21st Biennial Convention of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance
(1951),
documentary of the civil rights group’s five-day conference in the Bay Area, made at the behest of attorney Y.C. Hong, the alliance president
(Huntington Library).
Adirondack
(1950),
early Ansco color footage of the Adirondacks shot by hiker and conservationist Elizabeth “Fessy” Washburn
(Adirondack Forty-Sixers).
Alaska Bush
(1920s),
footage of an Arctic hunting expedition led by Harold McCracken, the prolific nature writer and Western art historian
(Buffalo Bill Center of the West).
(1973–75),
home movie of celebrations sponsored by the Tavern Guild of San Francisco, the association of gay bar owners which became one of the first gay business organizations in the United States
(ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives).
Blessed Are the Peacemakers
(ca.1956),
interview with Rev. Martin Niemöller, an anti-war activist and concentration camp survivor
(Swarthmore College).
Bless Their Little Hearts
(1984),
Billy Woodberry’s study, filmed by Charles Burnett, of a struggling African American father in Los Angeles who cannot find a job
(UCLA Film & Television Archive).
(1945),
Oskar Fischinger’s study inspired by the music of Johann Sebastian Bach
(Center for Visual Music).
Country Music U.S.A.
(ca. 1972),
narrated orientation to Nashville’s country music scene that greeted visitors to the Country Music Hall of Fame in the mid-1970s
(Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum).
(1929–38),
edited footage of special events at one of the oldest American educational institutions for children with hearing loss
(Rochester School for the Deaf).
(1983),
Curtis Royston’s portrait of New York artists Lisa Fox, Jim Self, Norman Penn, Curtis Royston, and Madonna Ciccone before her breakthrough to stardom
(New York University).
(1957),
portrait of the county’s progressive K–12 school system, created by filmmakers Vic Weals and Max Chastain for the local Board of Education
(Knox County Public Library).
Lady of the Dugout
(1918),
Western starring reformed outlaw Al Jennings, playing himself
(Library of Congress).
(1973),
home movie compilations by Harold Call that were shown by the Mattachine Society, one of the country’s first gay rights organizations
(ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives).
Meshie: Child of a Chimpanzee
(1930–34),
home movies of the chimpanzee raised by museum curator Harry Raven alongside his children
(American Museum of Natural History).
Mexican Filibusters
(1911),
Kalem adventure in which a fearless pair of Mexican American arms smugglers help revolutionists
(Museum of Modern Art).
The Mirror
(1950),
award-winning amateur thriller by Arthur H. Smith about a mirror which reveals the future
(Center for Home Movies).
Play film
Money at Work
(1933),
depression-era short sponsored by the American Bankers Association to restore confidence in small-town banks
(Hunterdon County Historical Society).
Mr. Story
(1971),
portrait of an 88-year-old resident of Bloomingburg, New York, sketched by DeeDee Halleck and Anita Thacher
(New York Public Library).
Norma Willard Collection
(1921),
promotional film demonstrating the assembly of the Skene sectional boat
(Northeast Historic Film).
Not By Might
(1950s),
interview with pacifist A.J. Muste, a leader of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, about nonviolent action and social change
(Swarthmore College).
(1915),
fragment of a Western docudrama in which lawman Bill Tilghman, playing himself, captures the Wild Bunch
(Library of Congress).
Peanut Picking, Ichauway Plantation
(1942),
home movies of sharecroppers on the estate of Robert W. Woodruff, then president of the Coca-Cola Company
(Emory University).
Quetzalcoatl
(1961),
documentary about the fresco created for the college by Mexican artist José Clemente Orozco
(Dartmouth College).
Play film
Roaches’ Lullaby
(1973),
humorous documentary by Eliot Noyes and Claudia Weill in which three zealous New York roach-haters share extermination techniques
(New York Public Library).
Play film
(1970),
student-made documentary about the May 1970 strike at the university following the Kent State shootings
(Portland State University).
Play film
Spying
(1978),
Joe Gibbons’s experimental film blurring the boundaries between public and private space
(Bard College).
The Tourists
(1912),
Biograph comedy set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, featuring Mabel Normand
(Museum of Modern Art).
Twenty-Three Films by Stuart Sherman
(1977–93),
a key figure in the New York theater scene, whose work often involved the witty transformation of everyday objects
(Anthology Film Archives).
Twin Peaks Tunnel
(1917),
sponsored film celebrating the construction of the trolley tunnel that opened settlement of western San Francisco
(Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum).
Play film