The Funeral of Vera Kholodnaya

Los 5 Faust de F. W. Murnau

November 2002 •Spanish

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City

September 1927 •German

A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.

Die Dichter und die Räterepublik

January 1990 •German

Documentary film with play scenes about the rise and fall of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919 from the perspective of various well-known poets and writers who experienced the events as contemporary witnesses.

Days of Thrills and Laughter

March 1961 •English

An appreciative, uncritical look at silent film comedies and thrillers from early in the century through the 1920s.

The Strength and Agility of Insects

August 1911 •English

A short, early documentary work showing insects exhibiting extreme strength and agility.

The Chillouks, a Central African Tribe

October 1910 •French

Short documentary on a central african tribe called 'The Chillouks'.

Censored!

December 1999 •English

A documentary about the cultural effect of film censorship, focusing on the tumultuous times of the teens and early 1920s in America.

Nanook of the North

June 1922 •English

This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.

14-18: The Noise & the Fury

November 2008 •French

Not everything has been told about World War One. This documentary tries to explain how tens of millions of men could have suffered the unbelievable toughness of life in trenches during the 4 year ordeal. How could they have accepted the idea of a sure death or injury while not being able to tell why they were fighting.

D'où viennent les faux cheveux

October 1909 •English

On a market day in Kernascleden, two Breton women exchange their hair for a few coins. The hair becomes hairpieces. Last scene, an elegant Parisian removes her hat and exposes her generous wig skillfully coiffed.

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.

Among Wild Birds

November 1927 •

Finland’s first nature documentary. The filmmakers’ expedition leads them all the way to the Åland Islands and the Karelian Isthmus.

Monica in the South Seas

November 2023 •Finnish

Finnish filmmaker and artist Sami van Ingen is a great-grandson of documentary pioneer Robert Flaherty, and seemingly the sole member of the family with a hands-on interest in continuing the directing legacy. Among the materials he found in the estate of Robert and Frances Flaherty’s daughter Monica were the film reels and video tapes detailing several years of work on realising her lifelong dream project: a sound version of her parents’ 1926 docu-fiction axiom, Moana: A Romance of the Golden Age.

The Eagle and the Lion: Hitler vs Churchill

September 2017 •French

Winston Churchill, one of the most revered men of the twentieth century. Adolf Hitler, one of the most hated leaders in contemporary history. Between 1940 and 1945, these two enormously contradictory personalities faced each other in both politics and war. A clash of giants whose story begins in the trenches of the World War I and ends with the debacle of the World War II.

Häxan

September 1922 •Swedish

Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen's legendary film uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the Middle Ages suffered the same hysteria as turn-of-the-century psychiatric patients. But the film itself is far from serious-- instead it's a witches' brew of the scary, gross, and darkly humorous.

International Dances

April 1901 •French

A short dance film in Pathécolor, also know as stencil colouring. The editing cuts correspond with the dancers' costume changes. More about stencil colouring at http://zauberklang.ch/filmcolors/timeline-entry/1218/.

Dickson Greeting

May 1891 •

William K.L. Dickson brings his hat from his one hand to the other and moves his head slightly, as a small nod toward the audience. This was the first film produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company to be shown to public audiences and the press.

Men Boxing

April 1891 •

Experimental film fragment made with the Edison-Dickson-Heise experimental horizontal-feed kinetograph camera and viewer, using 3/4-inch wide film.

Egon Schiele: Between Love and Hate

November 2018 •German

An account of the short life and the astonishing and provocative work of the Austrian painter Egon Schiele (1890-1918), seen through the peculiar point of view and the critic voices of the women who defined the paramount milestones of his existence: Gerti, his sister; Wally, his main model and lover; and Edith, his wife. A brief story of love, hate, betrayal and misfortune.

Man with a Movie Camera

May 1929 •Russian

A cameraman wanders around with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling inventiveness.