Some of the records in our database link to videos that you can watch. Click on the films below.
"Structured around a hunting trip to Maine made by Archie Stewart and Howard Kendall. The two men travel to Perry, Maine, from New York state by train, then drive a car to a lake where they transfer their luggage to a motor boat on Grand Lake Stream and ride through heavy fog on rough water to West Grand Lake. They then carry a canoe to Lower Sysladobsis Lake, load the canoe with their rifles and supplies, and paddle off. After reaching their camp along the lake's shore, they check their rifles and eat before hunting." oldfilm.org
Watch: Via Northeast Historic Film
"In July 1956, the five-member Barstow family of Wethersfield, Connecticut, won a free trip to newly-opened Disneyland in Anaheim, California, in a nationwide contest. This 30-minute amateur documentary film tells the fabulous story of their fun-filled, dream-come-true, family travel adventure, filmed on the scene at Walt Disney's 'Magic Kingdom' by Robbins Barstow." Archive.org
Watch: via Archive.org
"An amateur documentary film about the arrival of a Chinese-Vietnamese family to Deerfield by way of a refuge camp in Hong Kong. The Zion Lutheran Church of Deerfield sponsored the family’s arrival." Chicago Film Archives
Watch: chicagofilmarchives.org
A husband and wife hold different opinions about who is to become Sheriff. The wife roots for the Democratic candidate "Preacher" Slaughter, while the husband wants to re-elect Republican candidate Sheriff Carver. Both parties bribe the husband and wife for their absentee ballot. notes from CFA
Watch: Chicago Film Archives
"Loosely scripted film in which people at play in a park are interrupted by an authority figure who prevents them from enjoying themselves. The actors include many friend of the filmmakers, such as artists Michael Morris, Robert DiCastro and Sally Gregson. Images on negative stock are incorporated into the film" (Duffy, 94).
Watch: via Karl Spreitz and Collaborators Archival Film Collection, with remixed sound
"Describes locking devices and other means by which citizens can protect their homes. Emphasizes protection and prevention, and shows consequences of failure to provide security for homes." via WorldCat.
Watch: Video Upload via Archive.org
"The film is credited to Evelyn, who captures her husband’s collecting habits of “everything and anything.” This time it happens to be driftwood. Title cards of dialogue are interspersed with images of John and Evelyn collecting driftwood along a Wisconsin beach." Chicago Film Archives
Watch: chicagofilmarchives.org
"A tale of greed, murder and passion set in a French provincial town in the 1930s. The focus is a tawdry basement drinking and gambling club. Rejecting the violent advances of a man who returns to her rooms with her, a local girl kills him and is assisted in the disposal of the corpse by her regular beau - a cynical, louche cardsharp. A vigilant detective brings her to court for murder. Witnesses take the chance to blacken her name by giving false testimonies but she is acquitted. Her freedom is soured by her lover's rejection of her and she returns to the streets" East Anglian Film Archive.
Watch: Via East Anglian Film Archive
"This amateur film produced by longtime Austin residents Ramon and Pauline Galindo, features Ramon performing illusions with alcohol. As Ramon proceeds to get drunk, the illusions become more compelling" Texas Archive of the Moving Image.
The Drunk Act was produced at some time in the 1950s.
Watch: via Texas Archive of the Moving Image
An elderly couple visits the beach, where they observe young people engaged in sports and romance. These sights prompt the couple to reflect on the story of how they met at the same beach in their younger years.
Watch: via the G.R.A.M.C. Film Library
"Education for Life, an attractively filmed record of the daily work of the Hampton Institute, famous school for Negro youth, was produced by the Harmon Foundation and filmed by Mr. and Mrs. Ray Garner. The well planned sequences of this picture tell, in detail, of the high lights of the school's activities. The Garners were faced with the problem of recording, in color, a wide variety of skin tones and with the problem of lighting large areas. These problems were solved with more than the usual skill, and they have turned out an almost perfect filming job. They exercised an excellent choice of camera angles, and the whole film is a thoroughly polished production. The amount of detail in a picture of this type is considerable, but the subject matter is well balanced. The introductory material, a series of ''zoom" shots of maps, is especially well done." Movie Makers, Dec. 1941, 568.
Watch: via NFPF
"Film record of a journey to Egypt and a four day holiday in Cairo. The film begins at Croydon Airport, recording the activities of the ground crew and the arrival and departure of two Imperial Airways planes, the Heracles and the Hengist. The film records a stopover in Crete on the journey to Cairo where the plane is moored close to a yacht. The final section of the film records street scenes in Cairo and an excursion to the Great Pyramid and Sphinx, returning to the city by Marg and Old Heliopolis." East Anglian Film Archive.
"Ruth Stuart's Travel picture 'Egypt and Back With Imperial Airways,' was not only a fine example of consistent photography, but also showed a keen knowledge of editing and cutting that let the pictue breeze along in an entertaining fashion." American Cinematographer, Dec. 1933, 321.
Watch: via East Anglian Film Archive
"This extraordinary silent 16mm home movie was shot by Dr. Harold L. Thompson, and shows the eruption of the Paricutin volcano. It likely dates towards the end of the volcanic eruption in the early 1950s." Periscope Film.
Watch: via Periscope Film (YouTube)
La película realiza un recorrido desde Bermeo hasta Gernika. Se trata de un viaje que va desde el puerto pesquero de Bermeo, hasta el Árbol de Gernika, a lo largo de la actual Reserva de Urdaibai.
The film depicts a route travel from Bermeo to Guernica. It's a trip that goes from the fishing port in Bermeo, to the Guernica Tree, crossing through the Urdaibai Reserve.
Watch: Via Filmoteca Vasca
Film de animación que cuenta la anécdota de un caballero que tiene un encuentro casual cuando se dirige a las Cruzadas.
Animated film that tells the story of a knight that has a casual encounter as he travels to the Crusades.
Watch: Via Miguel Ángel Quintana's Vimeo Channel
The filmmaker's wry memoir, using many of his own films shot from 1936 onward and new footage. The title refers to his date of birth, April 21, 1916. Winner of a “Ten-Best Contest” in1979, EPH 4/27/16 is an autobiographical piece that mixes photo-montage with home-movie footage, narrated by Horowitz and rich with his comical musings on life and change, past and present.
Watch: The movie on Fandor.com (2016)
Cortometraje documental sobre la costa vizcaína que hace un recorrido desde la playa de Ereaga hasta el Cabo Matxitxako. En la película se pueden ver imágenes del Puerto de Bilbao y de las playas de Ereaga, Arrigunaga, Azkorri y Sopelana. También se aprecian las localidades vizcaínas de Barrika, Plencia, Gorliz, Armintza, Bakio y San Juan de Gaztelugatxe.
Documentary short about the Biscayne Bay that depicts a tour from the Ereaga beach to Cape Matxitxako. The film shows images of the Bilbao Port and the beaches in Ereaga, Arrigunaga, Azkorri and Sopelana. Local Biscayne places are also seen: Barrika, Plencia, Gorliz, Armintza, Bakio and San Juan de Gaztelugatxe.
Watch: Via Filmoteca Vasca
Profunda reflexión sobre la Patria. Refleja la visión del ambiente rural de Euskal Herria a través de tomas de personajes populares como los bertsolaris Valentin Enbeitia y Jon Lopategi y el bailarín Victor Olaeta. Por razones de censura la película pasó a llamarse Erria (El Pueblo)
A profound reflection about the Homeland. Reflects the perspective of the rurality in Euskal Herria, through shots of popular characters such as the bertsolaris Valentin Enbetia and Jon Lopategi, and the dancer Victor Olaeta. Because of censorship, the name of the film had to be changed to Erria (The Town).
Watch: Video link to Erria/Aberria
El documental muestra el ciclo vital de la oruga procesionaria del pino (Thaumetopoea Pityocampa), abundante en bosques de pinos de Europa del Sur y América del Sur y considerada como el insecto defoliador más importante de los pinares españoles.
The documentary shows the life cycle of the pine processionary caterpillar (Thaumetopoea Pityocampa), abundant in Southern European and South American forests, considered as the most important defoliating insect of the Spanish pine forests.
Watch: Via Miguel Ángel Quintana's Vimeo Channel
"H. Lee Hansen visits Holland, England (London), France (Paris), and Switzerland (Zurich) and captures scenes of daily life in post-war Europe." UC San Diego Library.
Watch: via UC San Diego Library
"Hansen begins his tour through Europe at Greece. He spends most of his time in Greece traveling through Athens, juxtaposing the Classic Greek architecture to modern life." UC San Diego Library.
Watch: via UC San Diego Library
"General scenes in Spain, including farming and city life. There is a long section of a bull fight (Madrid)." UC San Diego Library.
Watch: via UC San Diego Library
"An exceptional portrayal of the world's creation, from a barren landscape to the emergence of the Woman and the Serpent, ending with Society as we know it. The film is technically unsurpassed in plasticine animation." Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre.
Watch: via YouTube
"Film depicting the 1755 Expulsion of the Acadians from Grand Pre, Nova Scotia. Silent footage interspersed with written text. Scenes show the Grand Pre Church and various shots of farm life. An actress portrays Evangeline." Nova Scotia Archives.
Watch: via Nova Scotia Archives (YouTube)
"Barstow created this depiction of the Hudson Guild, a community center in Manhattan's Chelsea District, while a "Boys' Group Worker" at the Hudson Guild Neighborhood House." Via Vimeo upload.
Watch: Vimeo upload of the film
"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)
Total Pages: 13
Amateur Cinema