Histoire(s) du Cinéma 4b: The Signs Among Us

A stationary camera placed amidships looks toward the round end of a 10- or 12-foot boiler that's been loaded onto the open deck. Three men climb down from atop the boiler and then remove their ladder. Four or five other workers tie the boiler down to the deck. Their pace is leisurely. In the background is a busy harbor.

A stationary camera looks across Burgundy's river Sâone toward a small military encampment. Four horsemen enter the water in the foreground, each riding his horse as it swims across toward camp or leading it by the bridle as they swim

An ostrich pulls a cart carrying young women wearing ostrich-feather hats.

Two babies are shown seated next to each other, in high chairs, apparently enjoying themselves. Suddenly one snatches a toy from the other and they indulge in hair-pulling.

A male lion, right next to bars that are about 6 or 8 inches apart, keenly watches a uniformed zoo attendant toss small morsels of food into the cage. The lion alternates between finding the food on the cage floor and reaching through the bars to swipe at the man, who stays alarmingly close to the beast. In the background are the large rocks and brick wall at the back of the lion's habitat.

An avant-garde sonic and visual reediting of a short clip from the classic 1962 film "To Kill a Mockingbird".

A group of kids play in a stream.

Hilarious moments from American-style football games.

A tale of blood, sex, spit, spunk and cult recruitment. “This Is the Salivation Army” was, in his own words, a queer pagan punk publication produced by Scott Treleaven from 1996-1999. The film tracks the rise and demise of Treleaven's zine and the strange cult it spawned.

After receiving an anonymous phone call, the cops pick up a young woman who is wandering around alone in the desert. She tells them that she was given a lift by a stranger, who abandoned her there. Or are there more sides to one story? Part of a series of scare movies called Under the Law, distributed by Disney in the 1970s.

A collaborator since 2002 (Notre Musique), Fabrice Aragno did not want to make a documentary ‘on’ but ‘with’ Jean-Luc Godard. The latter decided on a mathematical approach. The TV station asked for 26 minutes, and so Godard suggested they make 26 one-minute sequences, and have 4 shots in each sequence, all recycled from his work.

A montage of the night-life of Piccadilly Circus across the hours, from early evening to the last lingering passers-by.

The Life of the Butterfly

Behind-the-scenes footage showing Alice Guy directing an early sound film.

On a winter's day, a woman stretches near a window then sits in a bathtub of water. She's happy. Her lover is nearby; there are close ups of her face, her pregnant belly, and his hands caressing her. She gives birth: we see the crowning of the baby's head, then the birth itself; we watch a pair of hands tie off and cut the umbilical cord. With the help of the attending hands, the mother expels the placenta. The infant, a baby girl, nurses. We return from time to time to the bath scene. By the end, dad's excited; mother and daughter rest. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

The last remaining film of Le Prince's LPCCP Type-1 MkII single-lens camera is a sequence of frames of his son, Adolphe Le Prince, playing a diatonic button accordion. It was recorded on the steps of the house of Joseph Whitley, Adolphe's grandfather.

Documentary short demonstrating the process of building a medium bomber for the United States Army Air Corps.

A documentary about the making of L'argent, the epic silent film directed by Marcel L'Herbier. The film shows the details of many of the more complicated moving camera shots.

General Henry H. 'Hap' Arnold summarizes U.S. Army and Army Air Force activities in the Pacific Theater of World War II in this short documentary film. Air attacks on Japanese held islands, the rescue of American troops under fire by the Japanese, and successful bombing missions are depicted.

The saga of the Normandie is recounted from her life as a luxury liner, the horrific fire that nearly destroyed her, and her resuscitation to join in the war effort. A John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short.