The Seesaw and the Shoes

This short film focuses on the mysterious and legendary Seri Indians who live in a utopian colony off the west coast of Mexico.

This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short explores the origins of various customs such as shaking hands, kissing, and why ships are christened.

Master painter Hans Moll and his wife, the television announcer Ms. Wellinek and her husband, and the German-Russian Jew Yevgenia have many things to live on: food, drink, an apartment. What they do not have is work. They all discover the yearning for a chance to start all over again and bring themselves back to life.

A woman struggles to interact with her family and find her place in society after spending fifteen years in prison.

This short film presents the story of Dr. Ephraim McDowell, who came under scrutiny for his pioneering of surgical practices.

Dr. Peter Blood, unjustly convicted of treason and exiled from England, becomes a notorious pirate.

This short looks at the illness anthropophobia, the fear of people. In 1901, young Catherine Starr, who lives in a small English coastal town, has an argument with her fiancé. He leaves her house, goes off to serve in the Boer War, and dies of malaria. Catherine blames herself for his death and fears others will also blame her. She does not leave her house for forty years. Groceries are delivered to the house, but no one sees who retrieves them. When the Nazis bomb her house in September 1941, she is forced to cope with the outside world.

This short film examines the origins of several superstitions including crossing your fingers, knocking on wood, rabbit's feet, and breaking champagne bottles to christen ships, plus the role of superstitions in the Flying Dutchman tale.

This Passing Parade entry tells the story of Dr. Joseph Goldberger (1874-1929), a Hungarian immigrant who devoted his life to finding the cause of pellagra, a disease that killed hundreds of thousands in the southern United States. Although the medical community believed that the condition was caused by a virus, Goldberger proved that a healthy diet was the cure.

When Harvard PhD student Jennifer Brea is struck down at 28 by a fever that leaves her bedridden, doctors tell her it’s "all in her head." Determined to live, she sets out on a virtual journey to document her story—and four other families' stories—fighting a disease medicine forgot.

When the pictures from Bergamo in Italy go around the world in spring 2020, even non-medical people know what the word pandemic means. The previously unknown Coronavirus is spreading rapidly across the planet. Four days later, exit and contact restrictions also apply in Germany. Since then, the life of the Konstanz intensive care physician Dr. Carolin Mellau and her family on their heads. The female doctor becomes a member of the crisis team and is on duty around the clock to prepare the clinic for the impending emergency. As an anesthesiologist intubating those infected with COVID-19, she herself carries a high risk of infection. Meanwhile, her husband Stefan has to cancel his concerts as a musician, is no longer allowed to teach his music students and is suddenly sitting at home without an income. Teenage daughter Luzy is not allowed to see her Swiss boyfriend because the border is closed. She and brother Tim cannot go to school. But the worst case for the family is yet to come.

This short film shows how the war department utilizes a Ph.D., a chimp, and three dogs to help design aptitude tests for men applying for work.

A look at how the weather bureau tries to warn farmers and businessmen about approaching large storms. Although some precautions can be taken to lessen their impact, storms have to run their course, and there is really not much we can do about them.

The story of a Antoine, a physician who was exiled to China in the 1930's due to his drug habit.

This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short tells the story of 18th Century French physician Dr. Philippe Pinel, who initiated enlightened, humane treatment of the mentally ill.

This dramatized short film describes the historical mystery of France's "man in the iron mask". King Louis XIV imprisoned a man who was never identified, but who was forced to wear an iron mask for the length of his captivity, which ended only in his death. Several candidates for the identity of the man are investigated.

This final John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series short looks at a community, Mooseheart, in Illinois that orphaned children call home.

Anandibai Joshi, the First Indian woman who went against all odds to get herself educated and became a doctor to set an example and inspired generations to come. In times, when gender equality and feminism are raised at almost every forum and podium, a couple in the 1800's practiced and fought for these very ideas. Anandi Gopal is a love story more than a biopic about the struggle of a husband to teach his wife and her response and determination to become the first Indian Female Doctor.

The Talbots, formerly one of the Eastern Shore's first families, have gone to seed: Pap is a drunk, soddenly decaying in his ruined ancestral home, and three of his sons (William, Carol, and Ezra) are lazy, shiftless young men. Mulligan, Pap's second son who supports the entire family by oyster fishing, falls in love with wealthy Anna Lee, but when he first kisses her, she calls him "white trash."

Alberto Robles, a young doctor, is faced with the decision to surrender to a life full of comforts and luxuries or to continue dedicating himself body and soul to serving those who need it most.