All Films

Primary

1960 • 53 min • United States of America

Primary is a documentary film about the primary elections between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey in 1960. Primary is the first documentary to use light equipment in order to follow their subjects in a more intimate filmmaking style. This unconventional way of filming created a new look for documentary films where the camera’s lens was right in the middle of what ever drama was occurring. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 1998.

Universe

1960 • 29 min • Canada

A triumph of film art, creating on the screen a vast, awe-inspiring picture of the universe as it would appear to a voyager through space, this film was among the sources of inspiration used by Stanley Kubrick for his 2001: A Space Odyssey. Realistic animation takes you into far regions of space, beyond the reach of the strongest telescope, past Moon, Sun, and Milky Way, into galaxies yet unfathomed.

The Cupboard

1960 • 48 min

When Fred Watson's wife and landlady disappear, and he is seen papering over two cupboards in his bedroom, the police are called in.

Portrait of a Man with a Medallion

1959 • 13 min

A man dreams of stampeding horses, only to be awoken by a note slipped under his door. Thereafter, he embarks on a strange journey, moving further into the unknown.

Enginemen

1959 • 21 min • United Kingdom

The working day of enginemen at Newton Heath locomotive sheds, Manchester. They discuss the impact of dieselisation on their jobs.

A Dream of Space

1959 • 10 min

1959 Jim Davis short

Pennsylvania/Chicago/Illinois

1959 • 7 min

experimental film by Jim Davis

Street Meat

1959 • 8 min • United States of America

Vanderbeek photographs NYC, 1959. The 'meat' of the street: Doorways, debris, dilapidation. We meet a few youngsters and get a glimpse into a bygone era.

Royal River

1959 • 29 min • Canada

This 20th Century-Fox CinemaScope special traces the journey of Queen Elizabeth (II) and Prince Philip to the United States and Canada in conjunction with the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway dual-country project. There are scenes of the Royal Yacht 'Britannia'; visits with President Dwight D. Eisenhower and vice-president Richard Nixon, and New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller. This special short is comprised of previously-used newsreel footage, and edited material from several "Royal Visit (1959)" films made by Canada's National Film Board.

The ABC Of Walking Wisely

1959 • 10 min

A short which uses the letters of the alphabet to teach young children how to walk across the street.

A Badger's Bad Day

1959 • 10 min

Nature short in which a badger is sprayed by a skunk.

Life in a Zen Buddhist Monastery in Japan

1959 • 9 min

In Yokohama, novices wake up early in the Soto zen sect Sojiji temple for their zazen and other practices. A film by Michael Rogge, Dutch photographer, videographer and amateur filmmaker, best known for his depictions of post-WW2 life in the Far East.

Art in Brazil Today

1959 • 11 min • Brazil

Documentary about the works

Americans at Work: Seafaring Men

1959 • 14 min

An episode of the documentary series Americans at Work, produced by Norwood Studios for the AFL-CIO. From week to week, the series looked at different jobs and described the work of those professions through proud narration and striking photography. This installment focuses on all of the people who work onboard ships: captains, mates, engineers, cleaners, stewards, tug operators, and more!

Wonderful World

1959 • 43 min

“Wonderful World” is a 1959 color travelogue produced by Jam Handy for Coca-Cola and narrated by Ken Nordine. The broad documentary surveying global cultures, lifestyles, emphasizing common human activities.

The Reasons Why

1959 • 27 min

Television manufacturing at RCA's New Jersey plant. Includes scenes of design, engineering and quality control.

The Welldeserved Fox

1959 • 10 min • Vietnam

The first Vietnamese animated film

Für einen Platz an der Sonne

1959 • 10 min • Germany

Femmes seules

1959 • 16 min

A lonely lady makes a call to her female friend and when she arrives, they make love.

New Town From Old

1959 • 11 min

Made by the Hemel Hempstead Development Corporation in 1959, this short records the development of Hemel Hempstead following its assignment of New Town status a decade earlier. Originally this had a narrative track recorded by Wyndham Thomas, but this is now missing. Included as an extra on the BFI Flipside release of I Start Counting

Schriftfilm

1959 • 2 min

Schriftfilm functions according to the principle of the cadavre exquis or that of a textual machine that one finds in well sorted bookstores: On screen we see alternating nouns on top, and alternating verbs underneath. Some actually ‘fit’ such as “man walks”... ; while others might only ‘fit’ in a more extended sense “man burns,” “water breaks”... ; while others only ‘fit’ poetically “water screams,” “stone runs,” “sun falls”... ; and in this context the conventional language=meaning-logic disappears behind the pure word=meaning-presence. “Stone runs” is exactly as significant as “man walks,” whereby “man walks” through the very presence of “stone runs” appears to be something extraordinary, and “stone runs” becomes something entirely true and possible.

Impressions of Skye

1959 • 10 min

Come over the sea to Skye in 1959, with its majestic mist-covered mountains, lush valleys and snug white-washed croft houses, in this award winning amateur film from Iain Dunnachie. See bustling Portree’s colourful 1950s cars, buses and fashions, and feel for the hardworking crofter in his backbreaking daily routine with peat to cut, haystacks to build, cows and toddlers to care for. Poetry and landscape combine in this moving and memorable film showing a lost way of life.

Gutai 1960 Feb

1959 • 13 min

Featured artists: Yoshida Toshio; Kanayama Akira; Shiraga Kazuo; Shimamoto Shōzō

Un chasseur sachant chasser

1959 • 5 min

Saint-Junien, opening day of the hunt, an enthusiastic but clumsy hunter sets off to hunt down game...