It’s Not Always Cloudy (1950)
A film about life in the Czech borderlands after the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans.
The Golden Twenties (1950)
Feature-length compilation of 1920s newsreel footage, with commentary about news, sports, lifestyles, and historical figures.
Blood of the Beasts (1949)
An early example of ultra-realism, this movie contrasts the quiet, bucolic life in the outskirts of Paris with the harsh, gory conditions inside the nearby slaughterhouses. Describes the fate of…
Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today (1948)
How, in November 1945, after the end of the World War II and the fall of the Third Reich, the international prosecutors participating in the first Nuremberg trial —formally, the…
People of the Po Valley (1947)
A documentary short detailing the life of Italians living on the Po River in the 1940s.
24 Hours in the Life of a Clown (1946)
The movie follows the clock round as music hall clown Beby takes off his make up, goes home for a meal, looks at photos and goes to bed to rise,…
El Torero de Cordoba (1946)
A short documentary about the life and death of the bullfighter Manuel Rodriguez Manolete. It recounts his career this celebrated Spanish bullfighter who was the inspiration for the ill-fated Montalvo…
A Diary for Timothy (1945)
A narrator recounts the state of Great Britain near the end of WWII via a visual diary for the titular baby boy born in September 1944.
The Fleet That Came to Stay (1945)
A propaganda short film produced by the US Navy in 1945 about the naval engagements of the invasion of Okinawa.
Diary of a Sergeant (1945)
Harold Russell, an American soldier who lost his hands in a training accident, tells the story of his medical rehabilitation at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC, how…
The Battle of San Pietro (1945)
This documentary movie is about the battle of San Pietro, a small village in Italy. Over 1,100 US soldiers were killed while trying to take this location, that blocked the…
Hollywood Scout (1945)
This short film focuses on a day in the life of a Hollywood talent scout assigned to cast animals.
The Fighting Lady (1944)
Oscar winner William Wyler directed this 1944 “newsdrama,” narrated by Lieut. Robert Taylor, USNR (Bataan), and photographed in zones of combat by the U.S. Navy. The film follows one of…
The Memphis Belle (1944)
This WW2 documentary centers on the crew of the American B-17 Flying Fortress Memphis Belle as it prepares to execute a strategic bombing raid on Nazi submarine pens in Wilhelmshaven,…
The Autobiography of a ‘Jeep’ (1943)
The invention and use of a jeep are described, from the viewpoint of one of the vehicles.
Why We Fight: The Battle of Russia (1943)
The fifth film of Frank Capra’s Why We Fight propaganda film series, revealing the nature and process of the fight between the Soviet Union and Germany in the Second World…
Swedes in America (1943)
1943 documentary with Ingrid Bergman.
The Silent Village (1943)
The true story of the massacre of a small Czech village by the Nazis is retold as if it happened in Wales.
Undercover: How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines (1943)
A training film for OSS agents who are to be dropped behind enemy lines.
Why We Fight: The Nazis Strike (1943)
The second film of Frank Capra’s Why We Fight propaganda film series. It introduces Germany as a nation whose aggressive ambitions began in 1863 with Otto von Bismarck and the…
The Tree in a Test Tube (1942)
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are stopped by narrator Pete Smith for the purpose of showing the audience how much wood and wood by-products the average person carries.
Why We Fight: Prelude to War (1942)
Prelude to War was the first film of Frank Capra’s Why We Fight propaganda film series, commissioned by the Pentagon and George C. Marshall. It was made to convince American…
A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound (1940)
This short documentary, presented and directed by MGM sound engineer Douglas Shearer, goes behind the scenes to look at how the sound portion of a talking picture is created.
Baptism of Fire (1940)
The Legend of the Luftwaffe began in Poland, the first victim of Hitler’s blitzkrieg. Combat cameramen filmed the aerial campaign, showing preparations for flight, massive air strikes, and the appalling…
The City (1939)
A prescient documentary about city planning, which presents idyllic suburbs and nuclear families as a solution to the chaos, poverty and social decay of industrialized inner cities.
The 400 Million (1939)
The 400 million people of China are heirs to a great civilization, as their pagodas and stone lions can attest. But they are under attack from the Japanese. Civilian refugees…
Artie Shaw’s Class in Swing (1939)
This film is less a typical musical short and more like an educational film. It consists of a narrator describing the music, composition and style of a big band.
Olympia: Part Two – Festival of Beauty (1938)
Commissioned to make a propaganda film about the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, director Leni Riefenstahl created a celebration of the human form. Where the two-part epic’s first half, Festival…
Olympia: Part One – Festival of the Nations (1938)
Commissioned to make a propaganda film about the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, director Leni Riefenstahl created a celebration of the human form. This first half of her two-part film…
Making Fashion (1938)
Borneo (1937)
Expeditions in Borneo by Mr. and Mrs. Martin Johnson show the terrain, flora, fauna and lifestyle of Borneo as the Johnsons search for a huge orangutan.
The Spanish Earth (1937)
A propaganda film made during the Spanish Civil War in support of the Republican government against the rebellion by Gen. Francisco Franco’s forces who were backed by Nazi Germany and…
Night Mail (1936)
This documentary short examines the special train on which mail is sorted, dropped and collected on the run, and delivered in Scotland on the overnight run from Euston, London to…
Day of Freedom (1935)
Filming of the performance show the Deutsche Wehrmacht (German Army) made during the Reichsparteitag of the NSDAP in Nurnberg 1935. Showing the readiness and the will of the newly build…
Triumph of the Will (1935)
A showcase of German chancellor and Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler at the 1934 Nuremberg Rally.
Los Angeles: ‘Wonder City of the West’ (1935)
This Traveltalk series short visits Los Angeles, California. In one of the highlights of the film, narrator James FitzPatrick visits the Disney cartoon studio and shakes hands with Walt Disney.
Man of Aran (1934)
A documentary on the life of the people of the Aran Islands, who were believed to contain the essence of the ancient Irish life, represented by a pure uncorrupted peasant…
Jazz a la Cuba (1933)
One of the short little films featuring Don Aspiazu of his own orchestra, a good example of the style of Cubano jazz in the 1920’s and 1930’s, combined with some…
In the Wake of the Bounty (1933)
The film explores the story of the Bounty and is based on the 1932 novel Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall.
90° South (1933)
This is a documentary of Captain R.F. Scott’s second Antarctic expedition, begun in 1910. The British, under Scott, attempted to reach the South Pole before Roald Amundsen’s Norwegians. Scott’s writings…