"Vida Pacoima, a two reel study of Mexican life in the southern California village of Pacoima, by Randolph B. Clardy, represents a near miracle in portraying a mood in motion pictures. Whether one likes (i.e., is entertained by) the film or not, there is no gainsaying the amazing emotional effect of its intelligent and beautiful cinematography. Here, in easy going and seemingly unstudied sequence, is the utter aimlessness of the slatternly village and its defeated people. Chickens and children, billy goats and black gowned old women, these are the life of Pacoima. Mr. Clardy has caught them all—either dreaming or drowsy in the sunshine—and presents them with a telling reiteration against the background of their broken homes and through the slats of their sagging fences. A sensuous delight, the photography is as nearly perfect as circumstances would permit, outstripped only by an unerring and often ineffable sense of motion picture continuity. In Vida Pacoima, Mr. Clardy is an artist to his finger tips and a movie maker down to the ground." Movie Makers, Dec. 1938, 617.
"How shall we film the almost unfilmable — when the world's greatest city goes mad with victory? How, even more, can we film it, when we lack the trucks and vantage points of the newsreel men? F. Clark Tufaro, in Victory Celebration, gives an outstanding and successful answer with his record of New York City's community frenzy, when Japan gave up. He goes from the heart of Times Square to Little Italy, Chinatown and other quarters, everywhere finding something interesting and something that he could actually film, in spite of pushing crowds. He adds fine footage of the welcome to General "Ike" and to General Wainwright and something of the celebration when Germany capitulated. With surprisingly good cinematography, in view of the difficulties. Mr. Tufaro's film is a miracle of persistence, patience and intelligence — and a thoroughly interesting movie." Movie Makers, Dec. 1945, 497.
"Era una película muy sencilla, filmada al estilo de cine directo, que seguía los pasos y la vida de un personaje urbano singular: un hombre que acompañado de su perro recorre las calles de la ciudad, las barriadas miserables. La cinta lograba momentos de una gran intimidad al mostrar la vida de este paria solitario y marginal, como aquel en que comparte con su perro un pastel para celebrar su cumpleaños en la soledad de su cuarto" (Vázquez Mantecón, 2012)
"It was a very simple film, made in the style of direct cinema, that followed the steps and the life of a singular urban character: a man that in the company of his dog walks through the city streets, the miserable neighborhoods. The film achieved moments of great intimacy by showing the life of this lonely and marginal pariah, like the moment when he shares a cake with his dog to celebrate his birthday in the loneliness of his room" (Vázquez Mantecón, 2012)
"doc. a fantasia"/avant-garde documentary
"the story of a man who attempts to get to the moon in an aeroplane. This took three months to complete as it entailed a lot of model work" (HMHT 1933: 79).
"documentario"/documentary
"Filmed in color during the war years of 1941-1944, this silent film shows the Vermont State Guard holding muster at the Tunbridge Fairgrounds and at Camp Wills, which later became Camp Johnson in Colchester, Vermont. The film also shows a bond rally on the steps of the Statehouse in Montpelier, and maneuvers at the airfield in Berlin, Vermont, and at a camp in Moscow, Vermont. The State Guard began as Company H, 1st Regiment, Infantry in 1941 and was re-organized in 1943 as Company H, 2d Battalion. This film is an important documentation of the State Guard's early history and Vermont's home front activities during World War II. Although silent, intertitles are inserted with an explanation of the scenes to follow, as well as scrolling text of explanation at the beginning and end of the film." Vermont Historical Society.
"a soggetto"/fiction
Total Pages: 299
Amateur Cinema