Night Cries
Short Films
•
17m
Directed by Tracey Moffat • Drama • With Marcia Langton, Agnes Hardwick, Jimmy Little • 1991 • 19 minutes
On an isolated, surreal Australian homestead, a middle-aged Aboriginal woman nurses her dying white mother. The adopted daughter’s attentive gestures mask an almost palpable hostility. Their story alludes to the assimilation policy that forced Aboriginal children to be raised in white families. The stark, sensual drama unfolds without dialogue against vivid painted sets as the smooth crooning of an Aboriginal Christian singer provides ironic counterpoint. Moffatt’s first 35mm film displays rare visual assurance and emotional power.
“A dazzling grand opera of silence and maternity, as opulent as Robert Wilson, as soulfully anguished as Fassbinder.” —Manohla Dargis Best of 1990,Village Voice
“Unsentimental and self-consciously artificial, the film undermines any easy assumptions or conclusions. Formally innovative and thought-provoking at once.” —Caryn James, New York Times
Up Next in Short Films
-
Flamenco at 5:15
Directed by Cynthia Scott • Documentary • 1983 • 5 minutes
This Oscar-winning film is a visual and emotional thriller. It is an impressionistic record of a flamenco dance class given to senior students of the National Ballet School of Canada by two great teachers from Spain, Susana and Antonio R...
-
Kings Point
Directed by Sari Gilman • Documentary • 2014 • 30 minutes
During the 1970s and 80s, thousands of New York’s primarily Jewish senior citizens migrated to Kings Point, a retirement community in Florida. Lured by blue skies, sunshine and the promise of richer social lives, they bought paradise for ...
-
Hu Bo's Man in the Well
Directed by Hu Bo • Drama • With Tieguang Gao, Xiaoqian Zhang, Yiji Zhao • 2017 • 16 minutes
Apocalypse. Two starving kids find a dead body in the ruins… Notes from Bela Tarr during 2017 FIRST training camp “They asked me to choose a ‘best student’ from these participants. But I don’t like the w...
