Some of the records in our database link to videos that you can watch. Click on the films below.
"This film captures scenes of men in El Paso posing, walking, climbing, performing fake fights, and acting out humorous scenes while the man behind the camera experiments with effects and film speed. The outcome is an entertaining film full of interesting visuals" Texas Archive of the Moving Image.
Watch: via Texas Archive of the Moving Image
"Amateur silent film of a boy scout troop making a fiberglass canoe step by step from a mold, from start to finish. Boy scouts all help in each part of the process. They then take their finished canoes on a trip where they learn how to row their new canoes and camp out on the river." Chicago Film Archives
Watch: Explorer Scouts Making Fiberglass Canoes via Chicago Film Archives
"On methods and devices used to make correctly exposed pictures. Explains use of photo-electric cell exposure meters." National Archives.
Watch: via National Archives
"The Eyes Of Science, 3000 ft., 35mm., planned and photographed by J. S. Watson, Jr. and Melville Webber, is exceptional for continuity treatment and photography alike. Conceived primarily as an industrial film of a very high order, the final result is a veritable tour de force in the technical accomplishment of film exposition. Telling the story of lens making and culminating in representation of the impressive and complicated optical machinery which plays an important part in modern art and industry, the smoothness of the continuity is plainly the result of careful calculation of the interest value of the whole as well as of every small part. Multiple exposures, lap dissolves, color and microcinematography, as well as a number of surprising photographic effects, give this film a technical interest much above the average. Of these, some of the exceptional examples are the photography of light rays passing through prisms and lenses; a recording of the phenomenon of Newton's Rings in color; a scene showing a subject, together with its image on the ground glass of a camera; strains in a structure revealed by polarized light and many other remarkable shots. In short, the combination of cinematic art and skill with which this film is composed places it well in the front rank of all existing industrials regardless of the source of their production." Movie Makers, Dec. 1931, 657.
"Made in collaboration with Melville Webber for Bausch & Lomb Optical Co. Included: glass making, grinding, and polishing lenses and prisms, manufacture and principles of operation of microscopes, telescopes, and other optical instruments" (Unseen Cinema, 114).
Watch: via Bausch and Lomb, Facebook
"In December 2006, scientific researchers announced that a species of dolphin which had existed for millions of years in the Yangtze River in China had become extinct. This documentary includes scenes of the last living, captive specimen of the Chinese River Dolphin, filmed in Wuhan, China, on a 1985 trip by Dr. Robbins Barstow, of Wethersfield, Connecticut, USA." Archive.org
Watch: via A/V Geeks (Archive.org)
"2 part edited footage of a road trip along the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the border of Mexico. Includes much natural scenery, often from a moving car, but also documents visits to the Tabasco factory and two ranches. A woman also evokes the Longfellow poem, Evangeline, by taking a wistful walk." Chicago Film Archives
Watch: chicagofilmarchives.org
"2 part edited footage of a road trip along the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the border of Mexico. Includes much natural scenery, often from a moving car, but also documents visits to the Tabasco factory and two ranches. A woman also evokes the Longfellow poem, Evangeline, by taking a wistful walk." Chicago Film Archives
Watch: chicagofilmarchives.org
Watch: via Archive.org
"The story of a little girl and the doll she wanted for Christmas. She asked for a fairy princess, got just a doll, but then the doll comes to life and dances, delighting the disillusioned miss and the film ends on a happy note." PSA Journal, Nov. 1956, 22.
Watch: Fairy Princess via Chicago Film Archives
"The Fall of the House of Usher" not only represents a new cinema technique but it is also unique in that it does not attempt to tell Poe's story in detail, rather to invoke in its audiences the esthetic impressions and moods which the tale creates in its readers. This revolutionary approach to the cinema opens a fascinating field for further pioneering. Fortified with the new scientific instruments which have recently been devised for the detection and recording of emotional reactions, the amateur producer may now truly be said to face a new world for cinematic experimentation in translating such reactions into film. Properly motivated by medical authority films of this nature may even prove to have a tremendous psychological significance. From any viewpoint "The Fall of the House of Usher" represents a forecast of possibilities which are amazing." Movie Makers, January 1929, 847.
Watch: Via NFPF
"During five summers from 1957 to 1961, the five-member Barstow family of Wethersfield, Connecticut, set out to visit all 48 of the then United States of America on a series of month-long camping trips. Part I includes seeing famous sites from "America's History" in 24 Eastern, Northern, and Southern states." Archive.org
Watch: via A/V Geeks (Archive.org)
"During five summers from 1957 to 1961, the five-member Barstow family of Wethersfield, Connecticut, set out to visit all 48 of the then United States of America on a series of month-long camping trips. Part II showcases "America's Wonderlands" with 18 National Parks and other exciting attractions in the great Northwest and Southwest." Archive.org
Watch: via A/V Geeks (Archive.org)
"Amateur drama of a girl's dreams inspired by a Mother Goose book." Center for Home Movies.
Watch: via Archive.org
"Mystery romance in which the police chief's daughter is courted by a crook." Library and Archives Canada.
Watch: the Fatal Flower Project completed film, via ShebaFilms (Vimeo)
"Animated film made by four boys from St. Thomas of Canterbury grade school. "February 31st" is a colorful animation of fruit that comes to life as the sun rises on that mythical date." Chicago Film Archives
Watch: chicagofilmarchives.org
"Film Editing, an exposition of this topic, is a single subject in the series, You Can Make Good Movies, produced by the Harmon Foundation of New York and photographed by Kenneth F. Space. This film presents the successful use of a medium to explain its own working and is divided into two parts — first, the mechanical operations involved in editing and splicing and, second, the methods used to present simple cinematic ideas through cutting. The clear and well ordered presentation of this subject is noteworthy. The first part of the film is characterized by a number of excellent, unusually large closeups showing the operations of scraping the film, applying cement, splicing, etc. In one or two of these closeups, however, the significant action was partially obscured, as in the case of closeups showing the application of cement to a splice, where the cork at the end of the brush got in the way. In general, however, the presentation was very clear and well photographed. Other methods than those shown could have been employed to produce the same results, but, in an instructional film of this nature, it is taken for granted that only one method can be presented without confusion." Movie Makers, Dec. 1939, 636.
Watch: Via National Archives
"Una historia sobre el acoso sufrido por la juventud por parte del mundo de los adultos. La posición alternativa del grupo [de realizadores] se hacía explícita desde las primeras tomas, en donde los créditos aparecían escritos en las paredes de una casa en ruinas, omitiendo los apellidos y dejando solo los nombres de pila de quienes participaron" (Vázquez Mantecón, 2012).
"A story about the harassment suffered by the youth from the adult world. The alternative position of the group [of filmmakers] was made evident from the first shots, where credits appeared written on the walls of a house in ruins, omitting last names and leaving only the first names of the participants" (Vázquez Mantecón, 2012).
Watch: Via Sergio García Michel's Youtube channel.
"Detailed views of fishing, with intertitles. " oldfilm.org
Watch: Via Northeast Historic Film
"Members of the BC Mountaineering Club fly from Jericho Beach, Vancouver, in a Sikorsky S-38 amphibian (Canadian Airways, registration CF-ASO), and land on Garibaldi Lake. Most of the footage depicts the members climbing Mount Garibaldi and resting at the summit. Returning to the lake, they board the amphibian and fly back to Jericho Beach" British Columbia Archives.
Watch: Excerpt via Royal B.C. Museum, YouTube
"The Forgotten Frontier, filmed by Miss Marvin Breckinridge, is the most ambitious amateur made welfare film yet recorded. To show the operation of the Kentucky Nursing Service, Miss Breckinridge spent several months filming in the mountain districts reached by that organization. With the cooperation of the mountain folk, she staged several short dramas, each demonstrating the usefulness of one of the centers or some phase of their work. The completed picture runs 6000 ft., 35mm., and, in spite of the numerous technical difficulties, it is excellently photographed." Movie Makers, Dec. 1930, 788.
Watch: via YouTube (U.S. National Library of Medicine)
Watch: via Archive.org
"A bridge party invite a mysterious stranger to make up a fourth at their table, only to be unpleasantly surprised by his card tricks. When their fourth player arrives late, the strange interloper disappears, leaving an oddly familiar Joker in his place" National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive.
Watch: Via National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive
"Fowl is Fare is a documentary showing how Long Island ducks are prepared for market. Unusual angles and tight editing keep the film moving" PSA Journal, Aug. 1967, 37.
Watch: Fowl is Fare featured in Image Union Episode 0032 (1:09-8:00)
"A South Shore High School student film that is an allegory on the wastefulness of war and the duplicity of those who wage it. Filmmaker Wayne Williams, who was 17 at the time, cuts back and forth between a chess game and a guerrilla theater war game to underscore the sense of importance of the fighters and the cynicism of those who control their lives - and deaths." Chicago Film Archives
Watch: chicagofilmarchives.org
"A group of children learn in school that tomorrow will be “Woman’s Day”, the equivalent of our “Mother’s Day”, then the humorous story unfolds in a delightful and charming manner of how two small boys decide to celebrate this occasion. An amateur film made by a Russian filmmaker and distributed by the Society of Amateur Cinematographers (SAC). All title cards are in Russian." Chicago Film Archives
Watch: chicagofilmarchives.org
"The refreshing story of a voyage by river into the Canadian wilds, presented by F. R. Crawley in Glimpses of a Canoe Trip, is really deserving of a less modest introduction than that implied by the word, "glimpses." Here, within one reel, is as comprehensive a movie tale of a trip by canoe as one could desire. The entertaining continuity, based on the natural sequence of events, is not loaded with unimportant detail; instead, footage is conserved for the more interesting episodes involved in paddling and portages. These are given a well rounded treatment that has genuine entertainment value coupled with a freshness of approach born of the enthusiasm of the maker. This sort of thing communicates itself to the audience, especially when photography, editing and titling are as well handled as they are here." Movie Makers, Dec. 1937, 629.
Watch: via Library and Archives Canada, YouTube
"Members of the National Film Society of Canada (Vancouver Branch) parody the early experimental works of American avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren [to whom the film is dedicated]." (BC Archives)
The film is subtitled: "A conflict between two philosophies of time and space."
The film was shot in an area of sand dunes on Sea Island in Richmond, BC, near the location of Vancouver International Airport.
Watch: Excerpt, via Royal BC Museum, YouTube
The G.R.A.M.C. holds an open house on November 1, 1961. This film documents the event, showing amateur filmmakers dining, conversing with one another, and examining cameras.
Watch: via the G.R.A.M.C. Film Library
"Amateur stage play directed by Roger Clapp and starring Dorothy Stebbins." Northeast Historic Film.
Watch: via Northeast Historic Film
"A short amateur narrative, featuring locals in cameo roles, about a husband who tries to teach his wife a lesson by staging a fake robbery." filmpreservation.org
Watch: via YouTube
Total Pages: 12
Amateur Cinema