"Various family members are seen in the garden of a large house, possibly The Beeches. A woman and baby sit on a blanket in the middle of the lawn. A uniformed nanny joins them with another baby. Concludes with a shot of the two babies together on the blanket" (NWFA Online Database).
"With his victory garden as an incentive, George Mesaros has made Back to the Soil a record of his garden's progress that does credit to his movie making ability and to the quality of the vegetables produced. This genre little picture strikes a happy balance between the action scenes of planting, hoeing and harvesting and the magnificent shots of the opulent, colorful red tomatoes, green peppers, yellow corn and the beans, lettuce, cucumbers and other vegetables. Mr. Mesaros has a natural sense of pattern and design which he gives full play in the excellent arrangements in this film. Noteworthy, too, is the feeling of space and distance achieved in a small plot of ground. It is surprising to learn that the garden which seems so extensive in the picture is in reality only a small backyard plot." Movie Makers, Dec. 1942, 506.
"In Backfire we find an elderly gentleman intent on planting a bomb which, if it goes off as planned, will make his future a bit more easy to take, but from the title of the picture you may assume things don't go quite according to plan. The old fellow does a fine job of acting, and he is capable of holding the viewer's attention" PSA Journal, Aug. 1967, 36.
"Trim, tightly knit and altogether engaging, Backyard Birding presents, with affectionate attention to detail, a nature-loving father and his small son searching out the common and uncommon birds of their New England neighborhood. The film's pleasant music and informed but unassuming narrative are in sympathetic harmony with the pictorial whole. In it, with apparent purpose, Herbert D. Shumway has employed a cloudy-bright lighting throughout. Thus, the countless closeups of his bird neighbors, as they build their nests and rear their young, are in soft, true and unshadowed color — as so befits the film's gentle theme. And, just in case you're wondering, these superb scenes (on 8mm. film, remember) are beautifully sharp, despite the wider lens apertures which must have been used." Movie Makers, Dec. 1952, 324, 337.
"There is an easy, effortless quality about Backyard Horizons, by Roy C. Wilcox, which tends to belie the fine competence of its work with telephoto lenses and extension tubes. The birds, bugs, bees and rabbits which parade across the horizon of the Wilcox pastures seem to be friends of the family — and they are treated as such in the unpretentious narrative which accompanies them. The sound on film track, combining simple musical selections and a restrained volume of comment, was itself produced by Mr. Wilcox, and it records his own voice, pleasingly." Movie Makers, Dec. 1946, 486, 488.
"To film an insect well, when it is crawling, creeping or flying, is a real feat. Francis M. Spoonogle does this with great success. In his film, Backyard Zoo, he has taken completely undirectable creatures and has managed to capture them on film with such intimacy as to give one the feeling that he might be living for a while in the insect world. Unsuspected beauty is revealed in the coloring of caterpillars with normally unseen fur collars. So sharply has he focused on insect life in this beautiful 8mm. film that the "feathers," making up the coating of a butterfly's wings, are almost discernible." Movie Makers, Dec. 1945, 495-496.
El filme muestra el proceso de realización de un anillo de bodas.
The film depicts the process of creating a wedding ring.
"Nine times a place winner in seven years of Ten Best competition, Frank E. Gunnell has probably done his best work to date in Baie St. Paul. The film is a bright and sunny visit to the little French Canadian parish of that name, nestling in parochial contentment along the St. Lawrence. Central in this existence stands the baroque and inevitable church, while about it one finds the familiar family names of the village butcher and baker, doctor and dressmaker, recurrent along the cobbled highways. Here too is an intent, sharp featured little woodcarver, a housewife coolly competent about her embroidery and an aloof mademoiselle who presides with dazzling beauty over an ancient spinning wheel. Packed with this essential human interest, Baie St. Paul was filmed with the sparkling competence that one has for years expected from a Gunnell production. Its editing fits shrewdly into the pastoral mood of the subject matter, while its titles, both in their wording and execution, are colorful and in good taste. Baie St. Paul should take a high and honored place in the Gunnell catalog of fine films." Movie Makers, Dec. 1944, 477.
"Edited film by Floyd Henry Wells, a retired salesman and a member of the Wally Byam Caravan Club of Airstream trailers, chronicles travel with a Wally Byam club down the Baja Peninsula. Film documents scenic landscapes, road signs and natural wonders along the Baja Pen and scenes of cities, town, churches and markets in Mexico. Film also captures local peoples including Mexican bands and dancers and a bakery with an outdoor stone oven. Some identified locations include Ensenada, Rancho Santa Ynez, El Presidente (motor lodges), Santa Rosalia, Tropic of Cancer, La Paz, Alamos, El Caracol and the Hotel los Portales. Film is narrated by his wife, Ruth Wells, who identifies many of the locations and events depicted with some historic comments or trivia. Wells also comments on various issues of importance to travelling by an Airstream trailer such as water sources and etiquette," Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Museum.
Total Pages: 299
Amateur Cinema