Some of the records in our database link to videos that you can watch. Click on the films below.
"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
"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)
"In September 1992, Robbins Barstow and his wife Meg, of Wethersfield, Connecticut, USA, celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary by spending ten days visiting their son David and his family in Paris, France. Their two grandchildren, Geoffrey and Suzanna, showed them the sights of the city of lights, including the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral, Grand Opera House, and the Louvre." Archive.org
Watch: via A/V Geeks (Archive.org)
'This film presents a revelation of the beauty and colorful activity of the trees of New York State. Beautiful time-lapse pictures show the emerging buds, leaves, and flowerings on the trees. The identifying features on tree branches, flowers, fruit, and bark are shown, utilizing time-lapse photography to show the moving detail," via SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
Watch: Video via SUNY ESF
"This color film, released in partnership with the International Film Bureau Inc., presents the identifying features of trees as they change through the seasons. The bud and leaf scars of the deciduous broad-leaved trees are examined, as well as the distinguishing features of their bark. The cones and needles of the narrow-leaved evergreens are also described and compared. Extensive time-lapse photography shows the emergence of new leaves and flowers as spring arrives. Size, shape, and the arrangement of the buds and leaves on the twig are presented as ways of distinguishing and identifying trees, " via SUNY College of Environmental Science and Foresty.
Watch: Trees: How to Know Them via SUNY ESF
"Under the able direction of Kenneth E. Carrier, ACL, a production unit of the Grand Rapids Amateur Movie Club has produced an engrossing film drama based on a short-short story from a Billy Rose column. Two Paper Cups begins as if it would tell the familiar tale of a bored husband plotting the murder of his wife for the love of that "other woman." But a double switch at the plot's end saves the life of the married woman and, with irony but without need, takes the life of the husband. Top notch photography, expert staging and lighting, good acting and skillful editing make this photoplay an outstanding example of cooperative filming at its best." Movie Makers, Dec. 1951, 410.
Watch: Two Paper Cups on YouTube
"This parody of a silent film was made for the El Paso Junior League to promote their Holiday Provisional Bash at the El Paso Club. Using black and white film and intertitles, the parody follows the Rich family’s Christmas morning where Rico Rich gives Rhonda Rich the same gift she gets every year - manure. When the couple attends the Jr. League Provisional Bash, a “Eureka!” moment occurs, providing the moral of the story: If you don’t want your husband to keep giving you that same old manure every Christmas . . . Come to the Provisional Bash” Texas Archive of the Moving Image.
Watch: via Texas Archive of the Moving Image
A married couple is hosting another couple for dinner. Before the dinner, the husband gives his wife a container of "vanishing cream," which they both use believing it to be a skincare product. When the dinner guests arrive, people and pets that contact the cream vanish from sight.
Watch: via the G.R.A.M.C. Film Library
"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.
Watch: via Archive.org
"Playful family montage by the experimental filmmaker who headed the USC School of Cinematic Arts from 1949 to 1951" centerforhomemovies.org
Watch: Slavko Vorkapich Home Movies
"A journey from bustling Chicago to the fall foliage and winter landscape of rural Wisconsin." Chicago Film Archives.
Watch: via Chicago Film Archives
"We Are All Artists, traces our experience of the aesthetic in the everyday; it begins by considering the related categories of beauty, art, and craftwork before moving on to suggest some of the many ways that modern art and design have made our world more beautiful. Offering a broad definition of art as any "skillful or purposeful endeavor," the film suggests that we are all artists to the extent that we exercise aesthetic judgement through a range of quotidian activities. The film presents a montage sequence showing a woman cleaning, men painting a wall, a letter being typed, and activities in gardening and pottery and then concludes by proposing that even "exercising the powers of selection" —as in purchasing a hat—makes use of some attributes of the artist" (Tepperman, 237-238).
Watch: We Are All Artists, 1936
"Welcome San Francisco Movie Makers opens with a montage of classic San Francisco sights, setting the backdrop for the first meeting of the San Francisco Movie Makers Club. After an introduction of the club’s members and its activities, filmmaker Dr. Frank S. Zach, along with his wife Helga, proceeds to demonstrate the proper use of 8mm and 16mm cameras and film sound recording techniques. Shot, scripted, edited, hand titled and over dubbed with music by Dr. Zach, this film seeks to encourage, teach, and recruit image makers." centerforhomemovies.org
Watch: via National Film Preservation Foundation
"In January 1986, Dr. Robbins Barstow of Wethersfield, Connecticut, filmed a two-week cruise circumnavigating Mexico's Baja Peninsula. The trip included close encounters with seven different species of cetaceans -- Gray, Humpback, Bryde's, and Blue Whales, three kinds of dolphins, and giant elephant seals." Archive.org
Watch: via A/V Geeks (Archive.org)
"2 part edited travelogue following young men on a bicycle trip cross country (San Francisco to New York City) with Wandering Wheels, a faith based organization. Along with the noteworthy locations they visit, such as the Four Corners and New York City, this film includes much documentation of their down time and visits to Native American and small town communities to sing and meet with the people." Chicago Film Archives.
Watch: Part 1 via Chicago Film Archives
Watch: Part 2 via Chicago Film Archives
"In 2 parts, the film depicts a cycling journey around central Europe through Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, Yugoslavia, West Germany, and the Netherlands. Tourist scenes includes shots of Venetian canals, the leaning tower of Pisa, and Dutch windmills.In 2 parts, the film depicts a cycling journey around central Europe through Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, Yugoslavia, West Germany, and the Netherlands. Tourist scenes includes shots of Venetian canals, the leaning tower of Pisa, and Dutch windmills." Chicago Film Archives.
Watch: Part 1 via Chicago Film Archives
Watch: Part 2 via Chicago Film Archives
Film treatment of the poem "When the Frost Is On the Punkin" by James Whitcomb Riley. Intertitles with text from the poem are interspersed among images that match the themes and content of the poem. The scenes include shots of harvest work, fall scenery, turkeys, and pumpkins.
Watch: via the G.R.A.M.C. Film Library
Watch: via Northeast Historic Film
"In October 1992, Connecticut Folksinger Donald Sineti visited Heidelberg, Germany, with global whale advocate Dr. Robbins Barstow, to sing for whales in a German-American cultural exchange program. Enjoy song concerts in castles, campus, city streets, and countryside." Archive.org
Watch: via A/V Geeks (Archive.org)
"A story of the natural wilderness, people, and mountains 200 miles from the sea, the wilderness alps of Stehekin in the North Cascade country. Brought into its scenic grandeur through the ages never the same, yet not to be changed by man. There are the wild gardens and glaciers high above the sea but far below the icecaps on Mt. Rainier, from time preceding us. A beautiful, relaxing retreat with a narration to be remembered for its refreshing call to the wilderness" PSA Journal, Nov. 1960, 42.
Watch: Via The Sierra Club
"Edited film is the story of the Kreznar family vacation to Florida created by Frank Kreznar, an award winning amateur filmmaker and engineer. The youngest daughter is instructed by a teacher to keep a notebook of her experiences in Florida which include visiting a Florida visitor center, setting up camp in a park, watching a water skiing performance, visiting a marine animal park where they watch a dolphin show, touring the Everglades on an air powered boat, riding on a glass bottom boat, viewing bird and animal wildlife and swimming at a beach. Sound is the daughter's narration of their experiences," via the Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Museum.
Watch: With Notebook in Hand Clip 1
Watch: With Notebook in Hand Clip 2
"“Wooden Face of Totonicapan” is a [1942] color film covering the art of making wooden masks in Totonicapan, Guatemala. The film was made under the auspices of the "Good Neighbor" film project, run by the Office of the Co-Ordinator of Inter-American Affairs in New York as part of the WWII war effort. It was produced by Ralph E. Gray." Periscope Film.
Watch: via Periscope Film, Archive.org
Total Pages: 9
Amateur Cinema