The Disaster in Oaxaca (1931)
Footage of the aftermath of the January 14 1931 earthquake in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Footage of the aftermath of the January 14 1931 earthquake in Oaxaca, Mexico.
This documentary describes the unfortunate legacy of the lone house on the prairie, an example of a dwelling entirely unsuited for the harsh winter or summer. We meet some builders and homeowners experimenting with more energy-efficient designs, such as the dome, the underground house and a ranch with wind, solar energy and methane gas from animal waste.
Stretching along the river Ganges rests Varanasi, the holiest of India’s seven sacred cities, and a place where devout Hindus go to die in hopes of achieving moksha - becoming liberated from the cycle of rebirth. Hindu scriptures say that a soul has to undergo 8.4 million rebirths before reaching the human form, the only form one can attain moksha, and dying in Varanasi and being cremated along the banks of the river is believed to be the ideal way of achieving this. Several so-called ‘death hotels’ exist to accommodate believers who abandon their lives and come here in wait for death - some for as long as 40 years.
Distortions and deconstructions of Y2K pop stars' seductive images and iconic hits.
Skateboard film from Element Skateboards. Sequel to Elementality: Volume One. Featuring Nyjah Huston, Bucky Lasek, Bam Margera, Mike Vallely and Jeremy Wray.
The Japanese attack on Midway in June 1942, filmed as it happened. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive, in partnership with Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, in 2006.
Carl Johan De Geer remembers his old friend Lena Svedberg. He talks about how they used to make their magazine together, how beautiful but strange she drew and how bad she seemed to feel.
Shadowlands is an animated short film about darkness that won't let go. About the constant fear that something terrible might happen. It describes a journey into the inner world and psyche of a young person in distress, a world far from "normal".
A group of British children aged 7 from widely ranging backgrounds are interviewed about a range of subjects. The filmmakers plan to re-interview them at 7 year intervals to track how their lives and attitudes change as they age.
Short documentary
A "Pete Smith Specialty" - a fairly serious look at radio hams in the usual jokey format. Shows aircraft using morse code.
A film that will not only delight and entertain the aviation enthusiast but also educate and inspired renewed interest in aviation by the traveling public.
A "March of Time" presentation of the evolution of movies compiled primarily from film clips of silent movies through the early sound pictures to the present (1939) date. Industry executives such as Jack and Harry Warner, Walt Disney, Cecil B. DeMille, et al are seen taking bows in the live (non-archive) footage.
This short documentary, shot in the glass factories of Leerdam and Schiedam, demonstrates how glass blowers do their work. But thanks to the superbly edited ballet of working hands and the sequence of mechanical motions of the engines, is it especially a cinematic tour de force. That the industry can’t do without man’s involvement is shown in the scene where we hear the voice of Haanstra himself counting the bottles on the conveyor belt, until one bottle breaks…
A scientific film essay, narrated by Phil Morrison. A set of pictures of two picnickers in a park, with the area of each frame one-tenth the size of the one before. Starting from a view of the entire known universe, the camera gradually zooms in until we are viewing the subatomic particles on a man's hand.
Pro-Vietnamese film created by Dutch filmmaker Joris Ivens. This black and white film begins with an introduction by Bertrand Russell, who explains the history of the run-up to the American involvement in Vietnam. The film shows scenes of Vietnamese soldiers in trenches, American helicopters, agricultural workers, and children assembling anti-aircraft shells. A narrator speaks of the American invasion as being on par with the Germans during World War II and characterizes the Vietnamese as resistance fighters. Anti-American protests are shown. Ivens is shown interviewing Ho Chi Minh. Vietnamese villagers build dams for rice paddies, make traps using bamboo spikes, and take cover during air raids. Scenes include the headquarters of the National Liberation Front, a military execution, bombings, and villagers fighting back against US aggression.
Nature, gymnastic movements, a cat...
Through the pattern of this film a ‘Test’ at Lord’s runs like a thread and a broadcast commentary on the match is imposed on the background of cricket as a game, a craft, an interest of a people, a piece of history. The craftsmen are shown who make the ball and the bat–that ‘fourth straight stick’ with which the batsmen defend ‘the other three’. The craftsmen are shown who play the game, from W. G. Grace in the ‘nets’ to D. G. Bradman and Denis Compton in the thread of the ‘Test’. The history of the game is epitomized in the Long Room shots at Lord’s and from there the camera moves to the village green; to the London side- street where the urchins play on a ‘bumping pitch’; to South Africa, and India, where in the ‘blinding light’ there is often ‘an hour to play and the last man in.
Chennu committed his first crime when he was 15 years old: being a street kid. And he entered hell: Pademba Road. The adult prison in Freetown. In hell, Mr. Sillah is in charge, and there is no hope. Chennu got out after four years. Now he wants to go back.
Bram Stoker's Dracula has imprinted itself in the culture and history of modern day readers and movie goers. The tale of the original vampire continues to captivate and expand into new territories. This new documentary film follows the Count's journey from inception to the widespread popularity of the most popular monster in history, it's Dracula: Fiction and Reality.
Omondi lives in the biggest slum in East Africa. Everyday he sees airplanes fly over him. He dreams of becoming an airline pilot and flying far away.