Some of the records in our database link to videos that you can watch. Click on the films below.
Filme experimental en el que sobre una imagen fija de un semáforo, el sonido es el principal protagonista.
Experimental film in which sound is the main protagonist over a fix image of a traffic light.
Watch: Via Miguel Ángel Quintana's Vimeo Channel
A group of families takes separate vacations – the husbands go fishing, while the wives and children choose to hold a picnic. Both vacationing groups encounter obstacles that disrupt their plans.
Watch: via the G.R.A.M.C. Film Library
"O.L. Tapp has coupled opportunity and imagination in putting motion pictures to the recording "Shifting Whispering Sands." Finding the right kind of material to photograph must have entailed a great deal of planning and searching. Every scene is a work of art. As one watches the scenes unfold to the music and song he feels compelled to sit in contemplation of the lonesomeness of the great desert." PSA Journal, Nov. 1957, 33.
Watch: via the University of Utah
"A two minute black and white cartoon built around the animated spelling of short words which are quickly converted into the subject of the spelling. There is an effective sound impulse with the rapidly changing characters. Stewart Wynn-Jones has done a short bit of clever cine-cartooning" PSA Journal, Nov. 1957, 33.
Watch: upload of Short Spell on YouTube
Watch: upload of Short Spell with sound via EAFA
"A mechanical toy from 1880 walks through a landscape created by Michael Morris" Karl Spreitz and Collaborators Archival Film Collection.
Watch: via Karl Spreitz and Collaborators Archival Film Collection, with remixed sound
Short film showing shots of various neon signs at nighttime.
Watch: via Archive.org
"Consists of footage of Blanche Smith rollerskating." Center for Home Movies.
Watch: via Archive.org
Subtitled: a story of happy days in Kings Canyon National Park.
Watch: via the Sierra Club (Archive.org)
"A comedic film made by Chicago amateur film club Central Cinematographers about a man who paints himself into a corner." via Chicago Film Archives
Watch: chicagofilmarchives.org
"One may assume that Oscar Horovitz is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology because of his interest in this film. It is a film which the school or alumni may use effectively in interesting students in M.I.T. It is a panorama of the student's activities from his entrance to graduation. It commences with an introduction of the school and carries through the class rooms, study halls, social halls, athletics, religious atmosphere, and the memorable day of graduation. To some, this would be a difficult subject to deal with but Oscar has produced a picture which sustains interest throughout" PSA Journal, Nov. 1957, 53.
Watch: From the Vault of MIT
"This film includes material originally shot by the Tilley brothers in the 1910s and 1920s. W.H. Tilley later edited, compiled, and transferred these clips to 16mm, adding caption from his perspective forty years later. Scenes of note include a Krit Motor Car demonstration (1910s), a circus parade on Congress Avenue (facing the Capital, 1912) in Austin. While the brothers worked commercially in filmmaking, these clips exhibit their practice as amateur filmmakers that captured footage of personal experiences" Texas Archive of the Moving Image.
Watch: via Texas Archive of the Moving Image
A group of children who film newsreels attempt to track down an escaped Nazi agent in their community.
Watch: via Archive.org
"In a few days of doldrums before being called for training in the Army Signal Corps, David S. Bradley, presiding genius of Bradley Productions, scenarized, cast, costumed, filmed and directed a screen version of Sredni Vashtar, a short story by Saki. running 800 feet of 16mm. monochrome, the picture is the eighth in the series to be produced by this unusual amateur unit of Winnetka, Ill. having been directly preceded by Peer Gynt and Oliver Twist. It will be Mr. Bradley's last production until after the war. Working with him on Sredni Vashtar was John Jameson, assistant director, with the small cast played by Mrs. Herbert Hyde, Lucielle Powell, Lois Northrop and Reny Kidd, all Bradley Production veterans", Movie Makers, Apr. 1943,158.
Watch: Sredni Vashtar on YouTube
"Those sensual machines, steam tractors, reveal a remarkable ability to perform to music." Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre.
Watch: via YouTube
"Stop the Projector, I Want To Get Off features James Weatherburn as the bumbling projectionist who is trying to learn how to run one of the fool contraptions. His attempts are not quite all-out comedy, yet his antics are amusing, and anyone who remembers the day he first tried to run one of these complicated machines will be amused at someone else's interpretation of what the sensation is like" PSA Journal, Sept. 1966, 35.
Watch: YouTube video originally from the Library of Congress Prelinger Archives
"Filmed by Arthur H. Smith of San Francisco, the story opens with Jackie, a lad of 4 years, playing on the sidewalk near his home. Observing a kitten crossing the street, his natural inclination toward pets impels him to run into the street after it. An unseen car bears down upon the boy and the driver is unable to avoid striking him down. Jackie is rushed to the hospital where his life is saved with difficulty, although he will be permanently crippled. The doctor advises Jackie's parents that although he has survived the operation, the lad has only a short time to live." Home Movies, Dec. 1946, 749.
Watch: via Archive.org
"The Suetonius Version is Stan Fox’s last 16mm amateur film. The story is about a university professor who is fascinated with one of his young female students." (Royal BC Museum)
This film was shot on the UBC campus, including in the closed stacks at the UBC Library.
Watch: Excerpt, via Royal BC Museum, YouTube
"Student film made at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago set to "Sugar Mountain," a song by Canadian folk rock singer and composer Neil Young." Chicago Film Archives
Watch: chicagofilmarchives.org
"A colorful travelogue of modern, urban life in Mexico City. "Shows scenes typical of modern Mexico, such as the tall buildings and wide boulevards of Mexico City. The canal leading to Xochimilco, with its fruit- and flower-laden boats, is pictured. Then describes a festival held in honor of the Vice President of the United States, Henry Wallace, when he visited Mexico City. It includes a bullfight and a parade of Mexican beauties. Ends with a pageant of old and new Mexican dances" (War Films Bulletin of the Extension Division Indiana University, February, 1943, 19)" Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive.
Watch: via Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive
"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.
Watch: Part 1 via Chicago Film Archives
Watch: Part 2 via Chicago Film Archives
Comedic short film about an amateur movie club called Super Colossal Pictures.
Watch: via Archive.org
"Short wide screen amateur film made by George Ives, a Chicago Metro Movie Club member, and edited by Kenosha Cine Club member Ron Doerring. A corresponding 1/4" audio reel for this title is also housed at CFA, but has yet to be digitally transferred" Chicago Film Archives.
Watch: Susie Steps Out on Youtube via Chicago Film Archives
"Documentary: On the life of rural rice farm families in Japan." National Archives.
Watch: Tambo via National Archives
"Sixteen year old Robbins Barstow, an Amateur Cinema League member and a fan of Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan movies, rounded up his siblings and friends and led them into the wilds of Granby, Connecticut for this epic tale of a journey into Edgar Rice Burroughs' Africa." via Archive.org
Watch: Via archive.org
"Short documentary about fountain pen repairs and the process of repairs within a fountain pen hospital. The film begins with a client handing over his pen to the receptionist. From there the pen goes to Robert "Doc" Davis, who performs a nine point check-up on the pen. This is followed by exploded views of various pen models, including the Schaeffer Triumph, Parker 51 and the Eversharp Skyline. Last, the film shows how gold lettering is used on both pends and leather goods. Outtake scenes of the pen hospital and its employees follows the film." Chicago Film Archives.
Watch: via Chicago Film Archives
Thriller film about an escaped murderer, and a nearby woman who is home alone.
Watch: via Archive.org
Pequeña historia de náufragos donde una mujer es llevada por sus más ardorosos sentimientos, comprobando los límites del egoísmo del hombre.
Short story about castaways in which a woman is carried away by her most burning feelings, proving the limits of man's selfishness.
Watch: Via Miguel Ángel Quintana's Vimeo Channel
Watch: Tides of Fundy via SUNY ESF
"Coastal people, places and scenery between Vancouver Island and the mainland. Includes footage of Indian villages, pictographs, birds and wildlife, logging operations, other vessels, etc. One sequence shows a Kelly raft of aviation spruce being broken up; another shows logs being unloaded from the log barge 'Monongahela' (formerly the ship 'Balasore', whose figurehead is shown sitting on shore). The B.C. Packers cannery at Quathiaski Cove is shown. Troops arrive at Nanaimo from Vancouver on the 'Princess Victoria' and parade through the streets" British Columbia Archives.
"Amateur film footage shot by Dave M. Tatsuno while he was interned at the Topaz War Relocation Center, the Japanese-American internment camp located in Delta, Utah. The footage dates from 1942-1945, the years that Tatsuno was interned in the camp." Archives West.
Watch: B&W version of Topaz with narration by Dave Tatsuno (0:00-46:14)
Total Pages: 10
Amateur Cinema