"The Other Americans was a winner of a special Judges' Award for the Best Public Service Film in the "C" Classification. It's a long film, 52½ minutes in all, but it is filled with what poverty really is. Ms Julian Krainin and Dewitt Sage of Forest Hills, N. Y. have created a film about the Negroes, the Puerto Ricans, the Indians, the Coal Miners, the Farmers and many others that are poor, poor, poor. The average American will be surprised at how poverty-stricken other Americans are. The film is a mind-opener and well deserves the special award that it received," PSA Journal, Mar. 1970, 43.
"Seldom has an amateur embarked upon so formidable a production as did David Bradley when he and some friends decided to film Ibsen's Peer Gynt, using Grieg's music for background. This mystic drama is considered so difficult that it has been performed only twice in the American theatre; yet the task held no terror for this group. Fashioning their own costumes and finding suitable locations in suburban Chicago, Mr. Bradley's intrepid band has done an amazingly good job. It would be easy to visualize the result had the production been in less capable hands than those of Mr. Bradley, and it is to his great credit that such quaint characters as the Button Moulder and the many trolls and woodland sprites do not appear ludicrous. The chief fault in this tremendous undertaking is that Ibsen's gigantic play has been transliterated to the screen rather than translated. That is, Mr. Bradley, by his own admission, modeled his scenario as closely as possible on a work written expressly for the theatre. Had he taken more liberties with the dramatic form in favor of a more peculiarly cinematic treatment — as exemplified so strikingly in the fine Hall of the Mountain King sequence — there would have been no structural weaknesses in his film. With this fundamental concept firmly in mind, Mr. Bradley, recently turned twenty one, should scale the heights in his future productions." Movie Makers, Dec. 1941, 566.
"Item is a film production of Dr. and Mrs. Willinsky's trip to Lima, Peru to attend the 5th International Assembly of the International College of Surgeons. Footage of assembly delegates, landmarks and the local population are interspersed with captions added by Dr. Willinsky. Included are scenes of assembly delegates near Lima's Workman's Hospital, Sadie visiting the home of the assembly's chairman and entering the palace of Peru's president for a luncheon, sights along the streets of San Martin, cathedrals, shots taken from a moving train, and images of the Ricmac River from a nearby road." Ontario Jewish Archives.
"A four reel film recording details of a motor tour undertaken by Eustace and Eunice Alliott through six of the twelve Dutch provinces" (EAFA Database).
"Mr Alliott responded by projecting yet another film, in colour, recording a visit to Holland, in which there were some excellent shots of Dutch scenery, including the gorgeous tulip fields. There were also many happy portraits of peasants and children in their quaint national costume." (Anon, Photographic Journal, 418)
[Information included on the EAFA database suggests that the film was partially shot using prismatic film which, when using red, blue and green filters on a Kodak A projector, a colour experience is possible. This includes the scenes of: Volendam, Marken, Alkmaar (lively cheeses), Sneek, Veere, Domburg etc.]
"Portrait of a Young Man, by Henwar Rodakiewicz, ACL, is a triumph of fine photography and sensitive imagination. Abstract in treatment, and speaking through delicately rhythmed scenes of smoke, leaves, grasses, the sea, machinery and the heavens, this film is an attempt to portray in graphic terms a young man's reactions to the beauty, force and mystery of the natural world. In producing the final three reel version, Mr. Rodakiewicz has filmed deliberately toward the one end for more than three years and in many different locales. Although using largely material to be found in nature, he has so transmuted it, by the creative artistry of his selection and control, as to get from each selected scene, not a mere reproduced likeness, but a trenchant and symbolic image. Portrait of a Young Man is beautiful, exciting, workmanlike and distinguished." Movie Makers, Dec. 1932, 538.
"Item is a double feature production of a trip Dr. Willinsky took to Portugal and Morocco with his wife, Sadie. In the form of a travelogue, footage of landmarks, landscapes, vegetation, historic sites and the local population is interspersed with maps and captions that were added in by Dr. Willinsky to provide context. Featured cities include Lisbon, Tangier, Casablanca and Villa Daressada. Sadie is occassionally spotted sight-seeing, interacting with locals and purchasing wares from street vendors." Ontario Jewish Archives.
"Bituminous coal is the major actor in The Power Behind the Nation. This sound on film color movie, made by Waldo E. Austin for the Norfolk and Western Railway Company, shows effectively the tremendous part played by soft coal in the development of the nation. The picture is well filmed and thoroughly integrated by an excellent narrative, while lead and end titles are appropriately double exposed on shots of moving trains, which serve to drive home the point that the railroad is the important link between the mine and the consumer. Exceedingly fine sequences of coal mining and well handled shots of the railroad equipment are high points. This film is a fine example of an industrial motion picture produced without the excessive equipment and appropriations sometimes thought to be necessary for such an effort. " Movie Makers, Dec. 1940, 604.
"Edited film of Greece by a Greek immigrant to the United States was specifically created to educate American audiences to the true qualities and nature of the Greek people. Footage includes Athens, Greek ruins, and country villages," via the Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Museum.
"The story of a three-day whale watching trip in July 1991 from Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA, 100 miles out into the Atlantic Ocean to Georges Bank, to find and film sperm whales and six other species of cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises), including the never-before-filmed North Atlantic Beaked Whale. Filmed and narrated by Dr. Robbins Barstow of Wethersfield, Connecticut, USA." Archive.org
"A Race for Ties" tells the story of a sawmill owner, Joe Atwood, and his race against a large timber company, headed by U. Cheetem, to sign an exclusive contract for railway ties. In addition to a plot driven by one of the region’s staple industries (the lumber industry), the film highlights the scenic nature of the region" - Michel S Beaulieu, Women Film Pioneers Project.
Total Pages: 15
Amateur Cinema