So you'd like to assist us in uploading films for free access on the Internet Archive?   Your donation can make this happen.  To nominate a film, visit our AFA chronological Film Show pages and pick a film, or easier still, pick from the list below, of favorite films from the past that are already eligible.  Choose from Animated, Art & Avant-Garde, Business, Education, & Industry Documentaries, Dramatic, Ethnographic (African, American Indian, Latino, Middle East),  Music & Dance, and Science films.  Please read our Caveat at the bottom of this page regarding condition and availability.  View the films that have already been digitized and uploaded.

Animated Films

‘Circus’ (1959) 11m, dir. Willis Simms. Fifty-nine junior high students combined to paint figures, backgrounds, and animation for art teacher Simms, with music by music teacher Robert Clark.  A charming, wonderful film.

'High Blood Pressure:a Game of Chance'  1978, 10m, dir. Sid Milstein.  Almost entire film is Philip Stapp's animation, with an exit piece by Dr. Harriet Dustan, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic.

'High Blood Pressure: If Only It Hurt a Little' (1978) 25m, dir. Sid Milstein.  Uses animation by Philip Stapp and two and mimes (Claude Kipnis & Rita Nachtman) to describe high blood pressure and tell how it can be treated. Neat history of study of blood and pressure, stethoscope, etc., with music by Oscar Brand.

'High Blood Pressure: What it Is, What it Can Do to You' (1979) 10m, dir. Sid Milstein.  Wonderful animated sequences by Philip Stapp highlight this short film.

'High Blood Pressure: What you Can Do About It' (1978) 15m, dir. Sid Milstein.  Almost the entire film consists of s Philip Stapp's animation, with an exit piece by Dr. Harriet Dustan, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic.

Art & Avant-Garde Films

‘Antonio Gaudí’ (1965) 30m, prod. Ira Latour.  This film, in beautiful color, is a tribute to the work of the Catalan architect Gaudi, featuring many of his buildings, and Parc Guell as well.  LaTour has written a wonderful narrative on the making of this historical film, at www.iralatour.com/writings.cfm?action=show&id=9

‘Color’ (EB,1954) 6m, dir. Paul Burnford. Blink, and this entirely too-short film goes away. But in the brief six minutes, magical things occur: broad swaths of abstract colors and shapes coat the screen, to an equally abstract soundtrack, dissonantly played by Werner Bracher moving an object across the piano strings to create an autoharp-like ambiance. It can be argued that films like this formed a strong foundation for the psychedelic era.

‘Creation: Artist at Work’ (1969) 15m, uncredited director. Shows prize - winning Hungarian glass designer Erzsébet Szabó creating a large glass vase from its conception on paper through many trials to the form that finally pleases her.  Wonderful experimental musical score by an uncredited composer-musician. We become involved in the process of creation as she guides and encourages her two skilled assistants wh o blow and press the glass into shape.

'Doña Rosa: Potter of Coyotepec' (1959) 10m, prod. Orville Goldner.  Beautiful color film on Doña Rosa de Nieto, from San Bartolo Coyotepec, Oaxaca, Mexico,  showing her making an olla, and firing her creations in an underground kiln. This film is in the process of being uploaded.

‘Mudflat’ (1980) 30m, dir. Richard A. Reynolds. Years ago, artists would walk around the muck at the edge of the Bay in Emeryville, and build loads of sculpture out there on the flats, created from driftwood and found objects that drivers would enjoy as they motored south on the old Highway 17. Grabbing material off someone else’s work was considered fair game and part of the fun, and contributed a kinetic dynamic to the ongoing display. Now the place is a park, and the sculptures are gone, but you can see what it used to be like in this neat and funny documentary by Reynolds, augmented by Erich Seibert’s wonderful musique-concrète/time-lapse sequences.

'Posada' (1964) 14m, dir. José Pavón.  José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913) was an important Mexican satirist, known for his engravings and broadsides, pillorying the excesses of the regime of Pofirio Díaz.  His graphical invention, the Calavera de la Catrina, has become iconic in Mexico, portrayed in print and sculpture.  This film provides a history of the artist and his times. This film is in the process of being uploaded.

'Railway with a Heart of Gold' (1965) 15m, dir. Carson Davidson.  An account of the Talyllyn Railroad, a historic narrow - gauge slate carrier in northern Wales, and its operation by interested inhabitants in the area who saved it from being sold for scrap.

'Village Potters of Onda' (1966) 27m, dir. Edith Sperry.  Shows the activities and ways of life of Japanese folk potters in Onda, a romote village in the mountains of North Central Kyushu, Japan. Presents a detailed account of traditional pottery - making techniques which have remained relatively unchanged for more than250 years. 9 families in village make pottery, including Sakamoto, Yunase (sp?), Kokakuro (sp?). Techniques originated in Korea. Use a total of 7 glazes, kiln is fired every two months, uphill stoking of progressive kiln chambers

Business, Education, & Industry

‘First Fifty: EBE's Golden Anniversary Retrospective’ (1978) 20m, prod. Don Hoffman. Frankly, Encyclopaedia Britannica made a lion’s share of the best academic films in the genre, and many of them are as timeless today as when they were made. This wonderful promotional film, we suspect, was used by EB salespeople as a gift for important customers, and also provides a good historical record of how EB saw itself as a contributor to the history of educational film. It’s narrated by Jim Brill, who narrated many of EB’s pre-1955 titles. Along the way, we’re treated to excerpts from some of EB’s best-selling titles, including some of its better films from the 1950s (nearly all of them by John Barnes).

'IBM 3650' (1974) 30m, dir. Phil Coulter).  A marketing film produced for for IBM , the film shows the IBM 3650 Retail Store System, which was one of the first fully integrated, bar code based, sales and inventory systems.  Several large components were part of the complete package, including tag printers, readers and mass storage.

‘Informers I’ (1970?) 30m, dir. Jonathan Lucas. This was one of three films made in a series that explored the common theme of using paid and unpaid informants to elicit information leading to the arrest of a suspect. Here, when bikini-clad buxom bombshell Joyce Mandel (known today by her pin-up name of Alexis Love, as was determined by your AFA research team) finds she’s been burgled, she jiggles --- I mean runs --- up the stairs to heavingly --- I mean breathlessly --- call Redondo Beach's finest for assistance. They’re there so fast that you’d swear they’ve got the address mammar --oops, I mean memorized. She’s lost her chest --- I mean chess set, which is "the only thing she got from her marriage". The cops eventually get around to visiting their favorite snitch "Gabby", who as played by Al Dennis, is the best and funniest actor in the whole series.

Modern Business Machines for Writing, Duplicating, and Recording  (1948?) 20m, uncredited director.  An intriguing historical film, demonstrating many expensive business machines found in modern offices of the era, including electromatic and Chinese typewriters and machines for filming, stenciling, folding and lithographing. Among the machines shown are Diebold's Flofilm microfiche recorder, the Fileomatic Desk, the Pierce Electronic Wire Recorder, the Soundscriber with plastic disk, the Elliott Stencil Machine with Graphotype machine, the Davidson Duplicator for litho printing, the Davidson Folder for letters, the Varityper, the Autotypist Perforator, the IBM Chinese character typewriter, and speed typist Stella Pajunas, using an IBM Model A Electric Typewriter, who set a one-hour typing speed record in 1946 of 140 net five-stroke words per minute. More on Pajunas at www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/modelb/modelb_4509PH04.html 

'Newspaper: Behind the Scenes' (1970) 15m, uncredited director.  Shows the San Jose Mercury News in all elements of production.

'San Jose 70/71' (1971) 27m, unknown director. This defines the concept of 'lost' film. The credits having been stripped off somewhere in the distant past, no one seems to know who produced this film, but it's brightly optimistic tone is indicative of the youthful energy of this city of only 500,000 people. Here we visit City Hall, with Ron James as mayor, the impossibly young future mayors Norman Mineta and Janet Gray Hayes, and their Council counterparts Virginia Schaeffer, Joe Colla, Walter Hays, Kurt Gross, and the ever-testy Dave Goglio. A city with a future! The redevelopment agency is hard at work here, bringing you the spanking new Park Center Plaza development, and the highly touted, remarkable Performing Arts Center, just beginning construction, which will finally put San Jose on the cultural map of the nation.

Documentaries

‘Baja California: the Pacific Coast of Mexico’ (1949) 12m, prod. Silas Johnson. Johnson is another "lost filmmaker, who worked out of Coronado, California. This film boasts beautiful color footage of old Baja, before Pemex stations lined the Cuota and Libre. Hunt travels from Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas, enchantingly stopping at the waterless village of Magdalena Bay, Tortuga Bay, and the vineyards at Santo Tomás. This film is in the process of being uploaded.

'Bertrand Russell Discusses Mankind's Future' (1960) 14m, director uncredited.  In an interview with Woodrow Wyatt, Lord Russell envisions an organized and static world. He also points out man's capability, through education and self - knowledge, to abolish war, poverty and disease.

‘Crisis in Levittown’ (1957) 25m. dir. Lee Bobker/Lester Becker. The Black upper middle-class Myers family moves into all-white Levittown, PA in August, 1957, and are snubbed and mistreated, in this powerful landmark documentary showcasing racism in the United States. This film is in the process of being uploaded.

‘Ohrid Express’ (1965) 12m, dir. Robert Legrande/Jean Dasque. We join the idyllic world of conductor Petra Mihalowski, whose slow, narrow-gauge Macedonian train was built in 1895, and runs from Presak to Orhid. Here are charming scenes of laundry washed by the lake, the soapy water heated in large copper kettles.

‘Pineapple Culture’ (1955) 10m, prod. Paul Hoefler.  Workers are shown planting young plants, bent over and using a since-outlawed short-handled hoe, to the tune of 5-7,000 plants per day, and all the narrator has to say about it is that eventually, machines will do the work. Some of the rows in the film bear the words "Del Monte", leaving us to wonder if the filmmaker was given an expense-paid holiday in exchange for some PR work, with enough shots left over for an ed film

'Rough Road to Panama' (1947) 37m. prod. Sullivan C. Richardson.  The Sullivan C. Richardson Pan American Highway Expedition, 1940-1941. The first of a two-part series describing the first successful attempt to drive an automobile from the United States to the tip of South America the companion is was "Rugged Road to Cape Horn." Here, Richardson and two companions (one of whom is Arnold Whitaker) explore the route that would eventually become the Pan American Highway. In many cases their Plymouth sedan is towed by men and burros through difficult terrain. On the way, they visit Mexico City and meet President Miguel Alemán, , Monte Albán, Like Atitlán, Guatelama, hat weaving in El Salvador.

'VD' (1972) 26m. dir. Richard Leacock.  Presents interviews with actual patients and physicians in which symptoms and treatment are explained to dispel much of the mystery surrounding venereal diseases. Shows Project Venus, a teen-run hotline in Philadelphia, and other clinics, including one in Boulder, CO, and actual examinations. According to director Leacock, the man describing his NSU symptoms is filmmaker Stan Brakhage.

‘Whales and Whalermen’ (1970?) 15m, photographed by Dick Reucassel, prod. Paul Hoefler. As with many Hoefler-produced films, we’re left to wonder what percentage of the film involved him directly. What we can say is that, in the middle of the "save the whales" business of the 70’s, Hoefler released this film largely laudatory of the whaling industry, possibly the gruesomest, most horrifying whale hunting film ever made.


Dramatic Themes

'People Along the Mississippi' (1952) 20m, dir. Gordon Weisenborn, prod. John Barnes & Gordon Weisenborn. As far as we have been able to determine, this film is the first nationally distributed educational film to embrace the interaction of races and cultures in the United States.  Ostensibly a child's film, it's the story of a boy in Minnesota who builds a toy boat and sends it on a journey southward along the Mississippi River. Meandering through scenery beautifully photographed by Barnes, the boat serves as a metaphor for the integration of the American cultures; the boat is found by a Chippewa boy who sends it along its way now accompanied by a small totem pole, it sails along farmlands settled by Swedes, and in the most poignant moment of the film, falls into the hands of a young African-American boy in the deep south. He shows it to his white erstwhile playmate, who has grown to the stage of avoiding playing with blacks. They are brought together again through this new mutual interest, an event which, one imagines, must have prompted thousands of classroom discussions about the nature of race relations. The strengths of the film are in the mythic story line, the photography, and the inherent historical interest of a film which was the first to have made a statement which even now is powerful and important.

Ethnographic American Indian

‘Hands of María’ (1968) 15m, dir. J. Donald McIntyre María Martinez was a well-known and historically significant Jemez potter from San Ildefonso, New Mexico, whose work is in most major southwestern museum pottery collections. Here, she is seen building large pieces by building coiling ropes of clay. An unusually large percentage of lost films are based on southwestern or American Indian themes, perhaps reflecting the fact that, from a school curriculum perspective, they are no longer the ethnicity du jour... This film is in the process of being uploaded.

Ethnographic European

‘Anastenaria’ (1968) 20m, dir. Peter Haramis. Dionysian worship in modern Greece, with lyra, drum, and fire dancing. Anastenaria is a form of worship taking place on May 21, sanctioned by the Greek Orthodox Church. Here we experience the slaughter and communal eating of a calf, a procession and the final initiation dance.

'Farmer-Fishermen' (1948) 15m, dir. Ronald Craigen.  Narrated in the first-person, a boy's narration of fishing culture in Norway.  The boy and father return to farm during warm months, and he and his sister tend flocks for the summer in a mountain hut, away from their parents.  Many other adolescents do the same, making for great camaraderie in the mountains. Net mending, potato planting, weaving, etc. Scenes from Bergen, and village of Floro. A remarkably beautiful film.

'On Mediterranean Shores (Southern Greece)' (1948) 20m, dir. John Ferno, photographed by Richard Leacock.  Depicts life on the shores of the Mediterranean and trade on the sea itself. Portrays the Corinth Canal, Kephellania, Pireaus, andAthens, as well as travel through the Ionian and Aegean Seas. Shows Costitution Square and Arcopolis.

Ethnographic Latino

'El Cumpleaños de Pepita' (1957) 14m, unknown director. Meant to be shown to students learning Spanish, this film transcends the didactic, and provides a glimpse into the Mexico that has, in many places, all too quickly disappeared. Pepita and her uncle travel to Lake Pátzcuaro, get their pictures taken by an itinerant photographer, see wonderful dancers, and attend a birthday party. A sweet, wonderful film. (In Spanish) This film is in the process of being uploaded.

‘Fabricantes Mexicanas de Ollas' (1962) 9m, prod. Stuart Roe. A wonderful film, depicting the making of ollas, large earthen jars, featuring Carmen Portillo of the Mayan village of Ubalama, firing clay above ground, utilizing branches and old boards for fuel. This film is in the process of being uploaded.

‘Fisher Folk of Lake Pátzcuaro’ (1951) 16m, dir. Ralph Adams. The Taracsan Indians, living on the island of Janítzio, are shown fishing with their butterfly nets, in a rare and damaged film we’re hoping to completely restore, when finances permit. This film is in the process of being uploaded.

‘Guadalajara Family’ (1958) 13m, photographed by Willard C. Hahn. Another Hoefler production, focusing on an upper-class family, military school, garden parties, etc. They enjoy life at a pristine lake nearby, and enjoy themselves and the rustic beauty, where father intends to build a development. This film is in the process of being uploaded.

‘Maya Are People’ (1951) 22m. dir. Les Mitchel. Many explorer-adventurer hosts of historical/cultural films viewed their subjects as "objects" (e.g. C. Ernest Cadle and Carveth Wells), their colonialist attitudes seeping precariously through the safety-film. Not so the wonderful and forgotten Les Mitchel, who arrives in the Lacandon area of the Yucatan, shows the chief Obregon K’in (of Agua Azul village, Palenque) how to fire a pistol, takes him on a plane-ride to view his ancestral ruins at Palenque. Much of this magnificent film was shot at Lacanha Chan Sayab. Viewers can find much to like about this filmmaker-adventurer, lost to history. Overly-sensitive individuals will be put-off, no doubt at Mitchel’s politically-incorrect use of cigarette-as-tool, burning the leave of a jungle plant to show its reflex to heat. At the end of the film, Mitchel delivers a heartfelt plea to save the culture from encroachment. All our attempts at finding any information on the filmmaker have failed. This film is in the process of being uploaded.

‘Maguey: Plant of a Thousand Uses’ (1952) 14m, dir. Ralph Adams. Adams is a filmmaker whose life and work appear to be completely unknown today, as we have conducted a fruitless search to obtain biographical and filmographic information. He covered a breadth of territory, and we suspect that he might have made dozens of films on Mexican themes. His narration is not the finest, but he was a very good cinematographer, and apparently insisted upon superior print materials, as his color is exceptional for the era. Here, he describes the myriad uses of this interesting plant, including fences, paper, tequila, pulque, needle and thread and rope. This film is in the process of being uploaded.

‘Mexican Ceramics’ (1966) 18m, prod. Reino Randall and Richard Townsend. This highly informative, well-made film focused on four geograophical areas: 1) Coyotepec, 2) Metepec (the art of Timotéo), 3) Tonalá (the work of Señores Palacios and Galván), 4) Puebla. Here we see low-fire pottery making as it was done by primitive methods before the potter's wheel, and the manufacture of the beautiful blue and white and polychrome high-fire pottery of Puebla.  This film is in the process of being uploaded.

‘Pottery Workers of Oaxaca’ (1952) 14m, dir. Ralph Adams. Adams features the legendary Zapotec potter Doña Rosa Real de Nieto, and her traditional technique of below-ground firing. This film is in the process of being uploaded.


Music & Dance Films

'The Fiddler' (1975) 20m, dir. Marshall Riggan.  This amazing film showcases an elderly East Texas fiddle maker and his wife.  After his hand-crafted fiddle is finished, we discover that he's an amazing country fiddler, too.   This 'lost' film was produced by Riggan for a religious organization.  Later, under new management, the organization apparently decided that the film was more profane than sacred, and discarded or destroyed all remaining prints.

‘Jose Iturbi: Part II’ (1946) 10m, dir. Reginald LeBorg. Piano and harpsichord, the latter a two-manual unit in a beautiful interpretation of a piece by JP Rameau.

'King Kamehameha' and 'Holo Holo Kaa' (1947) 8m.  These beautiful black and white soundies feature the small orchestra of Lani McIntyre, and the Hawaii Islanders who performed at New York City's Astor Hotel in the 1940s.  They are masterpieces of Hawaiian Swing, with snappy Hawaiian steel guitar breaks and pretty hula dancers, wonderful and rare period pieces.

'Music from Oil Drums' (1956) 20m, dir. Toshi & Peter Seeger. Long unavailable, this film presents Pete Seeger (who wrote a manual for playing steel drums) visiting steel drum makers and players in Trinidad. We found the process of tuning the pans particularly interesting.

‘Paderewski: Lizst’s Second Hungarian Rhapsody’ (1938) 10m. dir. Lothar Mendes fom the film 'Moonlight Sonata', a fact that was uncovered by noted cellist and musical film historian Terry King. We wish to counter the rumor that your ciné16 staff will be conducting a hum-along of this well-known piece.

‘Sascha Gorodnitzki, Pianist’ (1946) 11m, dir. Israel Berman. Need we say more than Chopin’s Waltz in E minor, the Mazurka in A minor, and the Paganini-Lizst ‘La Campanella’?

‘Trio’ (1953?) 30m, dir. Irving Reis or Jules Dassin. Landmark musical performances were a staple of early television, but unfortunately many of the early examples have been destroyed. This extremely rare film documents cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, violinist Jascha Heifetz, and pianist Artur Rubenstein. Somewhat stilted in the way only early television can be, it nevertheless showcases the technique and personalities of three of the 20th century’s greatest musicians.

'Yehudi Menuhin’ (1948) 10m, dir. Paul Gordon. Although Geoff's Grandma Shura was the Menuhin family housekeeper, we never got the opportunity to listen to the violinist through the garden fence like she did. Here is an outstanding performance of Gypsy Airs, opus 20, by Sarasate, with Adolf Baller on piano, so we can see on film what we missed out on.


Science and Nature Films

‘Coulomb's Law’ (1959) 25m, dir. Richard Leacock. Here, manic Princeton professor Eric Rogers hosts, continually removing and replacing his eyeglasses, ordering around lab assistants --- he forcefully breaks a glass test tube in the hands of an assistant to demonstrate the inelasticity of water --- and furiously pounds equations on a blackboard (Leacock says the scribblings must have lasted 45 minutes, in what must be one of the more necessary cuts in the history of educational film.) Rogers finally conducts an experiment with a young girl, placing her in a metal cage, which he then charges with electricity, demonstrating through the inverse square law that his assistant (Leacock’s trusting daughter Elspeth) is not harmed by the charge.

Ornithology Special:  We have a number of short bird films by directors such as  Olin Sewall Pettingill Jr., Murl Deusing, and Dan Gibson.  Contact us for the bird(s) of your choice, and we'll recommend a film that is appropriate.

Caveats: 

1)  Many of these films are old, some may be the only print of a given film that we can find anywhere.  While we strive to have the best print possible, it's not uncommon for a film to have splices or other damage, including missing titles, occasionally.  We can correct some -- but not all -- red color shifts.

2)  We have made every attempt to include films that are in the public domain or are out of distribution.  In the case of the latter, we will have attempted to identify current copyright holder.  If we cannot, we have decided to move ahead anyway and put the film up on the Internet Archive, as it's not uncommon for companies making these films to be out of business, and/or the filmmakers deceased.  Occasionally, a copyright holder could resurface, and send us a "Cease and Desist" request, requesting that the film be removed from the Internet Archive.  In such a case, when provided with proof, we will honor the C&D request, and remove the film.

Copyright (c) 2008 Geoff Alexander,  All rights reserved.     Contact Us