The film that Michael Janusonis of the Providence Journal claims, "is not to be missed," is an exhilarating ride; a poignant and often hilarious look at one of New England's great landmarks. YMBTT takes you all the way back to 1847, to the early beginning of Rocky Point Park, then flies fast like a roller coaster to its current, demolished state. Along the way we meet colorful and insightful characters who rode the rides, who ran the rides, and who kept the park running for all those years. You'll see hurricanes and Presidents, the Yo-Yo and the Flume, and you'll just about be able to taste those clam cakes and that chowder from the World's Largest Shore Dinner Hall.
Through archival footage, 3D animations, interviews with former employees, visitors, collectors and fans, the film reconstructs the story of what for many was the Argentine Disneyland.
Vienna’s Prater is an amusement park and a desire machine. No mechanical invention, no novel idea or sensational innovation could escape incorporation into the Prater. The diverse story-telling in Ulrike Ottinger’s film “Prater” transforms this place of sensations into a modern cinema of attractions. The Prater’s history from the beginning to the present is told by its protagonists and those who have documented it, including contemporary cinematic images of the Prater, interviews with carnies, commentary by Austrians and visitors from abroad, film quotes, and photographic and written documentary materials. The meaning of the Prater, its status as a place of technological innovation, and its role as a cultural medium are reflected in texts by Elfriede Jelinek, Josef von Sternberg, Erich Kästner and Elias Canetti, as well as in music devoted to this amusement venue throughout the course of its history.
Curiosity and Control examines our complex relationship to nature itself. A multi layered look at the world of Museums of Natural History and Zoological gardens, with voices from historians, authors, architects and zoo managers. It raises questions about how we perceive nature and our contradictory behavior of caging what we fear may be lost.
A tour of the United States. A Circarama (360 degree) film which originally opened at the Brussels World’s Fair in 1958 and was brought to Disneyland in 1960.
Dwarves Kingdom is a documentary film about a theme park featuring performances by little people with dwarfism who live in a fantasy recreation of a magical empire. Built by a wealthy Chinese businessman, this other-worldly kingdom, officially called World Ecological Garden of Butterfly and Little People Kingdom, is located in the mountains surrounding the city of Kunming in Western China.
Few amateur films with sound were produced in the 1930s and fewer remain extant. A charming artifact that demonstrates the expressive possibilities and technical limitations of amateur talkies, "The Spider and the Fly" includes a backyard Labor Day gathering, a trip to the Riverview Amusement Park, and a homemade Halloween parade of witches and ghouls.
Disneyland Paris : Les Secrets du château
Class Action Park explores the legend, legacy, and truth behind the 1980s water park in Vernon, New Jersey that long ago entered the realm of myth. Known for its dangerous, unsupervised rides and lack of regulation, guests of Action Park expected to walk away with injuries and were lucky if they made it out alive. Shirking the trappings of nostalgia, the film uses investigative journalism, original animations, recordings, and interviews with the people who lived it to reveal the true story of Action Park.
Puy du Fou : le génie des spectacles révélé
The Smurfs were created in 1958 by the Belgian comic author Peyo (Pierre Culliford, 1928-1992) and they are one of Belgium's most recognized exports. From Brussels to Los Angeles, via Dubai, a journey into the tiny world of the famous little blue people, from the story of the creation of the original comic to the account of their huge global commercial exploitation.
Before there was Disneyland, there was Coney Island. By the turn of the century, this tiny piece of New York real estate was internationally famous. On summer Sundays, three great pleasure domes--Steeplechase, Luna Park and Dreamland--competed for the patronage of a half-million people. By day it was the world's most amazing amusement park, by night, an electric "Eden".
Jack & Pete Tell it All is a documentary about how creativity, family, faith, and risk took a small cave in the Ozarks from a regional anomaly to one of America's largest family owned entertainment companies, known today as Herschend Enterprises. Shot on location at both Dollywood and Silver Dollar City in the fall and spring of 2016 and 2017, the film follows the stories as told by the brothers Jack and Pete Herschend; their wives, Sherry and JoDee; and the many others who were there in the early days of the company's inception. It's a celebration of the American spirit, Ozark ingenuity, love and humble beginnings...and serves as an inspiration even today.
A girl flees a makeshift tent city. A man finds a trombone. A worker watches the ocean from under a moving house, while its owner gazes at the view from her shifting living room. In ten very short stories, residents of the destroyed Mississippi Gulf Coast act out atmospheric scenes of everyday life and the relentlessness of labor in their extreme landscape.
Marketing film for Walt Disney World showing the creation of the new theme park, with footage of WED designers at work, actual construction, scale models, the Preview Center, and Walt Disney discussing his hopes for the project from an earlier 1966 film.
The film "Hurricane on the Bayou" is about the wetlands of Louisiana before and after Hurricane Katrina.
A fun, nostalgic look at the rich history of Lagoon Amusement Park, which has enchanted visitors for generations with its rides, rock concerts, and family fun for more than a century.
This documentary film includes never-before-seen footage and exclusive interviews to tell the story of Charity Hospital, from its roots to its controversial closing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. From the firsthand accounts of healthcare providers and hospital employees who withstood the storm inside the hospital, to interviews with key players involved in the closing of Charity and the opening of New Orleans’ newest hospital, “Big Charity” shares the untold, true story around its closure and sheds new light on the sacrifices made for the sake of progress.
Since 1926 the Philadelphia Toboggan Company #36, (PTC 36) has occupied a place in the hearts and minds of children of all ages who visit Seabreeze Amusement Park. In March of 1994, a tragic fire took the beloved carousel from this Rochester, NY community. This is the story of the aftermath and the determination of the owners of Seabreeze Amusement Park to build a new carousel in the grand tradition of PTC 36
Filmed in roughly one month between the end of October and the beginning of December 2005, the film is an honest portrayal of Jac Currie’s life after Katrina and one of his first trips back to the Gulf Coast after being stranded in New York. It shows Defend New Orleans’ transition to a valid social aid project and documents some of the destruction in New Orleans and on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.