Directed by Benjamin Nicolas | 11 mins | 2021
While the opening of this Expressionistic short film—depicting a perfunctory exchange between a rideshare driver and his passenger about Christmas shopping—gives little indication as to the direction it’s headed in, then the ominous title is rather mo...

Directed by Carolee Schneemann | 9 mins | 1963
In her first video work, Schneemann crafts an impressionistic portrait of another fearlessly provocative multidisciplinary artist: the eponymous Ruggles, best known for his dissonant, ultramodernist compositions and his lacerating tongue. Blotches of...

Directed by Miguel Gomes | 22 mins | 2000
In this early work by the beloved and formally daring Portuguese auteur, the portrayal of a multi-generational Yuletide family gathering gives way to documentation of the season’s chintzy and charming accouterments: tinsel twinkles, baubles bob, and a Spi...

Directed by Lev Kalman and Whitney Horn | 9 mins | 2007
The decadent gathering of this early Kalman and Horn short does not take place on Christmas but rather New Year's Eve, 1927, nor does it feature any jazz proper—but it does have characters performing a riff on The Strokes’ “New York City Cop...

Directed by Kip Fulbeck | 13 mins | 1996
In this short, a conversation between the California-born artist and his Cantonese-American mother overlays fuzzy, black-and-white footage—shot on PixelVision—of the family Christmas celebration. Here as in his photography, spoken word, and writing, Fulbec...

Directed by Andrew Lampert | 7 mins | 2011
This short by artist, archivist, and curator Lampert captures vivid documentary snippets of Yuletide cheer: the office holiday party, the spirited efforts of amateur ice skaters, a soliloquizing subway Santa—but the underlying subject is performativity, ...

Directed by Georges Méliès | 4 mins | 1901
The night before Christmas, as only the original purveyor of “movie magic” could envision it. Made as Méliès was approaching the peak of his popularity, this mini-fantasia presents an array of still-captivating tableaux: while children sleep, dolls pranc...

Directed by Ryan Trecartin | 7 mins | 2001
A Valentine’s Day-obsessed girl is gagged, bound, and subjected to a crazed, tinsel-strewn celebration of Christmas—a rival holiday!—in this gleefully frenetic early short from visionary video artist Trecartin, which stars his long-time collaborator Lizz...