Sacred Site

Athlete with Wand

1894

An athlete demonstrating various poses.

Spiders on a Web

1900

Consisting of a single shot, Spiders on a Web is one of the earliest British examples of close-up natural history photography. Made by one of the pioneers of the British film industry, G.A. Smith, this short film details spiders trapped in an enclosure, and despite the title, does not actually feature a web.

Woman Draped in Patterned Handkerchiefs

1908

Woman Draped in Patterned Handkerchiefs is a 1908 British short silent documentary film, directed by George Albert Smith as a showcase his new Kinemacolor system, which features a woman displaying assorted tartan cloths, both draped on her body and waved semaphore-style. The patterned handkerchiefs are, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, “presumably the same cloths featured in Tartans of Scottish Clans (1906), this time shown from various angles.”

Speed Racer: Welcome to the World of Vic Chesnutt

1994

A portrait of Athens, Georgia singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt.

The Way to the Sea

1936

A 1936 documentary film about the London to Portsmouth railway. A lesser known contemporary of Night Mail, also featuring the music of Benjamin Britten and poetry of W.H. Auden.

Danseuses cambodgiennes du roi Norodom, II

1899

Rhythm

1957

Intended as a publicity film for Chrysler, Rhythm uses rapid editing to speed up the assembly of a car, synchronizing it to African drum music. The sponsor was horrified by the music and suspicious of the way a worker was shown winking at the camera; although Rhythm won first prize at a New York advertising festival, it was disqualified because Chrysler had never given it a television screening. P. Adams Sitney wrote, “Although his reputation has been sustained by the invention of direct painting on film, Lye deserves equal credit as one of the great masters of montage.” And in Film Culture, Jonas Mekas said to Peter Kubelka, “Have you seen Len Lye’s 50-second automobile commercial? Nothing happens there…except that it’s filled with some kind of secret action of cinema.” - Harvard Film Archive

Woodshock

1985

It's just a simple stretch of interviews and images capturing the people who camp out, dope up, drink up, sometimes get naked, and jump into a nearby waterfall, whilst listening to musicians like Daniel Johnston.

Police Car

1966

Cale makes a short film called Police Car. No sound, and it is in black & white. Part #31 in the Fluxus Film series.

Brush of Baphomet

2009

A look at the artwork of Aleister Crowley.

The Boxing Kangaroo

1896

The Boxing Kangaroo is an 1896 British short black-and-white silent documentary film, produced and directed by Birt Acres for exhibition on Robert W. Paul’s peep show Kinetoscopes, featuring a young boy boxing with a kangaroo. The film was considered lost until footage from an 1896 Fairground Programme, originally shown in a portable booth at Hull Fair by Midlands photographer George Williams, donated to the National Fairground Archive was identified as being from this film.

Little Monsters 3D

2013

Little Monsters presents some of the animal kingdom’s strangest survival strategies: poison dart frogs, chameleons, praying mantises and scorpions, to name but a few. Thanks to 3D visualization, large audiences can experience a chameleon thrusting out its tongue at close range, rattlesnakes striking at their targets to within fractions of an inch, praying mantises hunting and hummingbirds feeding, filmed from inside the flower! And with its ingenious combination of slow-motion 3D and timelapse 3D, “Little Monsters” even improves upon state of the art 3D for greater impact, yielding unbelievable scenes the world has never seen and “felt” before.

Japanese Actors: Wig Exercise

1900

A Japanese theatre performance based on a legend.

Behind the Action in 'Biker Boyz'

2003

Three American Beauties

1906

In this color-tinted short, we first see a close-up of a red rose, perfectly formed. Then, we see the rose held by a young woman who is wearing a bright yellow dress. She's the second beauty. Behind her is a slow dissolve to the US flag, tinted in red, white, and blue, blowing in the wind. Behind the flag is a star-lit sky.