The Trader

Understanding The Georgian Republic

February 1993 •French

Double Life

July 1980 •French

Erika Blanc self-reflectively narrates her descent into Italian genre cinema while she hyperbolically playacts in the woods.

Tickets s.v.p

January 1973 •English

An incident from the early days of Québec's quiet revolution, tailor-made for the cartoonist. It is the story of a Montréal commuter train, a unilingual ticket collector and a bilingual passenger. The passenger appears on screen himself to describe his bid to have tickets requested in French as well as in English. What ensued, and how even the railway president became involved, is illustrated with wit and humor.

Carnival: Looking for Paulo 'Miller'

January 2008 •Portuguese

A 2008 short made in accompaniment with Our Beloved Month of August, documenting Gomes's and his crew's hapless search, during 2007's carnival, for one of Arganil's most storied and elusive characters (who does, in fact, ultimately appear as an interviewee/player in the finished film). Paulo "Miller" is known for taking a dangerous jump into the Alva from a bridge each year during carnival, but what this film is about is, in keeping with the free-roving feature, much less the subject himself than Gomes and co.'s inability to pin him down; not only does he not do his famous jump during this year's carnival, but an ostensible technical/audio failure (as with the feature, it's very difficult to say how much of this film is "fact," how much invented) during Gomes's initial on-camera meeting with Paulo "Miller" leads to five minutes of lip-readers attempting to decipher their conversation.

L'île de Pâques

May 1935 •French

The first Easter Island documentary, filmed in 1935 when the Belgian naval ship Mercator came to collect Drs. Henri Lavacherry and Alfred Métraux, who had arrived six months before to carry out archaeological and ethnological work. The film, directed with melodramatic gusto and featuring a full orchestral score by Maurice Jaubert (who also did the narration), shows islanders, the monuments, and a public dance. A theme of decay and decadence characterizes the film, the motif portrayed gruesomely by extensive close-ups of the inhabitants of the leper colony there at the time. The film suited a romantic image of a mysterious lost civilization, the survivors eking out a pitiful existence on a barren rock. (Grant McCall)

Sable Island

January 1956 •English

This short documentary profiles the uniquely cloistered wildlife of Sable Island, known as the “Atlantic graveyard” due to its inhospitable conditions. Barren sands and endless gales proved too much for human settlement on this island off the coast of Nova Scotia. Only a small group of researchers and maintenance people occupy the island; horses run wild, seals and birds multiply profusely, and the Ipswich sparrow has found a fruitful breeding ground for itself. Sable Island provides a perfect opportunity to observe nature in an untouched, organic laboratory.

ENDOMIC

February 2021 •English

An exhaustive meta-analytic review documenting a mysterious ’women’s issue’, otherwise known as endometriosis.

Seeding Fear

July 2015 •English

Since Monsanto began selling their patented 'Roundup Ready' genetically modified (GM) seeds they have sued hundreds of farmers for patent infringement. Michael White, a fourth generation farmer and seed cleaner living in the northeast corner of rural Alabama never imagined that he would become the target of the conglomerates aggressive legal tactics. But unlike other farmers in his area Michael refused to give in to Monsanto and in doing so became one of only a handful of farmers to maintain the ability to speak publicly about his case. This is his story.

The Bowler

January 2010 •English

Meet Rocky Salemmo. He’s a ramblin’ gamblin’ man. For the majority of his adult life Rocky has hustled bowling for a living. Here is his story. A short documentary about booze, broads and bowling.

The Black Belt

March 2016 •English

In September 2015, the state of Alabama closed 31 Department of Motor Vehicles offices, disproportionately affecting African-American communities and their ability to register to vote. A band-aid solution in the form of a pop-up mobile voter registration unit is quickly dispatched. It's so disorganized and unprofessional it could be a comedy skit—if it weren't so infuriatingly disrespectful.

Death Day

June 1934 •English

During his adventure in Mexico, Sergei Eisenstein made footage of a Mexican "Death Day" celebration for inclusion in his "Que Viva Mexico!" film project. When the 200,000-plus feet of film he eventually exposed in Mexico was first attempted to be made into a feature film, "Thunder Over Mexico", the producers excluded the Death Day material for subsequent compilation as an independent short subject. Silent with music track and explanatory English intertitles.

Tapavica

April 2016 •Serbian

A story about the first Serbian Olympian who won bronze medal at the first Olympic games in 1896, also a world class architect.

Salvage with a Smile

January 1940 •English

Wartime propaganda short in which a professor enlists the help of a dustman to explain the importance of saving paper, bones and metal to help the war effort.

The Return of Bond: The Start of Production Press Event

July 2006 •English

A short documentary about the press of GoldenEye.

Die Todeszeche

January 1930 •German

La diga del ghiacciaio

January 1955 •Italian

This documentary shows the construction of a high-altitude dam by the Sabbioni Glacier, and the daily struggles of the workers, now anxious for the outbreak of a mine, now silent for the nostalgia of the distant family.

Cinema Stars - No. 15

January 1925 •English

A faux Screen Snapshots reel that features some known and lesser known silent comedy stars.

Roots

December 2024 •Spanish

Twenty-one-year-old Julia had to leave her daughters under the care of a children's shelter house. Five years later, Julia keeps fighting to rebuild her life and get reunited with her daughters.

1999 A.D.

January 1967 •English

A whimsical yet serious-minded look into the future sponsored by the appliance and radio manufacturer Philco-Ford. In the "1999 House of Tomorrow", each family member's activities are enabled by a central computer and revolve around products remarkably similar to those made by the sponsor. Power comes from a self-contained fuel cell which supports environmental controls, an automatic cooking system, and a computer-assisted "education room".

Street Musicians of Bombay

July 1994 •English

Off-camera, a Western traveler tells us of hearing singing from his hotel window in Bombay. He searches for the source, and discovers a caste of street performers, eking out a modest living. We see individuals and groups, old and young, snake charmers and those hired to sing at family celebrations. A few talk about their lives and refute accusations of kidnapping lodged against the caste. A troupe of women sing at a party for a pregnant woman - they are saucy and blunt, encouraging and sisterly.