While our photographers were crossing the Atlantic Ocean a most wonderful and sensational picture was secured, showing a storm at sea. The picture was secured by lashing the camera to the after bridge of the Kaiserine Maria Theresa, of the North German Lloyd Line, during one of its roughest voyages. The most wonderful storm picture ever photographed. Taken at great risk. (Edison Films, 1901)
This shows the heart of one of the tremendous drifts in the east end of Galveston. Hundreds of dead bodies are concealed in these immense masses, and at the time the picture was taken the odor given out could be detected for miles. The subject shows a gang of laborers clearing away the debris in the search for corpses, one of which was discovered while the picture was being taken. (Edison film catalog)
The Dangers of the Fly is an educational film made by Ernesto Gunche and Eduardo Martínez de la Pera, also responsible for Gaucho Nobility (1915), the biggest blockbuster of Argentinean silent cinema. De la Pera was a talented photographer, always willing to try new gadgets and techniques. This film experiments with microphotography in the style of Jean Comandon's films for Pathé and it is part of a series which included a film about mosquitoes and paludism and another one about cancer, which are considered lost. Flies were a popular subject of silent films and there are more than a dozen titles featuring them in the teens and early twenties.
The meeting point between two comunication media: A letter written in 1929 -hidden inside the adobe walls of an old country house - and the shooting of the coutryside along the highway that connects two Chilean cities un 2018.
German silent film
A cameraman wanders around with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling inventiveness.
This non-narrative short film examines one of the great American icons: the Louisville Slugger baseball bat. The film was conceived by its co-directors, Marlon Johnson and Dennis Scholl, along with the Louisville Orchestra's conductor, Teddy Abrams, to be screened set to a live performance by the orchestra of Claude Debussy's "Jeux".
A meditation on an Alaskan autumn.
This 10-minute short documentary exploring the shifting state of the American poultry industry was preserved in 2015 from an original nitrate print. More information is available on the film's page in the National Film Preservation Foundation's website, where this version can be found featuring original music by Michael D. Mortilla.
Documentary about the making of Buster Keaton's silent comedy classic, Sherlock Jr. (1924).
The Antwerp Zoo covers a fair extent of ground, and was already in 1910 generally considered as an important one. A large number of views of birds and animals were taken and hand coloured. In those days, the monkey house was in for much attention. People found that the various comic incidents added a touch of whimsicality.
Surfing at Waikiki Beach, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. Most surfers are human, one is a dog. The educational documentary is part of the Bruce Scenic Novelties series.
A film by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince, shot in late October 1888, showing pedestrians and carriages crossing Leeds Bridge.
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.
Los 5 Faust de F. W. Murnau
George Albert Smith and Charles Urban snaffled the plum job of travelling to Italy to take a series of views of Italy for the Warwick Trading Company, including this one. The long panning shots of Pompeii linger respectfully, as a tourist would, before the camera finally raises its eye to the mighty volcano looming in the distance beyond.
On the Sorrento peninsula, orange and lemon groves stretch all the way to the coast. In the orange plantations, the high wooden frames are covered with mats to protect the trees from intense sunlight. The function of the artificial irrigation system is demonstrated. The oculation of trees is demonstrated in a young plantation. The oranges are cleaned on the spot, then sent to the laundry, cleaned, dried and made ready for dispatch. In a lemon plantation, many pickers stand on ladders on a tall tree and remove the fruit. The lemons are sorted, wrapped in tissue paper and packaged in home and large-scale factories. Before being exported, the goods are checked again for quality.
From Elsinore shipyard launched the steamer AP Bemstorff sliding slowly out into the harbor.
Farmers' wives from Amager selling flowers.
Street Trading. Fishermen's wives from Skovshoved sell their fish from the stalls at Gammel Strand. Anker Kirkeby is in the picture.