"documentario a fantasia"/avant-garde documentary
"Title onscreen indicates that the footage shows an outing of the Munich amateur film club to Dachau, 1942. . . . They arrive at the station and begin filming in the residential/commercial areas of the town (NOT the camp)." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
"The present fate and possible future of the southern share-cropping farmer have been pictured in dramatic and authentic detail by Alan S. Hacker, ACL, in a five reel, 16mm. film recently completed under the sponsorship of the Sharecropper Film Committee, New York City. Made to aid the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union, the production illustrates the agricultural despotism and destitution which have resulted in the formation of that group bargaining organization. Farms and families of Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi appear in this documentary record, which kept Mr. Hacker three months in the field. Lee R. Hays. an Arkansan, served him as liaison officer with the union and its supporters, while Gardner Jackson, of the film committee, contributed to the production's planning. Narrative comment and a musical background are scheduled additions to the pictured story, in preparation for screenings before school and civic groups interested in the success of the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union." - "Practical Films," Movie Makers, March 1937, 128.
"In An Apple a Day, F. Radford Crawley has epitomized, in color, the story of a Canadian apple orchard. He shows, in perfectly exposed Kodachrome scenes, how the trees are grafted and pruned, how the orchard is mulched with straw and how the trees are sprayed. He shows the apple pickers at work in attractively chosen angle shots and, without interrupting the flow of action, he introduces the different varieties of apples grown in Canada. Horse drawn carts carry the apples to the packers, and there follows a tightly edited sequence of the ring pack method, culminating in a brilliant closeup of the top of an open basket of apples. In an epilogue, the basket is opened in a home, and children bob for apples at a Halloween party. Ingeniously managed upward angles show the children's faces bobbing for apples floating in the water above the camera. (The method of producing these shots was described in The month of plenty, by Mr. Crawley in the October, 1938, Movie Makers. The execution of the plan is perfect in the film.) Brilliant close shots of beautifully colored fruit stud this film like jewels, and especially satisfying are the subtitles, made by double exposing white lettering on a scene of an arched branch of an apple tree, filmed against a dark, late afternoon sky." Movie Makers, Dec. 1939, 634.
"doc. didattico"/educational documentary
El filme muestra las Salinas de Añana en la provincia de Álava, una mágica visión de terrazas de madera bañadas del blanco de la sal, lugar del que se obtiene el material con métodos transmitidos de generación en generación. Fueron los romanos quienes comenzaron a explotar las minas de forma metódica, hace más de 2000 años. Los salineros de Añana, hombres y mujeres, jóvenes y ancianos, trabajan en sus terrazas blancas de mayo a septiembre para obtener una abundante cosecha de sal.
Texto de Miguel Ángel Quintana
The film depicts the Salt Valley of Añana in the province of Álava, a magical vision of wooden decks bathed in white salt and the place where it is obtained through methods taught from generation to generation. It was the romans who began to exploit the mines in a methodical way, over 2000 years ago. The salt workers of Añana, men and women, young and elderly, work in their white decks from May to September, to obtain an abundant salt harvest.
Text by Miguel Ángel Quintana.
[Also known as Conway]
"Andros Blue Holes had to be in color to show us that the Blue Holes are really blue. J. Benjamin of Toronto takes us on 18 minutes of the most fascinating underwater filming ever attempted. The beauty and mystery of the Blue Holes far outweigh the dangers involved in exploring them. Very entertaining and very educational" PSA Journal, Nov. 1969, 57.
"In this delightful pictorial record, amateur filmmaker Reginald Rigby takes a close look at the animal world. From a wobbly young owl discovering how its wings work to elephants from Bertram Mills Circus enjoying welcome free time in the fresh air; from an extremely enthusiastic lamb to some decidedly unimpressed cattle, this film casts a humorous eye upon aspects of animal and avian behaviour." (BFI Player)
"Another Happy Day" was the winner in the home movie classification, the prize going to T. Lawrenson of Dundee, Scotland. Mr. Lawrenson is a member of the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers of London. Also is he a veteran of the American Cinematographer's contests, having been one of the three major prize winners of 1935. Also is the chief actor in the home movie a veteran, a child who now has reached seemingly the mature age of four years, and who of course was but two when he made his debut on the home movie stage in 'Happy Day.' He is a black-eyed, camera-unconscious and personable youngster, who proceeds on his lawful occasions in complete indifference to a live lens." American Cinematographer, Jan. 1938, 27.
Total Pages: 79
Amateur Cinema