"documentario"/documentary
"...illustra un'ardita ascensione degli allievi della Scuola di alpinismo di Chiareggio, con cordate che salgono gli straptombi alla ricerca del falco abitatore delle vette"
"...illustrates a daring ascent of the students of the School of Mountaineering of Chiareggio, with ropes that climb the overhangs in search of the hawk that inhabits the peaks."
—"I Littoriali del cinema: i documentari della prima giornata," La Stampa, September 2, 1939"
"A propaganda film, made in the early days of the Second World War. Opening with footage of a giant Empire Youth Rally at Brockton Point Oval, the film illustrates Canadian democratic values, institutions and ideals which are now threatened by fascism and war -- farming, industry, the home and family, education, racial tolerance, elections, and religious freedom. Also includes footage of First World War memorials in Vancouver and Victoria, cemeteries, Remembrance Day ceremonies and parades, and veterans. Canada's contribution to the war effort is shown through shots of recruiting stations, marching recruits, military parades, warships, etc. One lengthy sequence uses model airplanes, dramatizations, stock shots, photographs, and footage of local civil defence drills to simulate the impact of aerial attacks on British cities during the Blitz (including civilian casualties and damaged or burning buildings)" British Columbia Archives.
A woman is tempted with thoughts of another man after her husband disappoints her on their anniversary. Will she follow through with the act, or will she remain faithful to her husband?
"The town of Ymir and the nearby Yankee Girl gold mine. [COLOUR:] Mining concentrator building (with aerial tramway) beside the Salmo River. Mine site, high on mountainside; buildings; small electric train of ore cars; dumping tailings on hillside; dumping ore into aerial tramway; tramway buckets descending very steep hillside to concentrator, and emptying into hopper there. B&W: interior shots (some dark): ore on conveyor belt; refining processes [cyanidation and flotation]; etc. COLOUR: bridge across river for ore cars. B&W: interior of assay office; staff with instruments, performing tests, etc. COLOUR: May Day celebrations: baseball game; rock-drilling contest; presentation of prizes; May Queen pageant and crowning; children maypole dancing." (BC Archives)
The extant reel concludes with footage from elsewhere in the Kootenay Lake Region (Kootenay Lake, Nelson and Kettle Falls), which seems unrelated to the Ymir and... title. This item was part of an apparent series assembled by Morrell under the overall title British Columbia Sketches. Since the series title precedes the item title as shown above, this film was described by the BC Archives as British Columbia Sketches : [reel 8].
"Portrait of Calhoun School, founded in 1892, and its vocational work among rural African Americans of Lowndes County, Alabama. The film shows the living conditions of the poor and illustrates how the school makes a difference in health education, agriculture, and road construction." The Field Guide to Sponsored Films.
"On methods and devices used to make correctly exposed pictures. Explains use of photo-electric cell exposure meters." National Archives.
"Educational film surveying the instruction of the fine and performing arts at leading African American institutions, including Calhoun, Dillard, Fisk, Hampton, and Howard. The film argues that exposure to theater, music, dance, and the fine arts produces well-rounded students and enriches their lives." National Film Preservation Foundation.
"The Will and the Way is a simple story of '"little people" — but it looms large in its appeal to the human heart. There are, in its tender adventures, the laughter of sympathy and the tears of pathos. From these, as from any great expression of beauty, there comes the genuine and ennobling uplift of the spirit which is so rare in a workaday world. Chester Glassley has been equal to his task. His photography, both indoors and out, is as nearly flawless as skill and patience will permit. His camera treatment is marked by a wise concentration on close views, a dramatic selection of angles and a fine sense of matching and contrasting color values. Good cutting, paired with a brilliantly executed montage sequence, rounds out the technical achievements. But his greatest production triumph lies in the casting and direction of the two lead players, who bring to the amateur screen its most genuine and sensitive acting to date. A young wife is to have a baby. Because of a harsh experience with a rum sodden doctor, she turns blindly toward the thought of going only to a specialist, a great obstetrician, famed both for his fine care and his $1000 fees. Her young husband's reaction as he learns of this feeling is the simple theme of the entire story: "I don't know where we'll get the money, but if that's the doctor you want, then that's the doctor you're going to get!" From then on. life for the young couple is a race against time, punctuated for the husband by a frantic search for cash, which leads him through the indignities of a pie eating contest, the insults of '"amateur night" and the bruises and battering of a vastly unequal prize fight. But the baby wins in the end. The harried father collects only three hundred dollars of the specialist's fee, a sum he begs the great doctor to accept as a down payment. This the physician does, only to return the entire amount later — with a receipted bill — as his tribute to the boy's courage. The Will and the Way is a short, unassuming film, made technically with the simplest tools provided by the craft. But, in its unfailing imagination, its moving tenderness and. above all. in its deep understanding of the human heart, this film is a proud peer among its colleagues of the Hiram Percy Maxim Award." Movie Makers, Dec. 1940, 576-577.
"When the schooner yacht Enchantress put out from San Pedro for a five weeks' marlin fishing cruise in the Gulf of Lower California, fortunately James H. McCarthy was on board with camera, Kodachrome and a filming plan. The result was Before the Wind, as happy a movie yarn of a pleasure cruise as we have ever seen. A spirit of jollity and a general good time pervade this chronicle, which is adequately strung on the thread of a series of entries in the ship's log of the Enchantress. This casual continuity is entirely sufficient, for each episode is beautifully sequenced, and the whole film reflects a consistent happy go lucky holiday spirit. Exquisite shots of the schooner in translucent California Gulf waters, numerous studies of ship life, handsomely lighted interior views in cabins and engine room are all technical accomplishments in this picture. The sequences of marlin fishing and of clam digging on the Mexican shore are gems of good film planning and good cutting. The movie is presented with an intelligently planned musical accompaniment that really fits the film, but it is the natural handling of sequences of people on a carefree sea vacation that makes this picture superb entertainment." Movie Makers, Dec. 1940, 577.
Total Pages: 299
Amateur Cinema