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- DirectorEadweard MuybridgeStarsGilbert DommSallie GardnerThe clip shows a jockey, Gilbert Domm, riding a horse, Sallie Gardner. The clip is not filmed; instead, it consists of 24 individual photographs shot in rapid succession, making a moving picture when using a zoopraxiscope.
- DirectorLouis Aimé Augustin Le PrinceA shot of people walking on The Leeds Bridge.
- DirectorLouis Aimé Augustin Le PrinceStarsAnnie HartleyAdolphe Le PrinceJoseph WhitleyIn the garden, a man asks his friends to do something silly for him to record on film.
- DirectorLouis LumièreWorkers leaving the Lumière factory for lunch in Lyon, France in 1895; a place of great photographic innovation and one of the birth places of cinema.
- DirectorWilliam K.L. DicksonWilliam HeiseStarsAnnabelle MooreAnnabelle (Whitford) Moore performs one of her popular dance routines. She uses her dance steps and her long, flowing skirts to create a variety of visual patterns.
- DirectorLouis LumièreStarsAuguste LumièreMrs. Auguste LumiereAndrée LumièreAs part of a maiden public film screening at the Salon Indien, on December 28, in Paris, Auguste Lumière pivots the centre of attention around his baby daughter, as he tries to feed her from a spoon.
- DirectorAuguste LumièreLouis LumièreStarsMadeleine KoehlerMarcel KoehlerMrs. Auguste LumiereA train arrives at La Ciotat station.
- DirectorLouis LumièreStarsAuguste LumièreAuguste Lumière directs four workers in the demolition of an old wall at the Lumière factory. One worker is pressing the wall inwards with a jackscrew, while another is pushing it with a pick. When the wall hits the ground, a cloud of white dust whirls up. Three workers continue the demolition of the wall with picks.
- DirectorGeoffrey MalinsStarsBeauvoir De LisleDocumentary (with some re-enacted footage) of the British army's participation in the Battle of the Somme in France during World War I.
- DirectorCharles SheelerPaul StrandThis groundbreaking silent documentary captures the beauty and majesty of the New York City in its streets, skyscrapers, bridges, rail yards and harbors.
- DirectorRobert J. FlahertyStarsAllakariallakAlice NevalingaCunayouIn this silent predecessor to the modern documentary, film-maker Robert J. Flaherty spends one year following the lives of Nanook and his family, Inuits living in the Arctic Circle.
- DirectorBenjamin ChristensenStarsBenjamin ChristensenElisabeth ChristensenMaren PedersenFictionalized documentary showing the evolution of witchcraft, from its pagan roots to its confusion with hysteria in Eastern Europe.
- DirectorHerbert G. PontingStarsRobert Falcon ScottHerbert G. PontingHenry R. BowersIn 1910 the British Antarctic Expedition, led by Capt. Robert F. Scott, embarks from Lyttleton, NZ on a quest to become the first to reach the South Pole.
- DirectorDziga VertovThis documentary promoting the joys of life in a Soviet village centers around the activities of the Young Pioneers. These children are constantly busy, pasting propaganda posters on walls, distributing hand bills, exhorting all to "buy from the cooperative" as opposed to the Private Sector, promoting temperance, and helping poor widows. Experimental portions of the film, projected in reverse, feature the un-slaughtering of a bull and the un-baking of bread.
- DirectorMerian C. CooperErnest B. SchoedsackStarsMerian C. CooperErnest B. SchoedsackMarguerite HarrisonThe struggles of a hardscrabble Iranian nomadic tribe as they journey through bleak country to reach the grasslands that will save their livestock.
- DirectorAlberto CavalcantiStarsBlanche BernisNina ChousvalowaPhilippe HériatThe life of a great city (Paris) from dawn until dusk, including the beautiful and the ragged, the rich and the poor, with little or no comment (intertitles) from the director, Cavalcanti (whose first film this was).
- DirectorMerian C. CooperErnest B. SchoedsackStarsKruChantuiNahA snapshot of life in the jungles of Northern Siam.
- DirectorWalter RuttmannStarsPaul von HindenburgThis movie shows us one day in Berlin, the rhythm of that time, starting at the earliest morning and ends in the deepest night.
- DirectorDziga VertovStarsMikhail KaufmanElizaveta SvilovaA man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.
- DirectorVictor A. TurinResisting the character-driven narrative adhered to by the rest of the world's filmmakers, Victor Turin formulated a grand, elemental drama centered around the struggle for survival in Asia, from the arid plains of Turkestan to the icy Siberian mountains. This unique film tells the story of the creation of a monumental Soviet construction project - a railway that connected Central Asia and Siberia.
- DirectorMannus FrankenJoris IvensRegen is an experimental documentary film directed by Joris Ivens in 1929. It can be defined as a cinematic-poem. In 2021 Breve Storia Del Cinema restored the film with a new score composed by Nikolas Labrinakos.
- DirectorBoris KaufmanJean VigoWhat starts off as a conventional travelogue turns into a satirical portrait of the town of Nice on the French Cote d'Azur, especially its wealthy inhabitants.
- DirectorDziga VertovHow the miners of the Don coal basin (one of the industrial regions of Ukraine) were striving to fulfill in four years their part of the Five Year Plan.
- DirectorJean PainlevéA short black and white film which documents an experimental canine surgery.
- DirectorAlfred AmesHoward KahnStarsTim SampleA short film which documents the logging industry in Maine in 1930.
- DirectorJean EpsteinJean Epstein's short documentary filmed on the Breton island of Sein.
- DirectorMikhail KalatozovStory of distant mountainous region in Georgia that depicts folklore, lifestyle and daily routines of Svani people, focuses on the scarcity of salt in Svaneti region. Rich with documentary value, the movie also served for Soviet propaganda.
- DirectorScott Nixon IIA short film documenting a list of all the cities and towns in the United States named Augusta.
- StarsRichard E. ByrdClair D. AlexanderBernt BalchenAccount of Admiral Byrd's 1928 expedition to the South Pole. Academy award winning cinematography.
- DirectorJay LeydaArrival in the Bronx is shown with a view from an elevated train as it enters the city. Then follows a montage of sights from the Bronx. Many typical neighborhood activities are shown, along with scenes from many local businesses.
- DirectorMikhail KaufmanMade during the rapid industrialization and collectivization of Stalin's Five-Year Plan. Kaufman countered the poverty of the villages with the geometrical rhythm of mechanized factories; militarization is shown as the next step of the 'unprecedented campaign'. "The proletariat, having become master of one sixth of the globe, frees the rural working people from the kulak oppression...THE PROLETARIAT...engages the peasantry in a joint campaign for Socialism. This is what the film speaks about".
- DirectorManoel de OliveiraA documentary that looks at the people working in the river Douro, around the city of Porto.
- DirectorJoris IvensAn industrial film which shows the operations inside the Philips Radio plant: In a mêlée of activity, glassblowers make delicate glass bulbs. Machinery assists the bulb manufacture. A virtuoso glassblower begins a more complex tube used in radio broadcasting; it is then turned, fired, and sculpted. Conveyors carry partially completed units. Workers perform their various specific assembly-line tasks. Cases are manufactured and machined, wire harnesses are assembled, loudspeakers are produced. As radios near completion, they are run through a series of tests. Engineers and draughtsmen define future developments. In a closing stop-motion sequence, in a style reminiscent of Norman McLaren, a group of loudspeakers performs a playful dance. The film overall is a poetic depiction of an industrial process.
- DirectorHenwar RodakiewiczWithout sound, in three movements. Title cards declare that what a person likes and his manner of liking them reveals character. There are long looks at forms and rhythms. The film begins and ends with the sea: the tide coming in, small breakers running up on a beach. In the first movement, rocks appear, light and dark play on water. From time to time, machines turn. The light makes dappled patterns. In the second movement, a leafy tree branch gives way to water then shots of the sky and clouds. The third movement returns to the shore, with long takes looking out far, past the beach to outcroppings under the horizon. Small breakers interrupt the patterns of light on water.
- DirectorJean VigoStarsJean TarisJean Vigo films the talents of great swimming champion Jean Taris performing different acts. Vigo film technique allied with Taris swimming style are intertwined with grace and effect.
- DirectorMarvin BreckinridgeStarsMary BreckinridgeA documentary which reenacts the lives and events of the midwives and nurses who setup and ran a clinic to help the people living in the Kentucky Appalachian Mountains.
- DirectorVojin DjordjevicA documentary about the rapidly growing capital of the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
- DirectorStanislav KrakovStill regarded as the best Serbian documentary film account of WW1 ever, it gathers all the available footage of Serbia's army, its battles on the home ground, its refuge on the island of Corfu, its victorious offensive on the Thessaloniki Front and the return to the homeland. The original documentary footage from 1915-1918 was somewhat supplemented in a small measure with some staged reenactments of Serbian army retreating over Albania, and later liberation of Belgrade. The first version of this documentary epic was shown in 1930 under the title "For the Honour of Homeland". Andrija Glisic and Zarija Djokic later made a new sound version of the previous silent movie and renamed it "Fire Over the Balkans".
- DirectorGordon SparlingStarsCorey ThomsonGrey OwlA story of the friendship between a Canadian backwoodsman and a beaver. When the picture opens we see Grey Owl, the backwoodsman, launching his canoe. Once on the water he calls and the beaver appears. This is followed by a flashback to the beginnings of the friendship. The baby beaver, left alone, is discovered by the man who brings it to his camp where he feeds him from a bottle. As the beaver grows, it learns to eat from a dish with its paws, cleaning and brushing itself thoroughly after each meal. Grey Owl does not want to domesticate the beaver, so when it meets a mate, he lets it go. There are several scenes of the two beavers in the water. Grey Owl slaps the surface with his paddle and his pet appears, climbs into the canoe for food. An excellent sequence shows beavers constructing a winter home. They drag branches from the stream and cut them with their sharp teeth. Finally, they bring mud up from the bottom of the stream to fill in the crevices and to seal it securely against all marauders. There are close-ups of this work.
- DirectorMiguel Ángel Álvarez
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsAbel JacquinAlexandre O'NeillA surrealist film, a pseudo-documentary portrait of Las Hurdes, a remote region of Spain where civilisation has barely developed, showing how the local peasants try to survive without even the most basic utilities and skills.
- DirectorJoris IvensStarsJoris IvensThe film is a documentary portraying a struggle as man tries to subdue nature. To prevent flooding and for purposes of land reclamation, the people of the Netherlands struggle and succeed in building a breaker, thereby eliminating the wild inland body of water once known as the Zuider Zee (now called Ijsselmeer).
- DirectorLeni RiefenstahlStarsJoseph GoebbelsHermann GöringRudolf HessDer Sieg des Glaubens (English: The Victory of Faith, Victory of Faith, or Victory of the Faith) (1933) is the first propaganda film directed by Leni Riefenstahl. Her film recounts the Fifth Party Rally of the Nazi Party, which occurred in Nuremberg from 30 August to 3 September 1933. The film is of great historic interest because it shows Adolf Hitler and Ernst Röhm on close and intimate terms, before Röhm was shot on the orders of Hitler on the Night of the Long Knives in July 1934. All known copies of the film were destroyed on Hitler's orders, and it was considered lost until a copy turned up in the 1990s in the United Kingdom
- DirectorJoris IvensHenri StorckDocumentary about a miner's strike in Borinage.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinFootage from a Mexican "Death Day" celebration compiled and subtitled by Sergei Eisenstein.
- DirectorEdgar AnsteyJohn GriersonDocumentary about the fishing trawler, "Isabella Grieg". We follow her from her base in Granton Harbour, in Edinburgh, right up the east coast of Edinburgh, up to the fishing grounds between Shetland and Norway.
- DirectorGordon SparlingStarsGrey Owl
- DirectorLéon PoirierAndré SauvageStarsGeorges-Marie HaardtLouis Audoin DubreuilAndré CitroënThe film tells the expedition, led by Georges Marie Haardt and Louis Audouin-Dubreuil and sponsored by André Citoën, leaving Beirut in Lebanon to rally China through the ancient Silk Road with half-tracks vehicles, between 1931 and 1932.
- DirectorRobert J. FlahertyStarsColman 'Tiger' KingMaggie DirraneMichael DirraneIn this blend of documentary and fictional narrative from pioneering filmmaker Robert Flaherty, the everyday trials of life on Ireland's unforgiving Aran Islands are captured with attention to naturalistic beauty and historical detail.
- DirectorHumphrey JenningsA short film from the British Postal Service which reminds users of the deadline for parcels for the upcoming holidays.
- DirectorBasil WrightStarsLionel WendtA short film which documents the lives of the Sinhalese people.
- DirectorDziga VertovStarsDolores IbárruriNadezhda KrupskayaVladimir LeninThree anonymous songs about Lenin provide the basis for this documentary that celebrates the achievements of the Soviet Union and Lenin's role in creating them.
- DirectorAlberto CavalcantiStarsW.H. AudenMontagu SlaterDocumentary showing the dangerous working conditions of coal mining across England, Scotland and Wales.
- DirectorEdgar AnsteyArthur EltonStarsMr. NorwoodMrs. HillMrs. GravesSlum conditions, slum clearance, bright new public housing.
- DirectorLeni RiefenstahlStarsHermann GöringRudolf HessAdolf HitlerAfter German generals complained about the army's lack of presence in Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will", she produced this propaganda piece for them.
- DirectorLeni RiefenstahlStarsAdolf HitlerHermann GöringMax AmannThe infamous propaganda film of the 1934 Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, Germany.
- Clips of the work in a Chevrolet automobile factory.
- DirectorHarry WattBasil WrightStarsArthur ClarkJohn GriersonStuart LeggShows the special train on which mail is sorted, dropped and collected on the run, and delivered in Scotland overnight.
- DirectorPare LorentzStarsThomas ChalmersBam WhiteThis documentary is about what happened to the Great Plains of the United States when a combination of farming practices and environmental factors led to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
- 193638mNot Rated6.1 (153)ShortDirectorHerbert BriegerCarl JunghansStarsAdolf HitlerThis Nazi propaganda film covers the 1936 Winter Olympics that were held in Germany.
- DirectorJoris IvensStarsEnrique ListerCarlos Romero GiménezJosé DíazA documentary showing the struggle of the Spanish Republican government against a rebellion by ultra-right-wing forces led by Gen. Francisco Franco and backed by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.
- DirectorJack GlennStarsJackson BeckJoseph GoebbelsAdolf HitlerA newsreel made to condemn the militarization, oppressiveness, and ideology of the Nazi regime - using reedited stock footage of Nazi rallies in both Germany and the United States, with added narration to drive home its points.
- DirectorHarry WattStarsBill BlewittA dramatic reconstruction of the fishing trawler 'John Gillman' in trouble in a storm.
- DirectorLeni RiefenstahlStarsDavid AlbrittonArvo AskolaJack BeresfordThe document of the 1936 Olympics at Berlin.
- DirectorLeni RiefenstahlStarsSheigo AraiJack BeresfordRalf BerzsenyiThe document of the 1936 Olympics at Berlin, orchestrated as Nazi propaganda.
- DirectorWallace KellyStarsWallace KellyHome movie of the day in the life of the Kelly Family of Lebanon, Kentucky.
- DirectorPare LorentzStarsThomas ChalmersThis documentary short film looks at the devastating and costly problems, including seasonal flooding and erosion of precious topsoil, associated with the Mississippi River system and promotes more Federal projects to remedy the situation.
- DirectorEsther DowidatRaymond DowidatStars'Old Man' GuettlerHans GuettlerBill GuettlerStructures, people and events are documented in Cologne, Minnesota, USA in 1939.
- DirectorRalph SteinerWillard Van DykeStarsMorris CarnovskyA prescient documentary about city planning, which presents idyllic suburbs and nuclear families as a solution to the chaos, poverty and social decay of industrialized inner cities.
- DirectorHans BertramStarsHerbert GernotHermann GöringAdolf HitlerPoland was the first victim of Hitler's infamous blitzkrieg. Combat cameramen filmed the aerial campaign, showing preparations for flight, massive air strikes, and the appalling devastation wreaked upon Polish towns and armies. 'Norbert Schultze (I)''s original score lyrically enhances this Nazi propaganda vehicle.
- DirectorFritz HipplerStarsCurt BoisCharles ChaplinAlbert EinsteinUnder the guise of a brutally honest documentary, this malevolent propaganda film aims to be an "indispensable tool in the hands of the Aryan race", designed to depict the "true" Jew when the masks of western civilisation fall off.
- DirectorStuart LeggStarsLorne GreeneGérard ArthurWinston ChurchillThe people of Britain resist the German air force and navy with help from North America.
- StarsPeter BathurstDamien ParerCameraman Damien Parer has just returned from the front in New Guinea, where he's documented Australian troops in action. He explains this to us in a prolog. We then see air drops of supplies, wounded men being carried on stretchers by native porters, and men leaving camp to go to the front. There's a tiny bit of possibly staged combat footage. A narrator explains that the Japanese soldiers are expert at disguise, and how important support from the home front is.
- DirectorHumphrey JenningsStewart McAllisterStarsLeonard BrockingtonJoseph MacleodBud FlanaganA depiction of life in wartime England during the Second World War. Director Humphrey Jennings visits many aspects of civilian life and of the turmoil and privation caused by the war, all without narration.
- DirectorIlya KopalinLeonid VarlamovStarsN. DubravinEdward G. RobinsonJoseph StalinA number of frontline cameramen shot the footage used in this documentary of the Battle of Moscow, between October 1941 and January 1942,in which a people's war against the German invaders, whose atrocities are shown in graphic detail, is begun, with echoes of traditional Russian heroism and an appeal to save the country's religious and cultural monuments.
- DirectorLeo HurwitzPaul StrandStarsPaul RobesonFred JohnsonMary GeorgePaul Robeson narrates a mix of dramatizations and archival footage about the bill of rights being under attack during the 1930s by union busting corporations, their spies and contractors. In dramatizations, we see a Michigan farmer beaten for speaking up at a meeting, a union man murdered in an apartment in Cleveland, two sharecroppers near Fort Smith Arkansas shot by men deputized by the local sheriff, a spy stealing the names of union members, and a dead Chicago union man eulogized. In archival footage we witness police and goons beating lawfully assembled union organizers, and we see men at work and union families at play. The narration celebrates patriotism and democracy.
- DirectorFrank CapraAnatole LitvakStarsWalter HustonVictor Bulwer-LyttonKai-Shek ChiangThe official World War II US Government film statement defining the various enemies of the Allies and why they must be fought.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsHenry FondaJane DarwellLogan RamseyThe Japanese attack on Midway in June 1942, filmed as it happened.
- DirectorRoy BoultingDavid MacDonaldStarsHarold AlexanderWinston ChurchillAdolf HitlerThe Allied campaign to drive Germany and Italy from North Africa is analysed, with the major portion of the film examining the battles at El Alamein, including a re-enactment.
- DirectorFrank CapraAnatole LitvakStarsGeneral BergeretKarl BrandtWinston ChurchillThe World War II US Government account of the European theatre of the war from after the English and French entry to the fall of France.
- DirectorHumphrey JenningsStarsPhilip DicksonGeorge GravettFred GriffithsA tale of firefighters in London during the Blitz.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsJohn HustonWalter HustonMilton AshkinFilmmaker John Huston narrates this Oscar-nominated World War II-era film about life among the U.S. soldiers protecting Alaska's Aleutian Islands.
- DirectorFrank CapraAnthony VeillerStarsDouglas BaderArno BrekerWinston ChurchillThe official World War II US government account of Great Britain's stand against the Nazi war machine after the Dunkirk evacuation.
- DirectorFrank CapraAnatole LitvakStarsAnthony VeillerIon AntonescuNikolay CherkasovDocumentary revealing the nature and process of the fight between the Soviet Union and Germany in the Second World War.
- DirectorFrank CapraAnatole LitvakStarsEduard BenesNeville ChamberlainClementine ChurchillThe official World War II US government account of Nazi international aggression leading up to the British and French declarations of war.
- DirectorJames AlgarClyde GeronimiJack KinneyStarsAlexander de SeverskyArt BakerBilly MitchellAn animated documentary promoting of the soundness of strategic aerial bombing in World War II.
- DirectorGjon MiliStarsLester YoungGeorge 'Red' CallenderHarry EdisonCreated under the guidance of jazz impresario and Verve Records founder Norman Granz, this short captures the spontaneity of a jam session and is one of few film records of black jazzers of the day including tenor sax legend Lester Young.
- DirectorFrank CapraAnatole LitvakStarsClaire ChennaultKai-Shek ChiangMadame ChiangThe Official World War II US Government account of Chinese defense against Japanese aggression.
- DirectorEdward SteichenWilliam WylerStarsRobert TaylorCharles BoyerJoseph J. ClarkAn in-depth look at aircraft carrier combat operations during World War II. Real combat footage. Very strong and compelling.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsStanley WrayRobert MorganJames A. VerinisA documentary on the 25th bombing mission of the Memphis Belle, a B-17 in the US 8th Air Force.
- DirectorGeorge StevensStarsJoseph GoebbelsHermann GöringRudolf HessProduced and presented as evidence at the Nuremberg war crimes trial of Hermann Göring and twenty other Nazi leaders.
- DirectorStuart HeislerStarsClyde TurnerCarlton MossWilliam BroadusDocumentary focusing on the contributions to the American war effort of African-American soldiers.
- DirectorHumphrey JenningsStarsMichael RedgraveMyra HessJohn GielgudThis brief documentary-style film presents the status of Great Britain near the end of the Second World War by means of a visual diary for a baby boy born in September, 1944. Narration explains to "Timothy" what his family, his neighbors, and his fellow citizens are going through as the war nears its end, and what problems may remain for new Englishmen like Timothy to solve.
- DirectorGeorge StevensStarsDwight D. EisenhowerOmar N. BradleyGeorge S. PattonProduced and presented as evidence at the Nuremberg war crimes trial of Hermann Göring and twenty other Nazi leaders.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsMark W. ClarkJohn HustonDirector John Huston documents the Battle of San Pietro Infine in December 1943.
- DirectorGarson KaninCarol ReedStarsDwight D. EisenhowerLeslie BanksWinston ChurchillA documentary account of the allied invasion of Europe during World War II compiled from the footage shot by nearly 1400 cameramen.
- DirectorFrank CapraAnatole LitvakStarsDean AchesonGeneral BergeretAdolf A. BerlePart VII of the "Why We Fight" series of wartime documentaries. This entry attempts to describe the factors leading up to America's entry into the Second World War.
- DirectorRichard FleischerStarsKent SmithHans ConriedAn Academy Award winner for best documentary, the film opens with a notice that..."Exhibition of confiscated Japanese film material authorized by permission of the Alien Property Custodian in the public interest under License No. LM 979"...and was assembled from hundreds of captured newsreels, historical dramas and propaganda films. While revealing the steps that Japan took that led to Pearl Harbor, it goes back 700 years to the feudal caste system, a peasant revolt suppressed after the Samurai murdered over 40,000 people, to Admiral Perry forcibly opening Japan to foreign trade, to the perversion of converting the Shinto religion of nature-worship to that of a fanatic state creed that preached the Japanese were a Master Race and the Emperor was a sun-god to be blindly obeyed. The film carried no credit for a director, while Richard Fleischer shared the Producer credit with Theron Warth.
- DirectorJames AgeeHelen LevittJanice LoebImages of street life in New York's Spanish Harlem during the 1940s.
- DirectorSidney MeyersStarsGary MerrillDonald ThompsonClarence CooperA documentary account of the rehabilitation at the Wiltwyck School of an emotionally disturbed Black boy who is unwanted, misunderstood, and inwardly tortured.