Paperland: The Bureaucrat Observed

Open to the Public

July 2018 •Italian

The Institute for Public Housing in Naples employs about 100 people. When the office is open to the public, employees receive residents who live in the 40,000 houses managed by the institute. Their task is to find solutions to citizens’ problems and trigger the bureaucratic procedures to solve them. But managing these chaotic lives within rigid legal structures is not an easy task and employees are often forced to resort to a singular art: “bureaucratic compromise”. (Tënk)

Sicko

May 2007 •English

A documentary about the corrupt health care system in The United States who's main goal is to make profit even if it means losing people’s lives. "The more people you deny health insurance the more money we make" is the business model for health care providers in America.

Visions of Europe

May 2004 •English

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

One Got Fat

December 1963 •English

This bicycle-safety film shows children what can happen when bicycles are driven carelessly and recklessly.

The Spanish Flu: The Invisible Enemy

September 2021 •French

In April 1918, a disease of unknown origin swept across the five continents. In 18 months, millions of lives that had not been taken by the war were swept away by a virus that would cause the worst pandemic in history: the Spanish flu.

Berlin Ulysses

March 2024 •German

Successfully completed your studies - now what? Raffly already has a lucrative job offer from a large German company, but neither an apartment nor a work permit.

The Hole In The Ground

July 1962 •English

Made at the height of 'cold war' paranoia, this drama-documentary shows the work of the UK Warning and Monitoring Organisation, who's duties included the issuing of public warnings of any nuclear missile strike and the subsequent fallout.

Say No to Strangers

January 1981 •English

A short film to warn children of sexual predators.

Wild at the Wheel

January 1973 •English

This short film looks at the importance of maintaining safe driving practices and heeding traffic rules. A traffic cop investigates a serious car crash and attempts to understand the cause.

Una risata ci salverà

September 2023 •Italian

Welfare

September 1975 •English

WELFARE shows the nature and complexity of the welfare system in sequences illustrating the staggering diversity of problems that constitute welfare: housing, unemployment, divorce, medical and psychiatric problems, abandoned and abused children, and the elderly. These issues are presented in a context where welfare workers as well as clients struggle to cope with and interpret the laws and regulations that govern their work and life.

The High Wall

January 1952 •English

Film produced for a coalition of public service groups to combat racial and ethnic hatred. The narrative follows an emotionally insecure Chicago teenager whose bigoted thinking leads him to violence. Explores how prejudices are passed like "a contagious disease" from parent to child, teacher to pupils, and youth to youth, and suggests strategies for breaking the cycle.

Beware The Rapist

January 1979 •English

Public information film regarding female safety and how to safeguard against rape

Drugs Are Like That

January 1969 •English

[…] Though the highs and lows of human experience are all here, it's often the gimcrack set design and fashion chops in these vintage clunkers that really wow – the pot-holder sweater vests, ponytails decorated with yarn, hippies with crumb-catching moustaches, banana-seat bikes and a hard rain of Quaaludes and amphetamines to illustrate the dangers of drug addiction. It is hard to believe anyone would buy the goofball cause-and-effect of that pill-popper's weather pattern in "Drugs Are Like That". Co-produced by the Miami Junior League and narrated by Anita Bryant in this cheery little hand-slapper, a kid stealing cookies from a cookie jar is implied to be headed down a bad road to Bowery bum rolls and LSD parties. (from: http://clatl.com/atlanta/av-geeks-greatest-hits-lessons-learned/Content?oid=1268313)

Your Call Is Important To Us

November 2023 •French

The only thing colder than a Canadian winter is Canadian bureaucracy (probably). Based on five real life stories, Romy Boutin St-Pierre and Joe Nadeau pay homage to the nation-wide stress headache of phone calls with the government in this surprising short.

The Unofficial Dan Quayle Video

February 1992 •English

The Unofficial Dan Quayle Video is a humorous collection of Quayle’s speeches, press conferences and interviews given during his term as Vice President. See Dan Quayle on the golf course (how does he compare to other famous V.P.’s, such as Ford and Agnew?), watch him squirm as he is interviewed by grade school children, see him in action at a ceremony at NASA, examine his technique in “throwing out his garbage.” The Unofficial Dan Quayle Video will be hilarious to Democrats and Republicans alike.

'LSD': Trip or Trap!

January 1967 •English

The Inglewood Police Department's 1960s video, "LSD: Trip or Trap?" is a classic of the genre. Alex sez, "It's a story of two friends who enjoy flying model planes, except that one becomes an 'acidhead' so he can be 'groovy' with the other acidheads. The other does research into LSD and decides it's a 'bummer'."

Ruurdt

September 2024 •Dutch

In 2023, there were an estimated 30.6 thousand homeless people. This number continues to rise at an alarming rate. One of them is the headstrong Ruurdt. He has difficulty getting help and cannot adapt well to our society. He is now also in danger of losing the houseboat that was assigned to him. 'Ruurdt' is an intimate portrait of a man on the fringes of our society.

Juvenile Court

June 1973 •English

JUVENILE COURT shows the complex variety of cases before the Memphis Juvenile Court: foster home placement, drug abuse, armed robbery, child abuse, and sexual offenses. The sequences illustrate such issues as community protection vs. the desire for rehabilitation, the range and the limits of the choices available to the court, the psychology of the offender, and the constitutional and procedural questions involved in administering a juvenile court.

A Good American

September 2015 •English

A Good American tells the story of the best code-breaker the USA ever had and how he and a small team within NSA created a surveillance tool that could pick up any electronic signal on earth, filter it for targets and render results in real-time while keeping the privacy as demanded by the US constitution.