I Was A Criminal

A series of vignettes captured in Brevard, North Carolina at the end of December.

After appearing in newspapers, radio, and over 25 different TV shows worldwide, the Arse Marks crew that you know and love is here to drop another video on you. This DVD has all the workings to make it a classic Arse Marks video: Glass, fire, blood, parties, skits, laughs, and Mewes dancing his ass off. Featuring new members, while still having the original crew, this is a video that you will never forget.

A short film about a dying fly's last words, and an Italian voice over artist.

Documentary by Hans-Dieter Grabe.

The grand old man of Finnish documentary film, Lasse Naukkarinen, recollects his films, diary entries and experiences and walks us through the turbulent years of the 60's and the 70's.

Athens, 1983. The world press reports that 4-year old Bashir is killed in the assassination of his father, Mamoun Mraish, a top PLO lieutenant. Father and son are declared dead but when they arrive at the hospital Bashir turns out to be still alive. But if Bashir is fully alive today, what happened to the dream he and his father were believed to have died for?

With 1 in 3 women having had an abortion "I told my Mum I was going on an R.E. trip…" explores what seems to be one of society's last taboos using verbatim voices, music, beats and rhyme.

Marija, Marija always unfortunate. Never catch her glance, she'll bring you misery!

A visual essay revealing social inequality as the silent sickness of COVID-19 lockdown America. To highlight the disconnect between the fantasy of Los Angeles and the lived reality for many of its citizens, a computerized voice gives a dispassionate monologue over imagery that explores the truth of a city after the tourists, luxury stores and entertainment are removed from the streets. Through silent vignettes, the film leaves us with images of homelessness, and comments on the shallowness of capitalism and the hypocrisy of multiculturalism.

The leash of the dog that was longer than his life is a live-form movie, running 16 minutes long and filmed in a single shot. A brief image of an athletically-focused, playful day at a clearing in the woods ends quickly as the focus shifts to a barking dog and his chain-link leash. The camera fixates on the leash and the viewer suddenly senses the tension and anger of one restrained. The physicality of the piece engages with concepts of the rule of law, some necessary and some not so. We must be cautious to not become victims of our own idealism – without sacrificing our innate sense of justice. The leash goes on seemingly forever, and we contemplate the binds existing in our lives and in the lives of others as the dog’s leash unfurls for the camera.

The natural world has been a source of solace for many queer men throuought their lives. It also has played a significant part in queer male history as a key location for cruising. In both of these examples queer men’s place in nature is often transitory and ephemeral. Our stories and presence are gone as nature continues with barely an imprint we were even there. I Wish There Was a Guy Term for I Love You preserves these hidden queer histories and draws attention to the often overlooked importance of nature in queer life.

Sometimes Hannelore wishes she were a Hans, because “when a woman has to deal with a lot of men, she has to summon up a lot of strength to be heard”. The mayor of the island of Ummanz off Rügen used to be a cook. Now she represents the government and demonstrates “socialist democracy in action”. Director Róza Berger-Fiedler weaves Madam Mayor’s encounters with her constituency and discussions about the office with all its responsibilities into a sensitive portrait of a dedicated person.

Vic, an unprosperous actor, is torn between his dreams and real life.

"Part of an ongoing project called Scanning Cinema [that consists] of scanning moving images by using a flatbed scanner and a monitor and putting them back into an animated film. The inversions [produced by this] method (the physical action of scanning) [generate] a new language like a disturbed echo from the photographic reviving of moving images. […] The fragments … used [here] are a re-montage of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up, [while] the original soundtrack of Herbie Hancock has undergone the same process as the images. The movie consists of 10,000 scans put together in a stop-motion film." (Benjamin Verhoeven)

In the early morning of December 15, 1938, Chkalov arrived at the Khodynka airfield – a new I-180 fighter was to be tested for takeoff. In the flight task it was written - to go one lap and return to the airfield. But Valery Chkalov decided to go on the second lap, and the engine stalled ...Chkalov tried hard to start the engine, but it was useless. There is only one way out – to plan for the airfield and go to the landing. Until the last second, he tried to save the plane... There are many versions about Chkalov's death, but none of them clarifies the situation to the end. The life and death of Chkalov is the story of an unusual pilot who always tried to act contrary to the rules and orders, to go beyond the limits of the possible. Such was the character.

It's a busy day at the office, and the stenographer is exhausted from trying to keep up with the demands on her skills. Even when she stays late, she cannot catch up with all of the work. But then a man comes into the office to demonstrate the many advantages of the Edison System, his company's new business phonograph.

After a mysterious dead body falls from the sky, a man aimlessly combs through his memories to piece himself back together.