Micro-Features

By: Black Irish

Generally, a micro-feature is a film long enough to not be considered a ‘short film’ but with a shorter running time than a standard feature film. Usually somewhere between over twenty-five and under seventy-five minutes, but for the purposes of this list I may extend it, on a case-by-case basis, for anything roughly over twenty minutes or under eighty. The nature of a film’s length, be it long or relatively short, interests me in how it often affects the pacing and style of a given work. While I may focus more on micro than ‘macro’-features because I either cannot find the time or the films themselves to watch any, micro-features greatly interest me in the way a filmmaker tries to work with a shortened running time. Almost as if to create a greater impact upon the viewer.

This is a reference list and if there are any films that you know of which I may’ve overlooked, feel free to suggest them. Those films in the list proper are those which I’ve already seen and will, for the time being, be listed alphabetically. This list will be continually updated as films are removed or added. If you want to know about any more of these films, this list is definitely worth checking out.

If any of the harder to find films are made available on DVD or online, please let me know.

Most Anticipated:
- The Abyss (Urban Gad, 1910)
- À la Conquête du Pôle (Georges Méliès, 1912)
- The Battle at Elderbush Gulch (D. W. Griffith, 1913)
- The Night Before Christmas (Wladyslaw Starewicz, 1913)
- Alias Jimmy Valentine (Maurice Tourneur, 1915)
- Sea Vultures (Victor Sjöström, 1915)
- Kiss of Death (Victor Sjöström, 1916)
- The Ocean Waif (Alice Guy-Blaché, 1916)
- One A.M. (Charles Chaplin, 1916)
- The Battle of the Ancre and the Advance of the Tanks (Geoffrey H. Malins, 1917)
- Das Fidele Gefängnis (Ernst Lubitsch, 1917)
- Revolyutsioner (Yevgeni Bauer, 1917)
- A Romance of the Redwoods (Cecil B. DeMille, 1917)
- Straight Shooting (John Ford, 1917)
- Thomas Graal’s Best Film (Mauritz Stiller, 1917)
- Tom Sawyer (William Desmond Taylor, 1917)
- Die Austernprinzessin (Ernst Lubitsch, 1919)
- Love’s Prisoner (John Francis Dillon, 1919)
- A Romance of Happy Valley (D. W. Griffith, 1919)
- Helen of Four Gates (Cecil M. Hepworth, 1920)
- Outside the Law (Tod Browning, 1920)
- The Saphead (Blaché/Smith, 1920)
- Favilla (Ivo Illuminati, 1921)
- Schloss Vogelöd (F. W. Murnau, 1921)
- Seven Years Bad Luck (Max Linder, 1921)
- La Souriante Madame Beudet (Germaine Dulac, 1923)
- La Belle Nivernaise (Jean Epstein, 1924)
- Kinoglaz (Dziga Vertov, 1924)
- The Navigator (Keaton/Crisp, 1924)
- Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)
- La Fille de l’Eau (Jean Renoir, 1925)
- El Húsar de la Muerte (Pedro Sienna, 1925)
- The Open Road (Claude Friese-Greene, 1925)
- The Pleasure Garden (Alfred Hitchcock, 1925)
- Berlin, die Sinfonie der Großstadt (Walter Ruttmann, 1927)
- La Glace à Trois Faces (Jean Epstein, 1927)
- Three’s a Crowd (Harry Langdon, 1927)
- Upstream (John Ford, 1927)
- La Coquille et le Clergyman (Germaine Dulac, 1928)
- Un Chapeau de Paille d’Italie (René Clair, 1928)
- The Docks of New York (Josef von Sternberg, 1928)
- The Eleventh Year (Dziga Vertov, 1928)
- Lonesome (Pál Fejös, 1928)
- Storm Over Asia (Vsevolod Pudovkin, 1928)
- A Cottage on Dartmoor (Anthony Asquith, 1929)
- Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
- Les Mystères du Château de Dé (Man Ray, 1929)
- Le Oeufs d’épinoche (Jean Painlevé, 1929)
- La Perle (Henri d’Ursel, 1929)
- El Sexto Sentido (Ardavín/Sobrevila, 1929)
- Where East Is East (Tod Browning, 1929)
- Borderline (Kenneth Macpherson, 1930)
- Man to Man (Allan Dwan, 1930)
- Menschen am Sonntag (Var., 1930)
- Die Neue Wohnung (Version Atelier Richter) (Hans Richter, 1930)
- Die Neue Wohnung (Version SWB) (Hans Richter, 1930)
- Le Roman de Renard (Wladyslaw & Irene Starewicz, 1930)
- 50 Million Frenchmen (Lloyd Bacon, 1931)
- Daïnah la Métisse (Jean Grémillon, 1931)
- Enthusiasm (Dziga Vertov, 1931)
- From Saturday to Sunday (Gustav Machatý, 1931)
- Mor’vran (Jean Epstein, 1931)
- On Purge Bébé (Jean Renoir, 1931)
- L’Affaire est dans le Sac (Pierre Prevert, 1932)
- En el Infierno del Chaco (Roque Funes, 1932)
- The Mask of Fu Manchu (Vidor/Brabin, 1932)
- Number Seventeen (Alfred Hitchcock, 1932)
- 90° South (Herbert G. Ponting, 1933)
- Baby Face (Alfred E. Green, 1933)
- Jofroi (Marcel Pagnol, 1933)
- Lachende Erben (Max Ophüls, 1933)
- Lot in Sodom (Watson/Webber, 1933)
- Misère au Borinage (Ivens/Storck, 1933)
- El Prisionero 13 (Fernando de Fuentes, 1933)
- Treno Popolare (Raffaello Matarazzo, 1933)
- Wild Boys of the Road (William A. Wellman, 1933)
- Zéro de Conduite (Jean Vigo, 1933)
- Les Affaires Publiques (Robert Bresson, 1934)
- The Black Cat (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1934)
- Chanson d’Amour (Jean Epstein, 1934)
- The Lost Patrol (John Ford, 1934)
- Man of Aran (Robert J. Flaherty, 1934)
- Pyshka (Mikhail Romm, 1934)
- Sequoia (Franklin/Marin, 1934)
- Il Cappello a Tre Punte (Mario Camerini, 1935)
- The Night of the Party (Michael Powell, 1935)
- The Phantom Light (Michael Powell, 1935)
- Big Brown Eyes (Raoul Walsh, 1936)
- Morning’s Tree-Lined Street (Mikio Naruse, 1936)
- The Mysterious Mr. Davis (Claude Autant-Lara, 1936)
- Night Mail (Watt/Wright, 1936)
- Osaka Elegy (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1936)
- The Plough and the Stars (John Ford, 1936)
- La Tendre Ennemie (Max Ophüls, 1936)
- Avalanche (Mikio Naruse, 1937)
- En Pays Neufs (Maurice Proulx, 1937)
- The Challenge (Milton Rossmer, 1938)
- Merlusse (Marcel Pagnol, 1938)
- Let Us Live (John Brahm, 1939)
- The Whole Family Works (Mikio Naruse, 1939)
- Crimes at the Dark House (George King, 1940)
- Valley Town (Willard Van Dyke, 1940)
- Famalicão (Manoel de Oliveira, 1941)
- La Nave Bianca (Roberto Rossellini, 1942)
- The Undying Monster (John Brahm, 1942)
- The Ghost Ship (Mark Robson, 1943)
- L’Uomo dalla Croce (Roberto Rossellini, 1943)
- Bluebeard (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1944)
- The True Story of Lili Marlene (Humphrey Jennings, 1944)
- The Volunteer (Powellburger, 1944)
- Danger Signal (Robert Florey, 1945)
- A Diary for Timothy (Humphrey Jennings, 1945)
- My Name Is Julia Ross (Joseph H. Lewis, 1945)
- Le 6 Juin à l’Aube (Jean Grémillon, 1946)
- Indonesia Calling (Joris Ivens, 1946)
- So Dark the Night (Joseph H. Lewis, 1946)
- The Argyle Secrets (Cy Endfield, 1948)
- Germania Anno Zero (Roberto Rossellini, 1948)
- Jour de Fête (Jacques Tati, 1949)
- Armored Car Robbery (Richard Fleischer, 1950)
- Family Portrait (Humphrey Jennings, 1950)
- Swain (Gregory J. Markopoulos, 1950)
- The Red Badge of Courage (John Huston, 1951)
- Le Divertissement (Jacques Rivette, 1952)
- Le Grand Méliès (Georges Franju, 1952)
- Hôtel des Invalides (Georges Franju, 1952)
- Valkoinen Peura (Erik Blomberg, 1952)
- La Villa Santo Sospir (Jean Cocteau, 1952)
- Fear and Desire (Stanley Kubrick, 1953)
- Le Rideau Cramoisi (Alexandre Astruc, 1953)
- Crime Wave (André De Toth, 1954)
- Es Geschah am 20. Juli (G. W. Pabst, 1955)
- A Lawless Street (Joseph H. Lewis, 1955)
- The Bespoke Overcoat (Jack Clayton, 1956)
- The Fountain of Youth (Orson Welles, 1956)
- Le Bel Indifférent (Jacques Demy, 1957)
- Lettre de Sibérie (Chris Marker, 1957)
- On the Bowery (Lionel Rogosin, 1957)
- Les Mains Nettes (Claude Jutra, 1958)
- Nishi Ginza Station (Shohei Imamura, 1958)
- La Première Nuit (Georges Franju, 1958)
- The Back-Breaking Leaf (Terrence McCartney Filgate, 1959)
- Pull My Daisy (Frank/Leslie, 1959)
- The Bellboy (Jerry Lewis, 1960)
- City (Jan Troell, 1960)
- The White Dove (František Vláčil, 1960)
- The Conclusion (Satyajit Ray, 1961)
- The Postmaster (Satyajit Ray, 1961)
- Rabindranath Tagore (Satyajit Ray, 1961)
- The Sand Castle (Jerome Hill, 1961)
- Barravento (Glauber Rocha, 1962)
- I Fidanzati (Ermanno Olmi, 1962)
- La Jetée (Chris Marker, 1962)
- Les Mauvaises Fréquentations (Jean Eustache, 1963)
- Bartok (Ken Russell, 1964)
- Cast Iron (Otar Iosseliani, 1964)
- Culloden (Peter Watkins, 1964)
- Le Puits et le Pendule (Alexandre Astruc, 1964)
- The Coward (Satyajit Ray, 1965)
- Les Histoires Extraordinaires d’Edgar Poe (Éric Rohmer, 1965)
- Pour le Mistral (Joris Ivens, 1965)
- Coach to Vienna (Karel Kachyna, 1966)
- The Death of a Provincial (Krzysztof Zanussi, 1966)
- Lumière (Marc Allégret, 1966)
- Rotterdam-Europoort (Joris Ivens, 1966)
- Silence and Cry (Miklós Jancsó, 1967)
- Ljubavni Slucaj ili Tragedija Sluzbenice PTT (Dušan Makavejev, 1967)
- Gates to Paradise (Andrzej Wajda, 1968)
- High School (Frederick Wiseman, 1968)
- Louis Lumière (Éric Rohmer, 1968)
- Money (Rudy Burckhardt, 1968)
- La Morte d’Isotta (Werner Schroeter, 1968)
- La Rosière de Pessac (Jean Eustache, 1968)
- Song of Summer (Ken Russell, 1968)
- Stéphane Mallarmé (Éric Rohmer, 1968)
- Georgian Ancient Songs (Otar Iosseliani, 1969)
- Le Cochon (Eustache/Barjol, 1970)
- La Colonia Penal (Raúl Ruiz, 1970)
- Autour de l’Argent (Jean Dréville, 1971)
- La Expropiación (Raúl Ruiz, 1974)
- La Solitude du Chanteur de Fond (Chris Marker, 1974)
- Curriculum Vitae (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1975)
- Great (Isambard Kingdom Brunel) (Bob Godfrey, 1975)
- Children (Terence Davies, 1976)
- Aurélia Steiner (Melbourne) (Marguerite Duras, 1979)
- Aurélia Steiner (Vancouver) (Marguerite Duras, 1979)
- Bolívar, Sinfonía Tropikal (Diego Rísquez, 1979)
- Madonna and Child (Terence Davies, 1980)
- The Metaphor (King Vidor, 1980)
- Paris S’en Va (Jacques Rivette, 1981)
- Macbeth (Béla Tarr, 1982)
- Les Pigeons du Square (Jean Painlevé, 1982)
- Scénario du Film ‘Passion’ (Jean-Luc Godard, 1982)
- Death and Transfiguration (Terence Davies, 1983)
- The Planets (Ken Russell, 1983)
- Tempo di Viaggio (Tarkovsky/Guerra, 1983)
- A.K. (Chris Marker, 1985)
- The Angelic Conversation (Derek Jarman, 1985)
- Voyage d’une Main (Raúl Ruiz, 1985)
- Le Trio en Si Bémol (Éric Rohmer, 1987)
- Ashik Kerib (Sergei Parajanov, 1988)
- The End of the World (Dorota Kędzierzawska, 1988)
- Les Ministères de l’Art (Philippe Garrel, 1989)
- Les Sièges de l’Alcazar (Luc Moullet, 1989)
- Woodaabe: Herdsmen of the Sun (Werner Herzog, 1989)
- Echoes from a Somber Empire (Werner Herzog, 1990)
- Allemagne 90 Neuf Zéro (Jean-Luc Godard, 1991)
- Lungo il Fiume (Ermanno Olmi, 1991)
- La Vie des Morts (Arnaud Desplechin, 1991)
- A Walk Through Prospero’s Library (Peter Greenaway, 1991)
- O Dia do Desespero (Manoel de Oliveira, 1992)
- Lessons of Darkness (Werner Herzog, 1992)
- Rapado (Martín Rejtman, 1992)
- Darwin (Peter Greenaway, 1993)
- Glocken aus der Tiefe – Glaube und Aberglaube in Rußland (Werner Herzog, 1993)
- Les Derniers Jours d’Emmanuel Kant (Philippe Collin, 1994)
- U.S. Go Home (Claire Denis, 1994)
- Whispering Pages (Aleksandr Sokurov, 1994)
- 100 Years of Polish Cinema (Pawel Lozinski, 1995)
- Deux Fois Cinquante Ans de Cinéma Français (Godard/Miéville, 1995)
- Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices (Werner Herzog, 1995)
- JLG/JLG – Autoportrait de Décembre (Jean-Luc Godard, 1995)
- Like the Relentless Fury of the Pounding Waves (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 1995)
- Utazás az Alföldön (Béla Tarr, 1995)
- Retour à Sarajevo (Philippe Grandrieux, 1996)
- Von Heute auf Morgen (Straub-Huillet, 1997)
- Une Journée d’Andrei Arsenevitch (Chris Marker, 1999)
- Un Vivant Qui Passe (Claude Lanzmann, 1999)
- Wisconsin Death Trip (James Marsh, 1999)
- Hubo un Tiempo en Que los Sueños Dieron Paso a Largas Noches de Insomnio… (Julián Hernández, 2000)
- Krapp’s Last Tape (Atom Egoyan, 2000)
- Time and Tide (Peter Hutton, 2000)
- L’Homme des Roubines (Gérard Courant, 2001)
- In Public (Jia Zhangke, 2001)
- La Libertad (Lisandro Alonso, 2001)
- Two Rivers (Peter Hutton, 2003)
- The Wheel (Victor Asliuk, 2003)
- Los Muertos (Lisandro Alonso, 2004)
- Une Nuit (Henri-Jean Debon, 2004)
- Skagafjordur (Peter Hutton, 2004)
- Une Visite au Louvre (Straub-Huillet, 2004)
- Black Dragon Canyon (Jay Keitel, 2005)
- À Travers la Forêt (Jean-Paul Civeyrac, 2005)
- Soledad al Fin del Mundo (Casas/Zuber, 2006)
- Quei Loro Incontri (Straub-Huillet, 2006)
- Quelques Veuves de Noirmoutier (Agnès Varda, 2006)
- At Sea (Peter Hutton, 2007)
- La Parure (Claude Chabrol, 2007)
- Silencio (François-Jacques Ossang, 2007)
- Coal Money (Wang Bing, 2008)
- Le Genou d’Artémide (Jean-Marie Straub, 2008)
- Hunters Since the Beginning of Time (Carlos Casas, 2008)
- L’Itinéraire de Jean Bricard (Straub-Huillet, 2008)
- Of Time and the City (Terence Davies, 2008)
- Butterflies Have No Memories (Lav Diaz, 2009)
- The Darkness of Day (Jay Rosenblatt, 2009)
- Le Streghe, Femmes Entre Elles (Jean-Marie Straub, 2009)
- In Search of On the Road (Walter Salles, 2010)
- Le Rapport Karski (Claude Lanzmann, 2010)
- Green Fire (A. Dunsky/S. Dunsky/Steinke, 2011)
- Un Héritier (Jean-Marie Straub, 2011)
- Jean-Luc Persécuté (Emmanuel Laborie, 2011)
- Recuerdos de una Mañana (José Luis Guerín, 2011)
- Silver Bullets (Joe Swanberg, 2011)
- Sin Título (Carta para Serra) (Lisandro Alonso, 2011)
- Traveling Light (Gina Telaroli, 2011)
- Tributes-Pulse (Bill Morrison, 2011)
- The Zone (Joe Swanberg, 2011)
- Anquanto la Lhéngua fur Cantada (João Botelho, 2012)
- The Bookseller of Belfast (Alessandra Celesia, 2012)
- Caitlin Plays Herself (Joe Swanberg, 2012)
- An Investigation on the Night that Won’t Forget (Lav Diaz, 2012)
- Just Ancient Loops (Bill Morrison, 2012)
- Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man (Jonas Mekas, 2012)
- Reconversão (Thom Andersen, 2012)
- Silent Youth (Diemo Kemmesies, 2012)
- Reminiszenzen Aus Deutschland (Jonas Mekas, 2012)
- Walker (Tsai Ming-liang, 2012)
- Alberi (Michelangelo Frammartino, 2013)
- Echolot (Athanasios Karanikolas, 2013)
- Matar Extraños (Schulsinger/Pereda, 2013)
- O Quinto Evanxeo de Gaspar Hauser (Alberto Gracia, 2013)