At home in the evening, a sophisticated young woman entertains an awkward male friend of her brother. They make small talk and dance to records -- but the boy's social anxiety overwhelms him, and he disappears in a puff of her cigarette smoke. (D.J. Duffy)
"A short travelogue film of Havana, Cuba shot for the Metro Movie Club, a Chicago amateur film club." Chicago Film Archives.
"2 part edited travelogue of the industries and everyday life in featured cities of Cuba. Part 1 begins in Havana before travelling to smaller cities, with a focus on buildings, crops and the everyday lives of the people. Part 2 primarily focuses on industry and includes scenes of a tile factory, basket weaving, as well as the farming of potatoes, sugar cane, bananas, and peanuts. The film also features historical monuments, boating, children at school, cock fights, vendors selling wares, and fishing. People demonstrate manual methods of labor like harvesting crops and cutting grass with machines lead by cattle." Chicago Film Archives.
"Edited film of Greece by a Greek immigrant to the United States was specifically created to educate American audiences to the true qualities and nature of the Greek people. Footage includes Athens, Greek ruins, and country villages," via the Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Museum.
"The coho and spring salmon trolling industry of Vancouver Island's west coast. Includes footage of boats, types of tackle, catching and cleaning fish, buying stations, delivery to the wharf, etc. The packer Co-Operator II is shown." (BC Archives)
The film was shot between 1941 and 1946.
Additional credit: "Produced by the British Columbia Provincial Fisheries Dept."
Additional credit: "This picture was produced with the kind co-operation of the Kyoquot Trollers Co-operative Association."
"Item is a film production of Dr. Willinsky's trip to Trinidad with his wife, Sadie. Filmed in the form of a travelogue, Willinsky intersperses footage of landmarks and the local population with captions that provide information about the country and its culture. Included are shots of sites around Port-of-Spain, cathedrals, mosques, a cricket match, a cocao bean farm, and the local population carrying out their daily activities. Sadie is regularly spotted sight-seeing and interacting with locals." Ontario Jewish Archives.
"Item is a film production of Dr. and Mrs. Willinsky's trip to Lima, Peru to attend the 5th International Assembly of the International College of Surgeons. Footage of assembly delegates, landmarks and the local population are interspersed with captions added by Dr. Willinsky. Included are scenes of assembly delegates near Lima's Workman's Hospital, Sadie visiting the home of the assembly's chairman and entering the palace of Peru's president for a luncheon, sights along the streets of San Martin, cathedrals, shots taken from a moving train, and images of the Ricmac River from a nearby road." Ontario Jewish Archives.
A man schedules a fishing trip several weeks in advance of the date. Before the day comes, he must overcome several mishaps and hindrances that threaten the trip.
"The vivid pageantry and somnolent landscapes of Mexico assume a new grandeur as filmed by Ralph E. Gray, a cinematographer who has long been recognized as one of the most accomplished amateurs on the continent. The land of contrasts and contradictions is beautifully presented in Typical Times in the Tropics, for here is one of the few travel films that ignore the tourist penchant for flashy trivia, to reveal the spirit of a people and the pictorial splendor in terms of lasting values. Mr. Gray has lived in Mexico long enough to recognize what is really significant; consequently, his film — for all its 1400 feet — seems to be a distillation of the unique charm which continues to attract Americans on vacation. The Mexican's strange blend of religious sincerity and garish ceremony is evidenced in a ritual filmed in Cholula, in which the local livestock — besmeared with gaudy paints and dyes — are presented for the blessing of the village priest — to insure the animals' fertility. The bouganvillea and hibiscus that frame the vistas of sleepy Fortin are contrasted with a boisterous Cuernavaca carnival and the hard riding charros of Mexico City. The latter scenes give Mr. Gray an opportunity to display his technical prowess at its best, for his handling of exposure problems in filming sombrero shadowed faces, his revealing closeups of spectators and skillful following of the wild horses and steer roping are proof of his stature as one of our finest amateur filmers. One of Mr. Gray's most valuable assets is a keen eye for detail, whether it be in the embroidery of a shawl or the weird sculpture left in the path of a lava flow. Intelligent use of a polarizing filter heightens the tawny stuccos of the cathedrals and intensifies the architectural detail of the facades and bell towers; and a fine feeling for human interest gives his shots of a Tehuantepec celebration, the Tirada de Frutas, an added opulence. The cliff divers of Acapulco staged some hairbreadth scenes for Mr. Gray, and he has made the sequence even more breathtaking by cutting in shots of the rocky hazards which had to be cleared by these young daredevils. Saving his trump for a fiery finale, this second time Maxim Award winner winds up with a series of frames of Paricutin, smouldering under her own gray vapors. Sustaining interest throughout 1400 feet of film is no mean task, even when abetted by the natural resources of Mexico; but Mr. Gray has met his challenge with a maximum of taste, discrimination and a completely craftsmanlike approach to a subject that has seldom been presented with such polish and vitality." Movie Makers, Dec. 1946, 470-471.
"In spite of the almost insurmountable difficulties in using feet to portray much of the action and most of the emotion in a movie, E. H. Sparks has managed to make Doghouse Blues completely comprehensible. A delightful farce of a bibulous fisherman, the story makes judicious use of the angler's big toe to denote thirst, hunger and any other emotion which might master a man on a solo weekend. Colorful scenes of inlets and bays, as well as attractive sequences of fishing craft, imbue the film with a flavor of authenticity. In satiric repetition, his indignant wife trails the tippling angler to the secluded spot where his boat rides at anchor, there to find him "taking the long count." A rude awakening for the errant husband and an eminently suitable final scene close the picture." Movie Makers, Dec. 1946, 471.
Total Pages: 299
Amateur Cinema