This selection of short films is our classic of March and is playing every Sunday night of March at 9PM.
Short films are all too often overlooked, despite their significant influence on the cinematic landscape. That’s why, as a special Sunday classic this March, we are screening a selection of iconic short films. In approximately 90 minutes, five different films will take center stage—ranging from mini-documentaries and animation to experimental visual masterpieces. These films are not only classics within the short film genre but also within the history of cinema itself!
One of the highlights is the iconic Un Chien Andalou (1929) by Luis Buñuel, written in collaboration with none other than Salvador Dalí. This surrealist and experimental dream sequence transcends conventional notions of chronology and logic. A groundbreaking and provocative montage of striking and avant-garde imagery, the film remains a defining moment in surrealist cinema.
Inspired by Buñuel, renowned experimental filmmakers Maya Deren and Alexandr Hackenschmied adopt a similar dream logic in Meshes of the Afternoon (1943). This silent film immerses the audience in the haunting, cynical fantasy world of a sleeping woman. As visual motifs repeat, the boundaries between dream and reality gradually dissolve. Today, Meshes of the Afternoon is still considered one of the most influential works in American experimental cinema.
No retrospective would be complete without another major avant-garde filmmaker from the American landscape: Hollis Frampton. A photographer and poet by training, Frampton became fascinated by the possibilities of experimental film in the 1960s. His autobiographical work Hapax Legomena I: Nostalgia (1971) consists of a series of photographs from his life as an artist, each accompanied by personal commentary—narrated by fellow artist Michael Snow.
We are also screening the documentary by Forough Farrokhzad, widely regarded as the most important Iranian poet of the 20th century. In her first and only film, The House Is Black (1963), she captures the tragic and marginalized existence of the inhabitants of an isolated leprosy hospital. Through her lyrical, poetic narration combined with striking imagery, Farrokhzad powerfully expresses the raw essence of life with this devastating disease.
Finally, we cannot overlook Father and Daughter (2000) by Dutch filmmaker Michael Dudok de Wit. This deeply moving animated film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short in 2001 and was included in the Dutch film canon in 2007—the only animated film to receive this honor. It tells the poignant story of a daughter who, as the years pass, continually returns to the place where she last saw her father—cycling against the wind, set against the backdrop of a Dutch landscape.
Still: The House Is Black (1963) - Forough Farrokhzad