Screen Snapshots (Series 1, No. 20)

This equine odyssey travels such little-known turf as General George Patton's involvement in a daredevil World War II coup called "Operation Cowboy" that rescued 500 of Austria's famous white Lipizzans. It is a stunning behind-the-scenes production on the Spanish Riding School of Vienna, spiced with legends even linked to the prophet Mohammed.

Puños de barrio fino

This "Theater of Life" documentary was produced in cooperation with the International Committee, YMCA. It focuses on the work of Dr. Spencer Hatch, as he shows residents of small Mexican villages how to make their land better able to grow food and make them more independent.

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.

Hymn of the Nations, originally titled Arturo Toscanini: Hymn of the Nations, is a 1944 film directed by Alexander Hammid, which features the "Inno delle nazioni," a patriotic work for tenor soloist, chorus, and orchestra, composed by Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi in the early 1860s. (For this musical work, Verdi utilized the national anthems of several European nations.) In December 1943, Arturo Toscanini filmed a performance of this music for inclusion in an Office of War Information documentary about the role of Italian-Americans in aiding the Allies during World War II. Toscanini added a bridge passage to include arrangements of "The Star-Spangled Banner" for the United States and "The Internationale" for the Soviet Union and the Italian partisans. Joining Toscanini in the filmed performance in NBC Studio 8-H, were tenor Jan Peerce, the Westminster Choir, and the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2010.

The short film is a montage of sped up clips of The Ringling Brothers Circus in action set to a musical track. The film is separated into four segments, each segment which focuses on different acts within the circus. The later segments often incorporate clips from earlier segments, mostly as background to the featured acts. The speed of the clips match the tempo of the soundtrack music.

Documentary short film depicting the work of the United Service Organizations (USO) in providing recreational and morale-boosting services for American troops.

After several farmyard analogies featuring chicks and calves, the well-spoken narrator and director of the film, Winifred Holmes, considers the subject of girls and how they reach adulthood and readiness for the 'important job of motherhood.

A profile of the more than 2,000 Belgian refugees in the fishing port of Brixham.

The theme of death is heavily interwoven in Smolder’s surreal salute to Belgian painter Antoine Wiertz, a Hieronymus Bosch-type artist whose work centered on humans in various stages in torment, as depicted in expansive canvases with gore galore. Smolders has basically taken a standard documentary and chopped it up, using quotes from the long-dead artist, and periodic statements by a historian (Smolders) filling in a few bits of Wiertz’ life.

A beautiful and vital film that tells the story of a young woman's fight with death.

Director Umberto Lenzi, writer Ernesto Gastaldi and stars Ray Lovelock & Gino Santercole discuss the making of Lenzi's Almost Human.

An interview of Umberto Lenzi discussing the making of his film Almost Human.

Lost short film.

A story about the first Serbian Olympian who won bronze medal at the first Olympic games in 1896, also a world class architect.

Maria tells her stories and, on the chords of experience, make us listen to her like a song. Maria, how many Marias. Her strenght is on the flaky skin that the existence insists on flaking. Macula, maculate, Maria.

Norival, has 41 years old, is a widower and father of Pedro, age 5. To support his child, Norival does small jobs in various farms across the country. The movie 'Pains' follows a day in their life during the harvest season of sugarcane. During this period Norival and his son live in Minas Gerais' countryside, in Brazil's southeast, in small city called Pains. As a cane cutter, Norival struggle to raise money and provide a good education for his child.

Transformed into a salmon, an Indigenous street artist travels through decayed urban landscapes to the forests of long ago, in this sublime mixed animation.

Natalia Nikolaevna lives 400 km from Havana, in the city where the first nuclear power plant would be built in Cuba. He arrived 20 years ago from the USSR, to be reunited with her husband and work as an opera singer. In 1992, he began the great crisis, known as the Special Period. Natalia divorced, and rooted in the place gradually discovered him as the most hostile of spaces. Single mother without job opportunities, invented their own stage-a park-, their own -the spectators tourists- and their own livelihood: what gave him for his arias.

The remarkable, forgotten story behind David Bowie’s biggest-ever hit record – and how an unlikely journey, deep into the Australian outback, led to its unprecedented success.