Flea Sings

Documentarian Jon Boorstin follows architect Frank Gehry and his sister, Doreen Gehry Nelson, as they attempt a new method of teaching elementary school children in Los Angeles. With funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the siblings work together on a pilot program of “design-based learning” that would restructure the typical classroom curriculum, replacing rote math or civics lessons with an imaginary city designed and built entirely by the students themselves. Restored in 2018 by the Academy Film Archive.

Daily Rains is a measured, poetic work that confronts head-on the micro- and macro-aggressions faced by young Black women. Restored by the Academy Film Archive.

John Ford splices together footage of Torpedo Squadron 8, all but one of whom were later shot down and killed in the Battle of Midway. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation in 2007.

In this Western, the sergeant takes his commander’s daughter on a horseback ride along the Merced River (which actually might be Oregon's Clackamas River). When their horses are stolen by a renegade, they are forced to travel back to headquarters by foot and lose the trail. In the first clip, mounted troops search for the lost couple. The two are found the next day and the sergeant is disgraced. However, the sergeant proves his mettle when he escapes during an Indian attack and leads reinforcements to the rescue. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with National Film Preservation Foundation New Zealand Project in 2012.

An important early film by Stan Brakhage, which Joseph Cornell commissioned as a record of New York's Third Avenue elevated train before it was torn down. Curiously lacking in people, the film focuses on the rhythms of the ride and reflections in train windows, finding a real-world version of the superimpositions Brakhage would later create in the lab. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.

An experimental animated short film in which a piano plays a song and the keys, hammers, and various other parts of the piano are different colors. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2007.

Handpainted short. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

One of Oskar Fischinger's earliest films, Seelische Konstruktionen (as it is known in German), clearly points the way to the masterpieces of musically-blended experimental animation he would conceive in the decades to come. The sense of masterful timing and rhythm, the easy and natural -- though patently Fischinger-esque -- character traits of the subjects, and the smooth precision of both line and movement are all present already. Unique is the black-silhouetted, semi-cartoon characters (not nearly as rigidly self-contained as Lotte Reiniger's cut-out forms) which seem to adhere to no physical limitations whatsoever. Morphing into shapes, structures, objects, patterns, and even one another, as though they were made of pure mercury and set to music. As for the "story", it's rather non-sensical, and certainly silly, but also has a slightly dark and devious tinge to it as well; men becoming monsters, uncontrollable shape-shifting and the constant, almost desperate movement.

Short film by Frank Stauffacher. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

Documentary portrait of the legendary jazz bandleader. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 2000.

The Curse of Quon Gwon is the oldest known Chinese-American film and one of the earliest American silent features made by a woman. Only two reels of the film survive, and no intertitles are known to exist, making it difficult to parse out the exact plot. An article in the July 17, 1917 issue of The Moving Picture World states that the film "deals with the curse of a Chinese god that follows his people because of the influence of western civilization." The film also touches on themes of Chinese assimilation into American society. Formally premiering in 1917, no distributor was willing to purchase a Chinese-American film without racial stereotypes. Considered a devastating financial failure, the film was only screened two more times until its rediscovery in 2004. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.

A small fish doesn’t pay attention in school, and ends up getting caught on a hook. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with UCLA Film and Television Archive in 2013.

An old bearded man wearing a raincoat walks into a bar and sits down, placing a mysterious box next to him. The other patrons try, with varying success, to find out what's inside. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2003.

Explore the events of the Mexican Revolution as they are recreated through the use of archival material and interviews with participants and scholars. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

A woman's nightly domestic rituals—from putting her baby to bed to making love—unspool in a playful parade of surreal, straight-from-the-id images. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

“The Riddle of Lumen” presents an evenly paced sequence of images, which seem to follow an elusive logic. As in “Zorns Lemma” the viewer is called upon to recognize or invent a principle of association linking each shot with its predecessor. However, here the connection is nonverbal. A similarity, or an antithesis, of color, shape, saturation, movement, composition, or depth links one shot to another. A telling negative moment occurs in the film when we see a child studying a didactic reader in which simply represented objects are coupled with their monosyllabic names in alphabetical order. –P. Adams Sitney. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2007.

[1970/2003, color, 7.5 min] Experimental short film preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2007.

A fast –paced view of the times and activities of Russ Tamblyn, largely edited in camera. Glimpses of scenic locales, artistic possibilities, people on the move, and the full gamut of filmic manipulations. - Alternative Projections. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2004.

Similar in style to First Film, Tamblyn filmed a journey to Rio. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2004.

Spanky and Alfalfa fake a toothache to get out of school. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with UCLA Film & Television Archive in 2013.