Images of Ostend

The Dangers of the Fly

November 1920 •Spanish

The Dangers of the Fly is an educational film made by Ernesto Gunche and Eduardo Martínez de la Pera, also responsible for Gaucho Nobility (1915), the biggest blockbuster of Argentinean silent cinema. De la Pera was a talented photographer, always willing to try new gadgets and techniques. This film experiments with microphotography in the style of Jean Comandon's films for Pathé and it is part of a series which included a film about mosquitoes and paludism and another one about cancer, which are considered lost. Flies were a popular subject of silent films and there are more than a dozen titles featuring them in the teens and early twenties.

The Incredible Bread Machine Film

December 1975 •English

A discussion of the economic and political ideas presented in the book "The Incredible Bread Machine".

The Children's Building Site

September 1970 •French

The theme of this film is the children's view on the destruction of a working-class area. The loss, for them of the dilapidated alleyways and waste ground where they met up and played. Their anger, their futile revolt against the demolition workers only serve to confirm their powerlessness and status as social outcasts.

Finlandia

October 1922 •Finnish

A documentary from Erkki Karu, one of the earliest pioneers of Finnish cinema: This government-produced propaganda film introduces the nature, sports, military, agriculture and capital of Finland.

Las Hurdes, país de leyenda

January 1922 •Spanish

An account of the journey that King Alfonso XIII of Spain made to the impoverished shire of Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in the region of Extremadura, in 1922.

Bantu weiss nichts von Europa

April 1936 •German

A visit to the Bantu in Cameroon and the indigenous town of Kumbo. The living and working conditions of the Bantu and Bororo tribes are shown as part of this expedition.

Timber Front

January 1940 •English

This black-and-white archival film outlines the importance of Canada's forests in the national war effort during the Second World War.

Ventanas

December 2015 •Spanish

The Dawn of Sound: How Movies Learned to Talk

September 2007 •English

Film historians, and survivors from the nearly 30-year struggle to bring sound to motion pictures take the audience from the early failed attempts by scientists and inventors, to the triumph of the talkies.

Belgique nazie

December 2021 •French

Film-Tract n° 1968

June 1968 •French

In the 1968 movement in Paris, Jean-Luc Godard made a 16mm, 3-minute long film, Film-tract No.1968, Le Rouge, in collaboration with French artist Gérard Fromanger. Starting with the shot identifying its title written in red paint on the Le Monde for 31 July 1968, the film shows the process of making Fromanger’s poster image, which is thick red paint flows over a tri-color French flag. —Hye Young Min

BLIND_CITY

March 2021 •Portuguese

Images complement what is always lacking in words. The poems complement what is always present in the city. Freely inspired by the poetry Cidade City Cité, by Augusto de Campos.

Brazillians Like Me

May 2008 •French

The encounter with a growing, and mostly undocumented, brazilian community allows us to bear witness to its energy, its vivacity, and its diversity. This film attempts to work for a larger acceptance of foreigners in their land of exile.

In the Land of Giants and Pygmies

January 1925 •English

IN THE LAND OF GIANT PYGMIES, a diary of Aurelio Rossi's 1925 trek into the immense Belgian Congo, preserves a long-gone-Colonial-era wonder at natural resources, "primitive" tribes, customs and costumes in Europe's cast African possessions, and implies that the "dark continent" could benefit from the "civilizing" influences of home.

Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge

October 1888 •

A film by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince, shot in late October 1888, showing pedestrians and carriages crossing Leeds Bridge.

hello, WORLD!

April 2021 •English

A man ventures out into the streets of a pandemic-ridden London.

Outside the Lines

September 2023 •Dutch

Three young queer people share their experiences on what it’s like to deviate from the straight cis-norm. Throughout the film, painful experiences make room for a more positive perspective, such as the overwhelming sense of connection with millions of other queer individuals worldwide or the freedom that arises as one can relinquish certain expectations. This so-called ‘queer-joy’ is being discovered, providing inspiring and moving insights.

Ring of Fire

January 1991 •English

Ring of Fire is about the immense natural force of the great circle of volcanoes and seismic activity that rings the Pacific Ocean and the varied people and cultures who coexist with them. Spectacular volcanic eruptions are featured, including Mount St. Helens, Navidad in Chile, Sakurajima in Japan, and Mount Merapi in Indonesia.

Tropical Rainforest

February 1992 •English

The story of the evolution of tropical rain forests, their recent and rapid destruction, and the intense efforts of scientists to understand them even as they disappear. This film gives viewers a better appreciation of the importance of tropical rain forests on a global scale.

Cordobés 65

January 1965 •Spanish

A brief portrait of famous and brave bullfighter Manuel Benítez el Corbobés; an account on still photos of his triumphs and failures.