Harry Smith’s final film; an epic four-screen projection. Smith worked on this cinematic transformation of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1929) for over ten years and considered it his magnum opus. The film was shot from 1970 to 1972 and edited for the next eight years. The “program” of the film is meticulous, with a complex structure and order. The Weill opera is transformed into a numerological and symbolic system. Images in the film are divided into categories— portraits, animation, symbols and nature— to form the palindrome P.A.S.A.N.A.S.A.P. The film contains invaluable cameos of important avant-garde figures such as Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith, and Jonas Mekas, intercut with installation pieces from Robert Mapplethorpe’s studio, New York City landmarks of the era, and Smith’s visionary animation.
On a storm-ravaged island that has seen its share of tragedy, a person who had been assumed dead reappears and ignites a frenzy of reactions, ranging from ecstatic religious fervor to fear.
Vladica lost the only thing that mattered to him - an amateur karate championship. Now he's back in his home town looking for a job, love and redemption.
A California rancher hires a private detective to deliver the rancher's long-lost daughter to him. However, several people, including the rancher's new wife, his foreman and a crooked sheriff, don't want the girl--who would inherit the rancher's large spread if he died--to make it to the ranch alive.
A Coca-Cola bottle dropped from an airplane raises havoc among a normally peaceful tribe of African bushmen who believe it to be a utensil of the gods.
The origins, exploits and the ultimate fate of the James gang is told in a sympathetic portrayal of the bank robbers made up of brothers who begin their legendary bank raids because of revenge.
