Some of the records in our database link to videos that you can watch. Click on the films below.
A man schedules a fishing trip several weeks in advance of the date. Before the day comes, he must overcome several mishaps and hindrances that threaten the trip.
Watch: via the G.R.A.M.C. Film Library
"With the original in Filmorama, the picture above is somewhat distorted by being squeezed. The film shows life in Nova Scotia and is a beautifully planned travelogue showing the people, their customs and the country," The PSA Journal, Nov. 1956, 22.
Watch: Identity (pt. 1 of 2)
Watch: Identity (pt. 2 of 2)
"An impressionistic portrait of city life during a day off in the summertime, with poetic narration set opposite some very observant and intimate views of Vancouver and its inhabitants. These include numerous street scenes; departure of the passenger ferry 'Hollyburn'; shots of and from Interurban railway and streetcars; sequences on Chinatown, Kitsilano Beach, Stanley Park, Victory Square, and the downtown waterfront; and a glimpse inside a typical beer parlour. The film received honourable mention in the amateur category at the 1950 Canadian Film Awards." (BC Archives)
Opening credit reads: "The Vancouver Branch of the National Film Society presents..."
Additional credits (on 1986 restored version): "Restored 1986 by Dennis J. Duffy for National Film Week '86 in co-operation with Canadian Filmmakers Distribution West and the Provincial Archives of British Columbia. Restoration funded by BC Heritage Trust."
Watch: Excerpt via Royal BC Museum, YouTube
"A University of Chicago student film production and “Young Chicago Filmmakers Festival” award winner in 1971, Holden Franz Aust’s "In The Divine Plan" pits Nietzsche against Jesus in an ultimate ideological battle. Christian moralism meets Nihilism." Chicago Film Archives
Watch: chicagofilmarchives.org
"Two part edited travelogue taking place in the Hudson Valley area. Part one begins at Coney Island, and then takes viewers through New York City before heading to places such as West Point and Poughkeepsie where cough drops are being made. Part two Includes much footage on Hudson river, the process of manufacturing wallpaper at Imperial Color and a visit to the North Pole theme park." Chicago Film Archives.
Watch: Part 1 via Chicago Film Archives
Watch: Part 2 via Chicago Film Archives
"Achieve new perspectives of Incredible Iceland as you travel with Robert Davis by plane, boat, jeep, and afoot. Exploring the many faces of this enchanting island." Lögberg-Heimskringla, Feb. 16, 1967, 8.
Watch: via Chicago Film Archives
"Dr. William M. Harlow is professor of Wood Technology at the State University of New York, College of Forestry. His film records the unparalleled spectacle of live insects being trapped by the pitcher plant, the sundew and Venus flytrap. Expert close-up photography and effective time lapse sequences employing home made equipment includes material never before recorded on film. A top flight nature film with suspense and drama, carrying a powerful appeal to any audience." PSA Journal, Dec. 1955, 35.
Watch: Insect Catchers of the Bog Jungle Part 1
Watch: Insect Catchers of the Bog Jungle Part 2
Horror film involving a family, a lodger, and the lodger's spiders.
Watch: via Archive.org
Kodachrome travelogue showing daily life and architecture in Italy.
Watch: via UC San Diego Library
"Amateur narrative about a young farmer visiting the big city of Portland, Oregon." Center for Home Movies.
Watch: via Oregon Historical Society (YouTube)
"This amateur film from Ramon Galindo is titled 'Josephine’s Dream' and uses home movie footage and special effects to tell a story. A girl is reading in her bedroom when she falls asleep and begins dreaming of going to the rodeo, a dream sequence we can see through Galindo’s use of special effects. The film then takes us to a rodeo in Austin in 1962, capturing scenes of bucking broncos, calf roping, lasso tricks, bareback bullriding, rodeo clowns, horse tricks, and, most notably, a performance by actor and singer Michael Landon. Landon sings with a trio of cowboy guitarists, likely performing his 1957 single 'Gimme a Little Kiss (Will 'Ya' Huh)' that was rereleased in 1962 to capitalize on his newfound fame in his role as Little Joe Cartwright on the television series 'Bonanza'." Texas Archive of the Moving Image.
Watch: via Texas Archive of the Moving Image
"Journey Through a Day is a beautiful and restful film of a day in a young boy's rural life. The colorful photography by Dale Johnson of Dallas is excellent. He packs a solid day of carefree existence into 17 minutes of entertainment and wishing it were your day" PSA Journal, Nov. 1969, 56.
Watch: video via Archive.org
"Some of the most beautiful insects of France. Coleoptera (beetles, beetles, longhorn beetles, etc.). Lepidoptera: eggs, caterpillars, pupae, accelerated birth (zygène), slow flights (papilio, zygène, sphinx, etc.). Parasitic and predatory insects: braconid, pentatomide, ammophile, mantis." rough english translation of a description provided by Canal-U.
Watch: Video via Canal-U
"Another film capturing evanescence and making an explicit point about that intent is the 8mm work by Milton Dowe, Just Fences (1938-1940), a short visual catalog of split-rail and other fence types in the landscape with the on-screen title, 'Soon these will decay and be forgotten.' " (McNamara and Sheldon, Amateur Movie Making, 19).
Watch: Via Northeast Historic Film
“Ruhi Su ve Rahmi Saltuk türküleri eşliğinde yoksulluk ve emek sömürüsünü ve mücadeleyi, direnişi farklı, ilginç bir kurgu ile anlatmış. 13 dakikalık 1969 yılı koşullarını düşünerek izlemek gerekiyor.” Sinematek.tv: http://sinematek.tv/kordugum-1969-2/ (15 Oct 2019).
“Accompanied by Ruhi Su and Rahmi Saltuk’s folk songs, the film tells the story of poverty, struggle, and resistance in a different way, with an interesting montage. This 13-minute-long film requires audiences to acknowledge the contexts of the year 1969 in viewing.” Sinematek.tv: http://sinematek.tv/kordugum-1969-2/ (15 Oct 2019).
Watch: http://sinematek.tv/kordugum-1969-2/
"Focusing in on Lake Louise, this film presents the viewer with an in depth look at the diverse and majestic landscape of the Banff National Park region. Using time-lapse photography, we can see the movement of not only the plant life in the mountains, but also the movement of the clouds, and weather patterns of the area," via SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
Watch: Lake Louise: Cloud-Lands via SUNY ESF
"Land of My Dreams, Joseph J. Harley, ACL, will tell you, is a simple record of fun and friends. As such, it is an attractive piece of Kodachrome, colorful in its camera work, leisurely in its pace (400 feet, 8mm.) and frankly sentimental in its outlook. Lake Saranac and the Harley summer cottage comprise the land of Joe Harley 's dreams, although his myriad friends of ten years' standing play a large part in that Elysium. You see them throughout the film, going about their fishing and boating, picnics and swimming with an infectious zest and good humor. The record is climaxed with a detailed presentation of a grand communal party, at which each of the guests is required to put on some sort of skit or bit of entertainment." Movie Makers, June 1944, 246.
Note of warning: the "communal party" referenced in the description above includes a performance in blackface.
Watch: Part 1/3 on YouTube
Watch: Part 2/3 on YouTube
Watch: Part 3/3 on YouTube
Comedy about a married couple who appear to have overslept once again.
Watch: via the G.R.A.M.C. Film Library
“İlk film çalışmalarını Paris’te gerçekleştiren Heper, Galatasaray Lisesi’nden mezun olduktan sonra önce hukuk okumak için Cenevre’ye gider lakin mutlu olamaz ve okulu bırakarak Fransa’ya geçip, Paris Yüksek Sinema Enstitüsü’de (Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinématographiques – IDHEC) sinema eğitimi almaya başlar. Bu okuldan ‘En İyi Yönetmen’ ünvanı ile mezun olan yönetmen, bu dönem (1963 yılında) gerçekleştirdiği iki kısa filminden ilki olan ‘Bir Kadın’ ile IDHEC, ikinci kısa filmi Şafak ile de hem IDHEC hem de Avusturya Kültür Bakanlığı En İyi Film ödülünü almıştır.” Burak Çevik, Sinematek.tv: http://sinematek.tv/alp-zeki-heper-ve-iki-kisa-filmi-bir-kadin-safak/ (15 November 2019).
“Graduated from Galatasaray Highschool, Heper who first involved in filmmaking in Paris initially went to Geneva to study law. Because he was unhappy in Geneva, he left the law school and went to Paris to study filmmaking at Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinématographiques (IDHEC). He graduated from IDHEC with the award, “the best director.” The two student short films, Bir Kadın and Şafak, made by Heper when he was at IDHEC, received the best film awards from both IDHEC and the Austrian Ministry of Culture. Burak Çevik, Sinematek.tv http://sinematek.tv/alp-zeki-heper-ve-iki-kisa-filmi-bir-kadin-safak/ (15 November 2019).
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RahUq2Nvtvw
"On use of camera lenses to produce desired photographic effect. Demonstrates functions of different lenses." National Archives.
Watch: via National Archives
"A short combat film documenting WWII allied forces "liberation over Europe." The film begins in Wesel, Germany March 24, 1945, followed by aerial shots of war-torn countries. The film ends with a non fatal crash landing followed by allied forces drinking coffee." Chicago Film Archives
Watch: chicagofilmarchives.org
"A fickle (or is it haunted?!) elevator disrupts a man’s daily routine, ending tragically in a stairwell." Chicago Film Archives
Watch: chicagofilmarchives.org
"Floating, bubbling, revolving, darting, projecting, swirling, blending, forming, superimposing colors upon colors in sync with jazz music. Two numbers of different tempo and patterns, a fantasia of color configuration and music. What can one say about this type of visual and audible accomplishment on film? This will be included in the [prize winning] Package." PSA Journal, Oct. 1962, 34.
Watch: Liquid Jazz at the East Anglian Film Archive
"Footage of the destruction in the Long Beach area after the Long Beach Earthquake, March 10, 1933. Also discusses two theories on what causes earthquakes." Archive.org
Watch: via California Light and Sound (Archive.org)
"Expression of the evolution of man out of suffering seen through the use of animated portraits, decaying clay sculptures and various optical effects." Chicago Film Archives
Watch: chicagofilmarchives.org
A man is late for his anniversary dinner after getting drunk at an "amateur magician's club." He attempts to make up for it by surprising his wife with gifts, but the gifts turn out to be magic tricks which further infuriate her. The man's magic tricks are accomplished via trick photography.
Watch: via the G.R.A.M.C. Film Library
"Documentary about the process of digging for worms during low tide, washing and packaging them in rockweed, and shipping them by rail and truck. The film uses intertitles and shows the tools used for worming as well as snow scenes of the Maine Bait Company among other businesses." oldfilm.org
Watch: Maine Marine Worm Industry
"Manos: The Hands of Fate is a 1966 low-budget horror film written, directed, and produced by El Paso native Harold P. Warren, who also starred in the picture. In the film, a vacationing family gets lost while driving through the Texas desert. Stopping at a mysterious lodge for the night, the family finds themselves captives of a polygamous pagan cult. Shot in Warren’s home town and cast locally, the film premiered at the Capri Theater in downtown El Paso on November 15, 1966, and received largely negative reviews. As Betty Pierce of the El Paso Herald-Post wrote, “A real high point came when the wife, Diane Rystad, was compelled to deliver the line, ‘It’s getting dark,’ at the moment when the El Paso sunshine was glowing its brightest.” Widely recognized as one of the worst films ever made, the movie nevertheless achieved cult status after its appearance on the television comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1993" Texas Archive of the Moving Image.
Watch: via Texas Archive of the Moving Image
"The Marble begins with two boys fighting over a game of marbles, and as one boy, Larry, chases one of the little spheres into the street, he is hit by a car and ends up in the hospital. His friend is deeply hurt over this, for he realizes it is his fault. He prays, calls on the local minister, does all he can to get his friend Larry to live. While at the church he has a vision that Larry is in church with him; then, in a flash Larry is gone" PSA Journal, Sept. 1966, 35.
Watch: An edited version of "The Marble" via John Primm.
"Hansen visits a Caribbean French colony, popularly referred to as Martinique. Much like Hansen's previous travels, he focuses on the colorful and exotic landmarks of the island." UC San Diego Library.
Watch: via UC San Diego Library
Total Pages: 9
Amateur Cinema