Documentary Movies
Stride Soviet! (1926)
Commissioned by the Moscow Soviet as a documentary and information film for the citizens of Moscow prior to municipal elections, film is a tableau of Soviet life and achievements in…
Moana (1926)
Robert J. Flaherty’s South Seas follow-up to Nanook of the North is a Gauguin idyll moved by “pride of beauty… pride of strength.”
The Olympic Games in Paris 1924 (1925)
A documentary on the 1924 Olympic Game in Paris.
The Olympic Games as They Were Practiced in Ancient Greece (1924)
A documentary on the Olympic games of ancient Greece, made during the 1924 games.
The 1924 Chamonix Olympic Games (1924)
A documentary covering the Olympic Games at Chamonix in 1924.
Kino Eye (1924)
This documentary promoting the joys of life in a Soviet village centers on the activities of the Young Pioneers. These children are constantly busy, pasting propaganda posters on walls, distributing…
Ballet Mécanique (1924)
A pulsing, kaleidoscope of images set to an energetic soundtrack. This is a world in motion, dominated by mechanical and repetitive images, with a few moments of solitude in a…
The Great White Silence (1924)
Herbert Ponting travelled to Antarctica as part of Captain Scott’s ill-fated South pole expedition and shot the footage that makes up this extraordinary documentary.
Häxan (1922)
Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen’s legendary film uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the Middle…
Nanook of the North (1922)
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…
Manhatta (1921)
Morning reveals New York harbor, the wharves, the Brooklyn Bridge. A ferry boat docks, disgorging its huddled mass. People move briskly along Wall St. or stroll more languorously through a…
Anniversary of the Revolution (1918)
A chronicle of the Russian Revolution of 1917, from the bourgeois democratic February Revolution to the great socialist October Revolution and the final triumph.
A Trip through Berlin (1910)
Actuality scenes of Berlin circa 1910.
Scene in Chinatown (1900)
his film was shot in an alley of San Francisco’s Chinatown on Saturday, September 15, 1900, at midday. The topography of the site (sloping down to the far street), the…
Gold Rush Scenes in the Klondike (1899)
Following a shot of a newspaper that outlines the hardships of living in the Klondike, there are scenes a typical Klondike town, of people on a raft, and of people…
Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894)
A man (Thomas Edison’s assistant) takes a pinch of snuff and sneezes. This is one of the earliest Thomas Edison films and was the second motion picture to be copyrighted…