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04:23
Tarantella (1940)
Abstract animation illustrates Edwin Gerschefski's modernist composition. Two dots - one blue and one orange - appear most often, sometimes large, sometimes small, sometimes overlapping. When the sounds become more staccato, so do the images: wavy lines become squiggles, short nail-like lines go across the screen in rows. The result is a visual representation of abstract music, lively and spirited in spite of its link to a dance composed to sweat out the poisons of a spider bite.
00:29
Newark Athlete (1891)
A young man stands before the camera holding a club in each hand, horizontal to the ground. He raises the heads of the two clubs in unison, by rotating the clubs without lifting his arms. The film then shows the same footage over again, at different speeds.
13:53
A Trip Down Market Street (1906)
A Trip Down Market Street Before The Fire April 1906 Good Quality SilentCourtesy: Prelinger ArchivesPictures San Francisco's main thoroughfare as seen from the front window of a moving Market Street cable car, before the downtown area was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire. This unusual record has been called the first "structural film" because it follows exactly the externally imposed structure of the car ride.
19:24
I Am Joaquin (1969)
"I Am Joaquin" is a 20-minute short film based on an epic poem published by Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales in 1967. Gonzales’ poem weaves together the long tangled roots of his Mexican, Spanish, Indian and American parentage and a past mythology of pre-Columbian cultures. The film is important to the history and culture of Chicanos in America, spotlighting the challenges they have endured because of discrimination. Luis Valdez, often described as the father of Chicano theater, produced and directed "I Am Joaquin" as a project of Teatro Campesino (the Farmworkers Theater), which he founded in 1965 to inform, encourage and entertain Chicano farm workers. Valdez later directed the Chicano-themed "Zoot Suit" in 1981, a retelling of the early 1940s Los Angeles race riots, and "La Bamba" in 1987.
08:47
Our Lady of the Sphere (1969)
A leading figure in the California Bay Area independent film movement, Lawrence Jordan has crafted more than 40 experimental, animation and dramatic films. Jordan uses "found" graphics to produce his influential animated collages, noting that his goal is to create "unknown worlds and landscapes of the mind." Inspired by "The Tibetan Book of the Dead," "Our Lady of the Sphere" is one of Jordan’s best-known works. It is a surrealistic dream-like journey blending baroque images with Victorian-era image cut-outs, iconic space age symbols, various musical themes and noise effects, including animal sounds and buzzers.
01:06
Preservation of the Sign Language (1913)
Presented without subtitles, "Preservation" is a two-minute film featuring George Veditz, onetime president of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) of the United States, demonstrating in sign language the importance of defending the right of deaf people to sign as opposed to verbalizing their communication. Deafened by scarlet fever at the age of eight, Veditz was one of the first to make motion-picture recordings of American Sign Language. Taking care to sign precisely and in large gestures for the cameras, Veditz chose fiery biblical passages to give his speech emotional impact.
04:34
Scratch and Crow (1995)
Scratch and Crow (1995) is a student film by Helen Hill made at the California Institute of the Arts. Consistent with the short films she made from age 11 until her death at 36, this animated short work is filled with vivid color and a light sense of humor. It is also a poetic and spiritual homage to animals and the human soul.
07:57
Marian Anderson: The Lincoln Memorial Concert (1939)
Using its extensive Hearst Metrotone News Collection and an NBC radio broadcast, the UCLA Film & Television Archive is creating, insofar as surviving material makes it possible, a full concert film of a key event in U.S. civil rights history: the 1939 Easter Sunday concert at the Lincoln Memorial by the African American contralto Marian Anderson.As detailed in UCLA's headnotes on the film, in early 1939 the Daughters of the American Revolution declined music impresario Sol Hurok's request to book Marian Anderson into its Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. Her race was evidently the reason. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt then resigned from the DAR, an act that increased public awareness of the controversy. Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes arranged for a concert on the Lincoln Memorial steps. On April 9, 1939, Marian Anderson sang before a live audience of seventy-five thousand and a national radio audience of millions more.
14:29
The Evidence of the Film (1913)
Only 15 minutes long, The Evidence of the Film tells the story of a messenger boy at a film studio who is wrongfully accused of stealing bonds worth $20,000. He is saved by his sister, a film cutter, who comes across some footage of her brother inadvertently walking into a location shot and being knocked down by the real-life villain.The only known copy of this film was rediscovered in 1999 on the floor of the projection booth in a Superior, Montana movie theater. In 2001 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
05:26
Hindenburg Disaster Newsreel Footage (1937)
The film is frequently played with narration by Herbert Morrison, who was there to watch the zeppelin's arrival in the United States. Morrison was a 31-year-old Chicago radio reporter, and his commentary was recorded, and not broadcast until later. It has since been combined with the separately filmed newsreel footage. To modern eyes it may appear to have been a live broadcast with pictures and sound, but it was not. Most of the original newsreels have their own narration, and many edited reels exist. One of these is a silent film with Pathe footage of the first 1936 landing at Lakehurst and Universal Newsreel footage of the disaster. Another edit uses footage of the Disaster from Paramount and Movietone Newsreel with Herb Morrison's recording.
05:56
Tacoma Narrows Bridge (1940)
The collapse of the bridge was recorded on film by Barney Elliott, owner of a local camera shop. The film shows Leonard Coatsworth leaving the bridge after exiting his car. In 1998, The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. This footage is still shown to engineering, architecture, and physics students as a cautionary tale. Elliot's original films of the construction and collapse of the bridge were shot on 16 mm Kodachrome film, but most copies in circulation are in black and white because newsreels of the day copied the film onto 35 mm black-and-white stock.
09:08
Multiple Sidosis (1970)
Multiple SIDosis is a 1970 short film in which a single performer creates an entire multi-part performance of the song "Nola". It is an example of a kind of one-man-band musical performance.Multiple SIDosis was written by, directed by and starred Sid Laverents. It features as many as twelve split-screen "copies" of Laverents playing various conventional and improvised instruments simultaneously. The separately-recorded performances of the various parts were overdubbed and visually composited to create the final piece.The overdubbing technique has been used before and since in professional recording studios, to allow a single performer to create an entire multi-instrument song. Digital technology has made the technique much easier for amateurs to employ today, but no such labour-saving devices were available to Laverents.
03:04
Jam Session (1942)
Jam Session is a 1942 short film which shows Duke Ellington and his orchestra performing C Jam Blues.In 2001, the United States Library of Congress deemed the 3-minute, black-and-white film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
05:19
Princess Nicotine; or, The Smoke Fairy (1909)
Princess Nicotine; or, The Smoke Fairy is a 1909 five minute silent film directed by J. Stuart Blackton.In the film, a smoker (Paul Panzer) falls asleep and is visited by two fairies (one of which is played by Gladys Hulette). Audiences marveled at the primitive special effects featuring the fairies interacting with objects much larger than themselves.Princess Nicotine; or, The Smoke Fairy was the first instance of tobacco product placement (for Sweet Corporal cigarettes and cigars) in the movies.In 2003, the Library of Congress deemed it "significant" and preserved it in the National Film Registry.
04:29
Rip van Winkle (1896)
he story has been adapted for other media for the last two centuries, from stage plays to an operetta to cartoons to films. Actor Joseph Jefferson was most associated with the character on the 19th century stage and made a series of short films in 1896 recreating scenes from his stage adaptation, and which are collectively in the US National Film Registry. Jefferson's son, Thomas, followed in his father's footsteps and played the character in a number of early 20th century films.
09:51
JAMMIN' THE BLUES (1944)
Jammin' the Blues is a 1944 short film in which several prominent jazz musicians got together for a rare filmed jam session. It featured Lester Young, Red Callender, Harry Edison, Marlowe Morris, Sid Catlett, Barney Kessel, Jo Jones, John Simmons, Illinois Jacquet, Marie Bryant, Archie Savage and Garland Finney. Barney Kessel is the only white performer in the film. He was seated in the shadows to shade his skin, and for closeups, his hands were stained with berry juice.The movie was artfully directed by famed still photographer Gjon Mili and released by Warner Bros.Producer Gordon Hollingshead was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Short Subject, One-reel.In 1995, Jammin' the Blues was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
10:53
The Sex Life of the Polyp (1928)
The Sex Life of the Polyp (1928) is a short film written and performed by Robert Benchley, based on a routine he first did in 1922. The short, which was adapted from an essay by Benchley, documents a dim-witted doctor attempting to discuss the sex life of a polyp to a women's club. This was the second of Benchley's 46 comedy short films, with six made for Fox, one each for Universal Pictures and RKO Radio Pictures, 29 for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and nine for Paramount Pictures.The film, made in the then-new Fox Movietone sound-on-film process, was a success and was later included in the compilation Robert Benchley and the Knights of the Algonquin.
10:31
Little Nemo (1911)
James Stuart Blackton and Winsor McCay directed a ten-minute short film based on the comic strip, of which two minutes were animated. The film was first released on April 8, 1911.[3] The first animated effort of McCay, it later achieved the status of an early animated classic. Its on screen title is Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and his Moving Comics, but it is usually referred to as Little Nemo. This version was named to the National Film Registry in December 2009.
01:14
President McKinley Inauguration Footage (1901)
President McKinley Inauguration Footage is the name given to two different short documentary films which were combined as one. The two titles are President McKinley Taking the Oath and President McKinley and Escort Going to the Capitol. Both date from 1901. The two show president William McKinley arriving at the United States Capitol in order to take the oath of office for President of the United States as part of the second inauguration of William McKinley.Both were produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company, under the direction of Thomas Edison, and in 2000 the United States Library of Congress deemed the two "culturally significant" and selected them for preservation in the National Film Registry.
01:50
Demolishing and Building Up the Star Theatre (1901)
Star Theatre (also known as Demolishing and Building Up the Star Theatre) is a 1901 short documentary film in which time-lapse photography is used to show the dismantling and demolition of New York City's Star Theatre over a period of about a month.Produced by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, it was produced and filmed by F.S. Armitage. It made the National Film Registry in 2002.
