Movie: Permutations

  • HomePage

  • Overview

    An experimental short film by John Whitney Sr. which combines animated shapes and colors; Computer graphics as dynamic, swirling art. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2014.

  • Release Date

    1968-12-21

  • Average

    6

  • Rating:

    3.0 starts
  • Tagline

  • Genres

  • Languages:

    No Language
  • Keywords

Recommendations Movies

Little Nemo
63%

Little Nemo(en)

1911-04-08

Cartoon figures announce, via comic strip balloons, that they will move - and move they do, in a wildly exaggerated style. Also known as "Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics".

Lapis
59%

Lapis(en)

1966-08-11

James Whitney’s Lapis (1966) is a classic work of abstract cinema, a 10-minute animation that took three years to create using primitive computer equipment. In this piece smaller circles oscillate in and out in an array of colors resembling a kaleidoscope while being accompanied with Indian sitar music. The patterns become hypnotic and trance inducing. This work clearly correlates the auditory and the visual and is a wonderful example of the concept of synaesthesia.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
77%

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On(en)

2022-06-24

Marcel is an adorable one-inch-tall shell who ekes out a colorful existence with his grandmother Connie and their pet lint, Alan. Once part of a sprawling community of shells, they now live alone as the sole survivors of a mysterious tragedy. When a documentarian discovers them amongst the clutter of his Airbnb, his resulting short film brings Marcel millions of passionate fans, as well as unprecedented dangers and a new hope at finding his long-lost family.

Presence
59%

Presence(en)

2025-01-16

A couple and their children move into a seemingly normal suburban home. When strange events occur, they begin to believe there is something else in the house with them. The presence is about to disrupt their lives in unimaginable ways.

Saint Maud
66%

Saint Maud(en)

2020-10-09

Having recently found God, self-effacing young nurse Maud arrives at a plush home to care for Amanda, a hedonistic dancer left frail from a chronic illness. When a chance encounter with a former colleague throws up hints of a dark past, it becomes clear there is more to sweet Maud than meets the eye.

Landscape in the Mist
77%

Landscape in the Mist(el)

1988-09-10

Two Greek children embark on a journey to search for their father, who supposedly lives in Germany.

Dune
62%

Dune(en)

1984-12-14

In the year 10,191, the most precious substance in the universe is the spice Melange. The spice extends life. The spice expands consciousness. The spice is vital to space travel. The spice exists on only one planet in the entire universe, the vast desert planet Arrakis, also known as Dune. Its native inhabitants, the Fremen, have long held a prophecy that a man would come, a messiah who would lead them to true freedom.

Black Dog
73%

Black Dog(zh)

2024-06-14

On the edge of the Gobi desert in Northwest China, Lang returns to his hometown after being released from jail. While working for the local dog patrol team to clear the town of stray dogs before the Olympic Games, he strikes up an unlikely connection with a black dog. These two lonely souls embark on a journey together.

Woman of the Hour
64%

Woman of the Hour(en)

2024-10-03

An aspiring actress crosses paths with a prolific serial killer in '70s LA when they're cast on an episode of "The Dating Game."

Murder at 1600
61%

Murder at 1600(en)

1997-04-18

A secretary is found dead in a White House bathroom during an international crisis, and Detective Harlan Regis is in charge of the investigation. Despite resistance from the Secret Service, Regis partners with agent Nina Chance. As political tensions rise, they learn that the crime could be part of an elaborate cover-up. Framed as traitors, the pair, plus Regis' partner, break into the White House in order to expose the true culprit.

Parallel Mothers
68%

Parallel Mothers(es)

2021-10-08

Two unmarried women who have become pregnant by accident and are about to give birth meet in a hospital room: Janis, in her late-thirties, unrepentant and happy; Ana, a teenager, remorseful and frightened.

Noelle
66%

Noelle(en)

2019-11-12

Kris Kringle's daughter, Noelle, sets off on a mission to find and bring back her brother, after he gets cold feet when it's his turn to take over as Santa.

Memoir of a Snail
81%

Memoir of a Snail(en)

2024-10-17

Forcibly separated from her twin brother when they are orphaned, a melancholic misfit learns how to find confidence within herself amid the clutter of misfortunes and everyday life.

Black Site
61%

Black Site(en)

2022-05-05

A group of officers based in a labyrinthine top-secret prison must fight for their lives against Hatchet, a brilliant and infamous high-value detainee. When he escapes, his mysterious and deadly agenda has far reaching and dire consequences.

iHostage
60%

iHostage(nl)

2025-04-18

When a gunman enters an Apple Store in the heart of Amsterdam, the police face a delicate challenge to resolve the standoff.

Green Book
82%

Green Book(en)

2018-11-16

Tony Lip, a bouncer in 1962, is hired to drive pianist Don Shirley on a tour through the Deep South in the days when African Americans, forced to find alternate accommodations and services due to segregation laws below the Mason-Dixon Line, relied on a guide called The Negro Motorist Green Book.

Six Men Getting Sick
56%

Six Men Getting Sick(en)

1967-01-01

Lynch's first film project consists of a loop of six people vomiting projected on to a special sculptured screen featuring twisted three-dimensional faces.

Bicycle Thieves
82%

Bicycle Thieves(it)

1948-07-21

Unemployed Antonio is elated when he finally finds work hanging posters around war-torn Rome. However on his first day, his bicycle—essential to his work—gets stolen. His job is doomed unless he can find the thief. With the help of his son, Antonio combs the city, becoming desperate for justice.

A Dog Named Palma
81%

A Dog Named Palma(ru)

2021-03-18

The film is inspired by an incredible story of a shepherd dog named Palm who was inadvertently left in the airport by her owner. She befriends nine-year old Nicholas whose mother dies leaving him with a father he barely knows - a pilot who finds the dog at the airport. It's a story of amazing adventures, true friendship and unconditional love.

Vertigo
82%

Vertigo(en)

1958-05-28

A retired San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.

Similar Movies

California's Golden Beginning
0%

California's Golden Beginning(en)

1948-01-01

A description and enactment of the discovery of gold by James Marshall, and the role played by John Sutter. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive.

Chicken Real
70%

Chicken Real(en)

1970-01-01

One of Les Blank's industrial films, which follows a Holly Farms "broiler" chicken from factory incubation to the county fair barbecue pit. A hilarious, disturbing and surreal look at a large-scale chicken farm producing 156 million chickens a year! Film includes lots of chicken songs and music recorded live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

The Man Who Skied Down Everest
66%

The Man Who Skied Down Everest(en)

1975-09-19

This Oscar-winning documentary tells the story behind Japanese daredevil Yuichiro Miura's 1970 effort to ski down the world's tallest mountain. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2010.

Hackers Wanted
59%

Hackers Wanted(en)

2009-01-01

Hackers Wanted explores the origins and nature of hackers and hacking by following the adventures of Adrian Lamo, and contrasting his story with that of controversial figures throughout history.

The Bomb
70%

The Bomb(en)

2017-06-10

Filmmakers use archival footage and animation to explore the culture surrounding nuclear weapons, the fascination they inspire and the perverse appeal they still exert.

Congo
58%

Congo(en)

1972-01-01

An experimental ethnographic documentary that criticizes the colonizer view of anthropology.

Showman
60%

Showman(en)

1963-01-02

Albert and David Maysles (Gimme Shelter) directed this 53-minute documentary about movie tycoon Joseph E. Levine (1963). Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

Man with a Movie Camera
78%

Man with a Movie Camera(ru)

1929-05-12

A cameraman wanders around with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling inventiveness.

The Art Director
0%

The Art Director(en)

1949-11-12

A film's art director is in charge of the set, from conception to construction to furnishing. This short film walks the viewer through art directors' responsibilities and the demands on their talents. They read a script carefully and design a set to capture the time and place, the social strata, and the mood. They must be scholars of the history of architecture, furnishings, and fashion. They choose the colors on a set in anticipation of the lighting and the mood. Their work also sets styles, from Art Deco in the 20's to 30s modernism. Then it's on to the next project. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

Men Boxing
41%

Men Boxing(xx)

1891-04-30

Experimental film fragment made with the Edison-Dickson-Heise experimental horizontal-feed kinetograph camera and viewer, using 3/4-inch wide film.

Harlan County U.S.A.
75%

Harlan County U.S.A.(en)

1977-01-23

This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastovers refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive women-folk. Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by giving us some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with New York Women in Film & Television in 2004.

The Extraordinary Adventures of a Quart of Milk
100%

The Extraordinary Adventures of a Quart of Milk(fr)

1951-01-01

Documentary short subject preserved by the Academy Film Archive, from the Marshall Plan Collection, in 2003.

Thot-Fal'N
54%

Thot-Fal'N(en)

1978-06-27

This film describes a psychological state "kin to moonstruck, its images emblems (not quite symbols) of suspension-of-self within consciousness and then that feeling of falling away from conscious thought. The film can only be said to describe or be emblematic of this state because I cannot imagine symbolizing or otherwise representing an equivalent of thoughtlessness itself. Thus the actors in the film, Jane Brakhage, Tom and Gloria Bartek, Williams Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Peter Olovsky and Phillip Whalen are figments of this 'Thought-Fallen Process', as are their images in the film to find themselves being photographed."

Carta a Boris
0%

Carta a Boris(es)

2015-12-17

Writing late becomes usual, we are always too late. Boris was my alter ego and I was his alter ego. Now that he is no longer here, I can be honest.

Dreams of Ice
80%

Dreams of Ice(es)

1994-11-15

In 1992 the Universal Exhibition in Seville was held in Spain. Chile participated in this exhibition by displaying in its pavilion an ice floe captured and brought especially by sea from Antarctica. In these true facts is based the fantasy narrated in Dreams of Ice. Filmed between November 1991 and May 1992 on board the ships Galvarino, Aconcagua and Maullín, in a voyage that goes from Antarctica to Spain, in this documentary film in which dreams, myths and facts converge towards a poetic tale turned into a seafaring saga, in the manner of the legends of the seafarers that populate the mythology of the American continent and universal literature.

Black Waters
0%

Black Waters(es)

“Aguas Negras” is an experimental documentary about the Cuautitlán River. The film examines the passage of time and the pollution of the river by focusing on conversations with multiple generations of women in the filmmaker's family that have grown up by the river in a municipality identified as having the highest perception of insecurity in the State of Mexico.

Let Us Persevere in What We Have Resolved Before We Forget
73%

Let Us Persevere in What We Have Resolved Before We Forget(en)

2013-07-04

On the island of Tanna, a part of Vanuatu, an archipelago in Melanesia, strange rites are enacted and time passes slowly while the inhabitants await the return of the mysterious John.

Todo Todo Teros
52%

Todo Todo Teros(en)

2006-08-18

Basically an artist is also a terrorist, the protagonist thinks in an unguarded moment. And if he is a terrorist after all, then he might just as well be one. Not an instant product, but an experimental feature in which diary material is brought together to form an intriguing puzzle.

23rd Psalm Branch
82%

23rd Psalm Branch(en)

1967-01-27

Made during the height of the Vietnam War, Stan Brakhage has said of this film that he was hoping to bring some clarity to the subject of war. Characteristically for Brakhage there is no direct reference to Vietnam.