Ephemera
see all genres ›Archivist/filmmaker Rick Prelinger coined the term “ephemeral film” to describe films produced outside the contexts of art and entertainment. He has referred to the style of the industrially-sponsored films as “capitalist realism.” Films made with practical purposes in mind are considered ephemeral: advertising films, educational films, training films, government-produced films and home movies all fit the bill (as well as works that incorporate found footage in new configurations).
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Genres / Ephemera
SUB-GENRES · Newsreel · Educational · Advertising · Industrial
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Tribulation 99
Upon its release in 1991, TRIBULATION 99 became an instant counter-culture classic. Craig Baldwin’s “pseudo-pseudodocumentary” presents a factual chronicle of U.S. intervention in Latin America in the form of the ultimate far-right conspiracy theory, combining covert action, environmental...Watch Movie
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Double-Headed Eagle
THE DOUBLE HEADED EAGLE Hitler's Rise to Power 1918-1933, the classic documentary by Lutz Becker. A fascinating experiment in documentary filmmaking, THE DOUBLE HEADED EAGLE charts the stealthy rise of the Nazi party in the wake of World War I, as witnessed from the...Watch Movie
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Mock Up on Mu
Notorious Bay Area kino-renegade Craig Baldwin tops his earlier found-footage operas SPECTRES OF THE SPECTRUM and SONIC OUTLAWS with the rapid-fire pulp serial-cum-political-tract piss-take on California's major industrial complexes: military, entertainment and religious. Hitting upon everything...Watch Movie
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Sonic Outlaws
Within days after the release of Negativland's clever parody of U2 and Casey Kasem, recording industry giant Island Records descended upon the band with a battery of lawyers intent on erasing the piece from the history of rock music. Craig Baldwin follows this and other intellectual property...Watch Movie
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Spectres of the Spectrum
The director of TRIBULATION 99 and SONIC OUTLAWS returns with his grandest work to date! SPECTRES OF THE SPECTRUM plunders Craig Baldwin's treasure trove of early television shows, industrial and educational films, Hollywood movies, advertisements and cartoons, combining these...Watch Movie
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The Voyagers
In the summer of 1977, NASA sent Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 on an epic journey into interstellar space. Together and alone, they will travel until the end of the universe. Each spacecraft carries a golden record album, a massive compilation of images and sounds embodying the best of Planet Earth....Watch Movie
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The Smell of Burning Ants
THE SMELL OF BURNING ANTS is a haunting documentary on the pains of growing up male. It explores the inner and outer cruelties that boys perpetrate and endure. The film provokes the viewer to reflect on how our society can deprive boys of wholeness. Through formative events of...Watch Movie
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As Boys Grow
"Puberty's a lotta things!" chirps track coach Gene Douglas in this sex education short whose juvenile actors were cast from the Boys Clubs of San Francisco. Handily armed with illustrative charts, he answers his curious charges' questions on everything from shaving to nocturnal emissions to how...Watch Movie
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Postcard from Sun City, Arizona
Joshua Oppenheimer sets images of life in a retirement community in Arizona (as seen through television commercials) to a talk radio interview with a female convict extolling the benefits of her time on Sherriff Joe Arpaio's chain gang. It is two different kinds of sale jobs...Watch Movie
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Wild Gunman
Mobilizing wildly diverse found-footage fragments, obsessive optical printing and a dense "musique concrete" soundtrack, a maniac montage of pop-cultural amusements, cowboy iconography and advertising imagery is re-contextualized within the contemporary geopolitical crisis in this scathing...Watch Movie
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The Big Bounce
An exploration of the visual, political and scientific development of satellite communications from the first message bounced off a balloon to the current communication industry. The first message sent to the other side of the world was developed during the 1950s and Eisenhower administration...Watch Movie
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Drug Attack
This world-class 1960s time capsule is almost entirely composed of rapidly edited stills showing ordinary life (working, playing, driving, shopping) set to groovy instrumental music. At a certain point, however, the focus shifts to youth life, complete with Be-Ins and drug busts. It is clear that...Watch Movie
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Lucy
This cautionary tale of New Jersey-accented everygirl Lucy is surprisingly sophisticated and non-judgmental in its take on teenage pregnancy. "It all started when I met Joe. We dug each other right away," she tells us, recalling that cutting school to make out was "our first mistake." Pretty soon...Watch Movie
