http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvmXDeNGy3s
Science Friction (1959) is a piece mainly consisting of cut-outs that are animated (think early South Park), with some live action/stop motion sequences. Although it’s a very fun piece, there must be some sort of social commentary embedded between the lines, given the time period and context of the piece. Humans were racing to get into outer space and the many rocket sequences make the whole situation seem hillarious. At the end, there is a hand that “grabs” the world and cracks it into a pan, cooking it like an egg… Vanderbeek must have feared the direction Science was taking mankind.
John Whitney’s Catalog is a very early (1961) computer generated film piece. To me, this film demonstrates the evolution of the Abstract film form, fully realizing its potential with the aid of computers. Could you imagine how Opus I or Rhythmus 21 would have turned out if there was this technology at their disposal? Although those works have a different feel owing to the nature of their construction, Catalog certainly does a wonderful job capturing emotion and feeling with its flowing images. It is certainly something to marvel at even in this age of advanced technology.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNOfsJz4TjA
Street of Crocodiles is definitely a must-see, even for those who don’t have the patience for experimental film. It’s one of the earliest films I’ve seen that pushes stop motion to the next level, creating its own dynamic world that doesn’t adhere to the laws of nature. The protagonist, a puppet just recently released from it’s strings, explores a world in which it feels isolated and lonely. Different objects represent different forms of “manufactured pleasures” (as the Brothers Quay themselves describe) and as the puppet gets more absorbed in this reality we get to see how desolate and unsastisfying it can actually be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De4DWMyQBfU
This is another computer generated film piece, and aside from its rather uninspiring title (Scan Processor Studies) this film does just as good a job cultivating emotion as the other abstract film pieces I’ve seen. The beginning (and the majority of the film) give a sense of anxiety and “feeling trapped” owing both to the screeching soundtrack and the images. The square seems to be a sort of prison that a form, unidentifiable, is attempting to push and break free from. After several minutes of this struggle, the form takes a static shape rotating in space, but still suffers from the same tension as a product of the soundtrack. Warning: watching this film may stress you out, just a tad. But that just means it’s doing its job.
Watch is definitely an art piece and has been on display at galleries, and offers two perspectives on the same street corner. One of them focuses on the “motion” and the other on stillness, and plays both simultaneously to reveal their disparity. Eventually, a social commentary is inserted. The subtitles say “On a busy street, the only people standing still are the homeless. The stillness process brings these people into visibility, with everyone else fading into the mist, thus inverting the perceptual filters we develop to make these people disappear.” What a powerful statement. Sure enough, the “homeless” stand out while the people in motion remain a blur, calling attention to the poverty that is inherent within every single city, often ignored because of the way we live our fast-paced lives.
The Truth Within... 
“Science Friction (1959) is a piece mainly consisting of cut-outs that are animated (think early South Park), with some live action/stop motion sequences. Although it’s a very fun piece, there must be some sort of social commentary embedded between the lines, given the time period and context of the piece.” I drew the same comparisons from South Park too, I guess it’s just a generation type of thing. The film showed a lot of early animations and definitely seemed like an early episode from South Park. The social commentary you mention makes a lot of sense too. As I was watching the film I felt like I missed something that was needed to make the point of the film. I guess its just another generation type of thing.