Brighton Street Scene

Footage of the German airship Hansa over Copenhagen.

A hunter and his native helpers set up a trap, then taunt and shoot a panther. Next we see the locals skin the animal.

On 4 September Frederick Albert Cook (1865-1940) arrived in Copenhagen on the ship 'Hans Egede'. He received a hero's welcome as the first man to set foot on the North Pole. He was greeted by the king, and given an honorary doctorate at the University of Copenhagen. Only a few days later, however, his endeavour was questioned, and in December the University rejected Cook's documentation. Carl Th. Dreyer is seen as one of the journalists taking notes. (DFI)

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.

Danish documentary following different locations and situations in Greenland anno 1914. It comes around settlements, hunters, steamboats, umiaks, a kayak race, and a football match. Photographed by W. Thalbitzer.

Danish documentary filmed in Greenland. Shows a lot of Greenlanders, skiing, hunting for birds, seals and whales, and ice fishing. Filmed by Dr. Leif Folke.

Danish documentary that follows fishermen in Greenland, from the time when fishing got industrialized. The filmcrew also captures ships fighting the thick ice, meet some locals and some hunters. Also, look out for a 'cameo' by the legendary Danish polar explorer Knud Rasmussen, who played a big part in exploring Greenland. He died short after in 1933 from food poisoning. Produced by H.B. Film.

The first woman to appear in front of an Edison motion picture camera and possibly the first woman to appear in a motion picture within the United States. In the film, Carmencita is recorded going through a routine she had been performing at Koster & Bial's in New York since February 1890.

A group of Macedonian women are shown hard at work.

In 1975, French Oscar-winning director Pierre-Dominique Gaisseau travelled to Panama to film the Kuna community, where women are sacred. Gaisseau, his wife and their little girl Akiko lived with the Kunas for a year. The project eventually ran out of funds and a bank confiscated the reels. Fifty years later, the Kunas are still waiting to discover “their” film, now a legend passed down from the elders to the new generation. One day, a hidden copy is found in Paris…

Jardins du Luxembourg

Hutton's most impressive work ... the filmmaker's style takes on an assertive edge that marks his maturity. The landscape has a majesty that serves to reflect the meditative interiority of the artist independent of any human presence. ... New York is framed in the dark nights of a lonely winter. The pulse of street life finds no role in NEW YORK PORTRAIT; the dense metropolitan population and imposing urban locale disappear before Hutton's concern for the primal force of a universal presence. With an eye for the ordinary, Hutton can point his camera toward the clouds finding flocks of birds, or turn back to the simple objects around his apartment struggling to elicit a personal intuition from their presence. ... Hutton finds a harmonious, if at times melancholy, rapport with the natural elements that retain their grace in spite of the city's artificial environment. The city becomes a ghost town that the filmmaker transforms into a vehicle reflecting his personal mood.

Silent film showcasing hypnosis and its effects.

Everyday wintertime life of Sámi reindeer herder Inka Länta and her family, mingling authentic and fictionalized takes.

A train speeds through the country on its way to Berlin, then gradually slows down as it pulls into the station. It is very early in the morning, about 5:00 AM, and the great city is mostly quiet. But before long there are some signs of activity, and a few early risers are to be seen on the streets. Soon the new day is well underway. It's just a typical day in Berlin, but a day full of life and energy.

Madame Ondine performs a serpentine dance surrounded by big cats.

People without Hands

An early British Kinemacolor short, in which delicate tones and shades of color are beautifully reproduced in examples of highly cultivated sweet pea flowers.

Women getting onto a rickshaw.

This scene is a part of the very first film shot produced by the Manaki Brothers. Despina, the Janaki and Milton Manaki's grandmother, was recorded weaving in one high-angle shot. For no apparent reason, the first shot made in Macedonia, in the Balkans in fact, made by these two cinematography pioneers, contains peculiar symbolics: at the moment when the grandmother Despina spins the weaving wheel, film starts rolling in our country.