Some of the records in our database link to videos that you can watch. Click on the films below.
"Autumn...Frost Country and Dunes both films made by David Adams of Santa Monica, Calif. rated high in the Class "C" list of winners. Both in color with optical sound. "Autumn...Frost Country" is an 8-minute film of changing leaves narrated with a poem written and recited by Robert Frost. "Dunes" is a 7-minute film depicting the vastness of the desert at Death Valley. The film does an excellent job of conveying the fact that, in spite of the soltitude of the desert, there is plenty of life to be observed there if one has patience," PSA Journal, Mar. 1970, 43.
Watch: YouTube link to a 16mm transfer of the film.
Feria de Santo Tomás en San Sebastian.
Saint Thomas Fair in San Sebastian.
Watch: Via Miguel Ángel Quintana's Vimeo Channel
El filme muestra el proceso de realización de un anillo de bodas.
The film depicts the process of creating a wedding ring.
Watch: Via Miguel Ángel Quintana's Vimeo Channel
"Travel through the Balkans." UC San Diego Library.
Watch: via UC San Diego Library
"Scenes from general life in Barbados." UC San Diego Library.
Watch: via UC San Diego Library
“‘Ben Milyonlarca emekçiden birisiyim barışçıyım ve devrimciyim’ diye başlıyor 12 dakikalık film. Mehmet Özgentürk seslendirmiş. Finlandiyadaki iç savaş ve devrimciler hakkında bilmediğiniz birçok şeyi içinde Enternasyonalin de olduğu Fince marşlar eşliğinde anlatıyor. 1956 yılında gerçekleştirilen 3 hafta süren büyük grevden başlayarak Finlandiya’daki mücadeleyi Nazım şiiri eşliğinde izleyeceksiniz.” Sinematek.tv: http://sinematek.tv/baris-kavgasi/ (30 October 2019).
“The film begins with the sentence, ‘I am one of the millions of workers; I am a pacifist and revolutionist.’ It was narrated by Mehmet Özgentürk. It tells the unknown story of Civil War in Finland and that of Finn revolutionists, synchronized with the local marches. You will watch the Finn revolutionary struggle—since the Great Strike of 1956, lasted 3 weeks—which is accompanied by a Nazım [Hikmet] poem.” Sinematek.tv: http://sinematek.tv/baris-kavgasi/ (30 October 2019).
Watch: http://sinematek.tv/baris-kavgasi/
Documental sobre el ciclo de vida del caracol.
Documentary about the life cycle of the snail.
Watch: Via Miguel Ángel Quintana's Vimeo Channel
"An amateur film made by and starring the husband and wife duo, John & Evelyn Kibar. Title cards with dialogue are dispersed throughout the film." Chicago Film Archives
Watch: chicagofilmarchives.org
After celebrating his fourth wedding anniversary, a man becomes obsessed with building a homemade weapon of mass destruction. The man's efforts reach a breakthrough after the couple celebrates their fifth anniversary.
Watch: via the G.R.A.M.C. Film Library
"Produced several years before the historic Stonewall uprising for LGBT rights in 1969, director Nikolai Ursin's gently-activist short Behind Every Good Man (c. 1967) provides an illuminating glimpse into the life of an African-American trans woman. In strong contrast to the stereotypically negative and hostile depictions of transgender persons as seen through the lens of Hollywood at the time, the subject of Ursin's independent film is rendered as stable, hopeful and well-adjusted. The resulting intimate portrait serves as a rare cultural artifact of transgender life and African-American life in the U.S. at the mid-century," UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Watch: UCLA FTVA on Archive.org
"A silent documentary that follows a group from Central Cinematographers as they view, discuss and shoot films. The process of filmmking becomes transparent as the actors are seen alongside the equipment that lights and films them as well as the large number of people that are needed to prepare for a scene." Chicago Film Archives
Watch: Behind the Scenes at Central Cinematographers via Chicago Film Archives
La mantis religiosa o “Santa Teresa” es un pequeño insecto que abunda en nuestros campos. En su extraña apariencia encierra instintos caníbales, lo que hace que la hembra, con mucha frecuencia, devore al macho durante o después de su apareamiento. La película recoge los distintos aspectos de la vida de la mantis religiosa. (Bienal de cine científico español, 1983)
The praying mantis or "Saint Theresa" is a small insect abundant in our fields. In its strange appearance, lie cannibal instincts, often provoking the female mantis to devour the male mantis during or after mating. The film depicts the different aspects of the praying mantis' life. (Bienal de cine científico español, 1983)
Watch: Via Miguel Ángel Quintana's Vimeo Channel
“Beyoğlu 68 Üzerine Beyoğlu’nu filme çekmeye karar verdik. Artun yönetecek, ben kamerayı kullanacaktım. Güç bela birkaç kutu pelikülle 16 mm.lik bir kamera edindik ve Mayıs 68’de Beyoğlu’na çıktık. Artun bana kaydedilmesini istediği şeyleri gösteriyor, ben çekiyordum. Amaç tüketim toplumunu eleştirmekti ama senaryo yoktu. İşin kurguda bağlanacağını biliyorduk […].” Jak Şalom, sinematek.tv: http://sinematek.tv/beyoglu-68/ (25 October 2019).
“On Beyoğlu 68: ‘We decided to film Beyoğlu. Artun had to direct it and I was responsible for the camera operations. We hardly found a box of unexposed film as well as a 16mm camera and started wandering around Beyoğlu. Artun was telling me what to shoot and I was recording. The purpose was to critique consumer society, but there was no script. We knew that we need to deal with it during the process of montage’ […].” Jak Şalom, sinematek.tv: http://sinematek.tv/beyoglu-68/ (25 October 2019).
Watch: http://sinematek.tv/beyoglu-68/
"An experimental film about a boy owning a bicycle and learning the proper safety rules on the road." Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
Watch: Via archive.org
"A short mystery film from members of the Amateur Cinema League. A group of relatives gather in a haunted house for the reading of a will. Someone among them knows a secret about the house, and uses stories about the Black Widow to try and scare everyone away. In the end, their identity is revealed and all the secrets come to light. Title cards narrate the dialogue." Chicago Film Archives.
Watch: via Chicago Film Archives
"Handsome and hard hitting, Bold Badmen is a Western filmed as Westerns should be filmed — without romance, without singing, but with plenty of shooting, plenty of horsemanship and plenty of very tough looking and acting characters. Casimer V. Zaleski knows that movement makes a movie. Bold Badmen is crammed with both kinds — physical and cinematic. Unfortunately, the physical condition of the film (which was inexcusably scratched and dirty) did much to restrain the enthusiasm of the judges for a melodrama of real power." Movie Makers, Dec. 1949, 468-469.
Watch: "The Zaleski Brothers Film Festival" featuring Bold Badmen
Educational short film presenting Boulder Dam (now known as Hoover Dam) as an example of a "wealth of the land in the form of energy."
Watch: via Archive.org
Travelogue exploring British islands. Includes footage of "harpist Catriona Maclean McKinnon playing along the shores of the Isle of Skye in the early 1970s" (Chicago Film Archives).
Watch: Excerpt via Chicago Film Archives (YouTube)
"In 1975, Connecticut made the sperm whale its official state animal, as a symbol of conservation. The following year, a group of volunteers from the Connecticut Cetacean Society spent over 5,000 hours building a life-size, 60-foot, ferro-cement model of a male sperm whale, on the grounds of the Children's Museum in West Hartford, Connecticut, USA. Director of the project was Robbins Barstow, who filmed this dramatic, home-made documentary." Archive.org
Watch: via A/V Geeks (Archive.org)
"The Butterfly with Four Birthdays is a well done documentary on the life cycle of the Anise Swallowtail (Papilio Zelicaon). The Zelicaon, often mistaken for the Monarch, lives in the Western United States and lays her eggs on the anise plant, also known as sweet fennel. From the egg comes the baby caterpillar, thirdly the pupa or chrysalis stage, and finally, on its fourth birthday, the butterfly. This film also received the MPD Nature Film Award" PSA Journal, Sept. 1965, 50.
Watch: via A/V Geeks, Archive.org
"Button Ballet is a nifty little piece of animation. A number of buttons do a ballet set to Brahms music in one of the most masterfully executed animation films ever seen in this competition" PSA Journal, Aug. 1967, 36.
Watch: A digitized version of Button Ballet via EAFA
"A successful man living in a great metropolis is increasing awareness of the unjust social reality that lives in the absurdity. This immerses him in a uneasiness that sinks into alcoholism and depression. In his wandering through the streets viewer gets to be the unfortunate suicide of another victim of the meaninglessness of life, which will produce a series of dreamlike hallucinations bordering on the madness. In a stroke of consciousness of his misfortune, he does run aimlessly without course. Devastated, to the dawn, with the light of the dawn he sees to be reborn the hope personified in an innocent girl who stretches the hand donating bread" Internet Archive.
Watch: Via Internet Archive
"This film is 'a love letter to the city' from Chicago native and filmmaker Warren E. Thompson. It is a continuing effort to record some of the events, characteristics, problems and glories of Chicago. Footage includes architecture, sculpture, housing, Lake Michigan, Chinatown, parades, Maxwell Street Market, and the people of Chicago. Thompson captures life and culture from the most affluent to the poverty stricken." Chicago Film Archives.
Watch: via Chicago Film Archives
"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
Watch: Archive.org
"2 part edited travelogue film beginning in Ontario and working west to British Columbia, documenting the resources, landscape and recreation of Canada. Includes a large amount of natural scenery, but also diverse events such as fishing, a rodeo and water sports. Also gives a look into factories and resorts." Chicago Film Archives
Watch: chicagofilmarchives.org
"2 part edited travelogue film beginning in Ontario and working west to British Columbia, documenting the resources, landscape and recreation of Canada. Includes a large amount of natural scenery, but also diverse events such as fishing, a rodeo and water sports. Also gives a look into factories and resorts." Chicago Film Archives
Watch: chicagofilmarchives.org
“Zonguldak Çatalağzı isimli kömür çıkarma kuyusunu 26 eylül 1969 yılında su basmış. Bu kuyu o dönem en fazla kömür üretimi gerçekleştirilen kuyu imiş. TKİ bir proje kapsamında suyu boşaltmış [...].” Sinematek.tv: http://sinematek.tv/catalagzi-kuyusu-1975/ (20 November 2019).
“The coal mine in Zonguldak, named Çatalağzı, was overflowed on September 26, 1969. The coal mine was the most productive one in the country at the time. Turkey's Directorate General of Coal Enterprises (the abbreviation “TKİ” stands for the Directorate) designed a project to put the water out [...].” Sinematek.tv: http://sinematek.tv/catalagzi-kuyusu-1975/ (20 November 2019).
Watch: https://vimeo.com/360764652
Kodachrome travelogue showing life and culture in Guatemala and Panama.
Watch: via UC San Diego Library
"A “city symphony” film, produced to encourage Photographic Society of America members to attend their 1963 conference in Chicago, City to See is a surprising film. It combines footage of Chicago with a deadpan commentary that pokes fun commercial travel films: “Chicago is my town,” the narrator says wryly, “and no other town will do.”" Chicago Film Archives
Watch: Chicago: City to See in '63 via Chicago Film Archives
"A Margaret Conneely amateur film starring St. Tarcissus’ Cub Scout Pack 3969 in a circus production. Children dress as both circus animals and performers." Chicago Film Archives
Watch: Circus Capers
Total Pages: 11
Amateur Cinema