Metropolitan Cats

View up close some of the smaller inhabitants of the Red Sea off the coast of Sudan - a world filled with strange, fascinating, and often comic creatures.

A highly unusual look into the world of exotic pets and their owners in a large city. It is a film of love, comedy, ego and tragedy. The film begins on a humorous note, as the viewer is swept along, enjoying the fun of seeing and listening to people who keep monkeys, ocelots, lion cubs, possums, tarantulas, and every kind of exotic pet imaginable. Along with the careful, concerned people we meet, we also see some who are not quite so responsible. We witness the effects of some of the owners' neglect and lack of sensitivity to the needs of these animals from the wild. Some owners also describe their pets as exhibiting almost human traits, but is it good for animals to lose their own traits and characteristics, and acquire those of human beings?

The young Ramon Salazar, son of a village owner, dreams of becoming a pearl fisherman. His father agrees to let him experience this job. Ramon enters a forbidden cave, den of a giant skate nicknamed the Manta Diablo. He finds an oyster containing a black pearl of unusual size. His father donates it to the Virgin rather than sell it to dishonest traffickers. Shortly after, the flotilla of the village led by Salazar perishes at sea. Ramon must face the Manta Diablo with another fisherman to bring prosperity to the village ..

An intimate view of the panorama of African wildlife, giving a sense of what it is really like to be there, and in a dramatic climax makes a poignant plea for conservation. Filmed in Zaire, Kenya and Tanzania, the film takes the viewer from deep inside an anthill, to the majestic giraffes suckling their young. African storms, dung beetle ritual dances, duels for supremacy, feeding time, and playtime all end as the animals disappear one by one while the sound of a rifle shatters the existing magic of life. Winner of the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject, 1976.

Depicts the larger sea creatures inhabiting the Red Sea. An imaginative sound track accompanies hermit crabs, jellyfish, parrot fish, sea urchins, crown-of-thorns starfish, sea cucumbers, clown fish, and Manta Rays - to mention only a few - as they parade before the camera in stunning color and movement.

A concise and poetic story of a man whose model airplane vanishes over the sea.

In winter at Yellowstone National Park, the boiling water of the geysers meets 40-below-zero to create a seam of frozen ice crystals.

The lyric passage of a Monarch butterfly, beginning with its birth, through its delicate metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly and on its journey from country to city. From the first frame, the audience experiences the tension of this perilous flight as numerous adversaries, threaten the butterfly's freedom. A lively sound track, with music composed by Frederic Chopin, allows us to live for a few moments in this fleeting world.

Documentary depicting the science-fiction shapes and colors of life in the cold seas of Ireland. Nominated for the Academy Award, Best Live Action Short Film, for 1977.

After a series of traumatic childhood events, a psychosomatically deaf, dumb and blind boy becomes a master pinball player and the object of a religious cult.

Descend into the crater of the Nyiragongo Volcano (in Zaire, Africa) to witness the terrifying yet spellbinding explosion of molten lava at its very source. Set to the Toccata and Fugue of J.S. Bach, the film is at once stunningly beautiful, yet plunges us into the very depths of hell. The extreme beauty of the visuals, together with the power of the music, creates an unforgettable experience.

We briefly visit a vast array of various flying objects.

In the clear waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the undulant beauty and violent potential of underwater life are carefully balanced within the reef community. The coral, the fish, the crabs all live within the balance of a delicate web of life connecting all creatures of the deep, from tiny microscopic plankton to the 2000-pound manta ray and the mighty sailfish. This web of life connects all sea creatures and man by his presence beneath the sea, threatens the very existence of life within the oceans.

A brief visit to the unique wildlife and peoples of Ethiopia. Expect the unexpected.

Examines the fear of aging and what post-retirement years are really like by interviewing a group of active, interested people, all over the age of 65. They speak of their enjoyment and appreciation of life, their health, happiness, retirement, sex and death.

Award-winning film essay exploring the model airplane phenomenon from the clumsy plastic glider of a child to the sophisticated radio-controlled sea plane of a middle-aged devotee. Details the building of a fragile, acetone indoor flying model lighter than a feather.