Film historians, and survivors from the nearly 30-year struggle to bring sound to motion pictures take the audience from the early failed attempts by scientists and inventors, to the triumph of the talkies.
This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.
A documentary from Erkki Karu, one of the earliest pioneers of Finnish cinema: This government-produced propaganda film introduces the nature, sports, military, agriculture and capital of Finland.
In the 1968 movement in Paris, Jean-Luc Godard made a 16mm, 3-minute long film, Film-tract No.1968, Le Rouge, in collaboration with French artist Gérard Fromanger. Starting with the shot identifying its title written in red paint on the Le Monde for 31 July 1968, the film shows the process of making Fromanger’s poster image, which is thick red paint flows over a tri-color French flag. —Hye Young Min
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.
German silent film
This film records the vast public response to the early death of Vera Kholodnaya, the first star of Russian cinema.
Swimming. The Russian swimmer Romantschenko visits Copenhagen. He jumps into the water and swims around in the harbor, and he is later seen together with journalist Anker Kirkeby.
A documentary short film showing the flying of an airplane by the famous French pilot Chevillard.
View over the castle island of Holmen's Church and the Stock Exchange from the top of Christiansborg, where architect Thorvald Jørgensen is seen at Christiansborg slotting scaffolding, and with builders in the courtyard. The architect is also seen with stonemasons in the yard.
A short, early documentary work showing insects exhibiting extreme strength and agility.
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.
The horse-drawn tram "Hønen" comes running along Nørregade and into the Old Square. "Hønen"'s last trip was on June 14, 1915.
Horse carriages seen at the Copenhagen Town Square.
From inside a tower, a man admires an artistic rendition of another tower.
The remains of the Baltic Violence have been eroded away by the large steam excavator. There is a man standing at the railway cutting as trains pass. He throws something into the railway cutting. This person is seen in several of the recordings from 1913. It may be journalist Anker Kirkeby.
Street Trading in Copenhagen in about 1913. The old butcher stalls by Nicholas Church, called the "stomach" before demolition.
Reportage from a competitive fashion show organised in the autumn of 1953, with participation of Czechoslovakia along with Hungary, the GDR, and the USSR. In accordance with the principles of socialist apparel, the film emphasises the presented designs’ practicality and their availability for the general public.