not yet primarily associated with environmenta hazards, but World War 2's nuclear attacks were still fresh in the minds of many.

Not many films from our first festival year have been digitized and made available online - and some already featured in the "Legendary Shorts" series; so today's film is both the second and final entry from 1954 that we are able to present here. In Norman McLaren's A LITTLE PHANTASY, Arnold Böcklin's famous painting Isle of the Dead is brought to life through animation.

Today, we are kicking off our new series OBERHAUSEN REVISITED. Our Festival History in Shorts, presenting films from our almost 70 years long festival history that we have not previously shared online. Our very first find is Norman McLaren's DOTS, which was screened as part of the programme "International Avant-garde" in 1954, our first festival year. In this award-winning film, McLaren employs a fascinating technique of "painted" synthetic sound production that was also used in his film LOOP, and thoroughly elaborated on in PEN POINT PERCUSSION; both of which we screened alongside this film.