"The filming of "Nanook" was almost an accident. It was not until his third exploration trip into the North in 1913 that Mr. Flaherty packed in his kit the necessary apparatus for making a motion picture of the life of the Eskimo. For a year and a half he lived among them as an engineer and explorer and his admiration for their life, their games, and their struggles, grew on him slowly. He was immersed in enthusiasm. He knew they made fine film stuff. Then, after months of hard work, his precious film was drowned while crossing a rotten ice stream within twelve miles of the journey's end. Undaunted, he made new plans immediately for retaking the picture. His next trip to the North, made especially to take the film, was completely successful. He did away with episodic filming; he built his first camera entity," Amateur Movie Makers, May 1927, 7.
"In 1921, Sheeler and Strand collaborated to make Manhatta, considered to be the first American avant-garde film. Inspired by Walt Whitman's poem "Mannahatta," which is quoted in one of the intertitles, the film portrays life in New York City in sixty-five nonnarrative shots. The sequences display one epic day in Lower Manhattan, beginning with a ferry approaching the city in early morning and ending with a sunset view from a skyscraper. Shot from extreme camera angles, the film captures the dynamic qualities of the new metropolis" Museum of Modern Art (New York), Department of Film.
"A story, typical of the period, which includes - young lovers, a mother with high aspirations for her daughter, a rascally Count and much ‘ado’." (EAFA Database)
"Campus Smiles uses a playful tone to document the faculty, student body, and life at UW-Madison during the early 1920s. This documentary short is a compelling chronicle of the local culture at one of the nation’s largest universities and offers a glimpse into the undergraduate sphere of the immediate post-WWI era. In it, humorous intertitles penned in early twentieth-century American slang introduce campus personalities and comment on social events." Archive.org
"Footage of a day on the fells; the car pulls out of the driveway, followed by scenes of the landscape and family members." (NWFA Online Database)
"Family scenes of playing in the garden at Westworth, Cockermouth. The children play in the garden with a trolley, an elderly couple walk in the grounds and the family pose for a group photograph." (NWFA Online Database)
"Family members pose for photographs outside a house in Cockermouth; later they are seen running around in the garden. The photographer is seen discussing his camera. Shots of a ruined mill building after a fire." (NWFA Online Database)
"Children get dressed after swimming with help from their mother; later they are seen larking around in the garden, tying their father up with a rope." (NWFA Online Database)
"Girls playing in the garden and posing for the camera. One young girl plays with a toy steam train as a dog wanders about." (NWFA Online Database)
Total Pages: 299
Amateur Cinema