All Films

Vom Löwen und den Mäusen

1957 • 8 min • East Germany

During a football match, three mice kick a few stones that hit a sleeping lion on the head. Then the ball lands in front of him and a mouse rolls after it. The little mouse, trembling, asks the lion for his ball and gets away scot-free. A little later, the mice hear a loud roar from the nearby forest. They run after the noise and discover the lion in a trap. Together they free him with a trick and ride off on his back.

African Jungle Hunt

1957 • 7 min • United States of America

Phony Baloney brags about his African adventures to capture his greatest attraction for the ABC circus.

Yantra

1957 • 7 min • United States of America

A visual poem of neutrons exploding and merging, with complex animation and colour effects made possible by the use of a computer. Based on complex animation techniques it shows continually flowing material in a series of pulsating motions.

The Strange Ones

1957 • 10 min • United States of America

Public safety short about the dangers to children who accept rides from strangers

The Border of the Dream

1957 • 29 min • Colombia

A story that moves between reality and fiction, in which a family event unleashes a curse that falls on the three main characters. Insomnia, madness and an enigmatic character guide the outcome of this illusion.

Hocus-Pocus Fidibus

1957 • 15 min • East Germany

In works like “Guide Dog Ruepel” (1962), Bärbl Bergmann was the first feature film director in the GDR to portray children in their often pitiless but also honest dealings with each other, something that was almost impossible in the documentary films of that period. But she also managed to sneak lessons on how to pursue educational goals with creative obstinacy into popular science films. Thus her educational piece about two boys who discover that magic, too, requires hard work, despite its rational approach, is far from disenchanting: The protagonists reach their conclusion via detours that take them through mysterious corridors, furtive looks through keyholes and bewitching dreams.

The Sunken Galley

1957 • 24 min

Off the coast of Marseille, near a rocky cliff, a Greek ship was discovered at a depth of forty meters in Mediterranean waters, loaded with amphorae and other pottery. The cargo has been lying on that sandy stretch of seabed for more than two thousand years. The documentary follows the dives of divers who recover cups, vases, plates and jars still full of wine. We are also witnessing new recovery systems, with the use of compressed air.

Place of Residence

1957 • 16 min • Poland

A documentary about a housing situation of Nowa Huta workers. They weren’t lucky enough to get a flat in clean and modern estates. It’s a ‘black series’ documentary from the fifties.

Sunlight

1957 • 9 min • United States of America

A black man steals to afford to marry the woman he loves. After being released from prison, he returns in time to see his daughter's wedding.

Nymphlight

1957 • 8 min • United States of America

A short, avant-garde movie, starring twelve-year-old ballet student Gwen Thomas, Nymphlight is a lovely blend of fact and fiction, using Bryant Park at the New York Public Library as a stage set for the fantasy inclusion of a certain nymph. A meditation on an ephemeral day in the the life of a park shared by birds, the young and the old.

The Seine Meets Paris

1957 • 31 min • France

A poetic ode to the River Seine, Ivens' distinguished camera eye surveys its lively banks and step-stone canals with a vérité candor, a beguiling elan.

Les Poissons

1957 • 2 min

Life under the sea. Animated paper cutouts.

A Toothful Smile

1957 • 2 min • Poland

A man walks down the exterior staircase of building of flats; he's dressed to go out, taking care to wrap a scarf around his neck. He pauses as he passes a small window that's about eye high. He ventures to look in, and there a young woman stands at a washbasin, drying her hair,

The Life You Save May Be Your Own

1957 • 26 min

A Southern Gothic parable (truncated on-screen as “The Life You Save”) that twists the typical story of chivalrous boy-meets-girl romance, it follows a seemingly aimless drifter who inserts himself into the isolated lives of an old spinster and her invalid daughter. Adaptation of the short story by Flannery O’Connor.

Moving with the Times

1957 • 23 min • United Kingdom

A look at British industries and factories, starting with London Airport then on to well-known brands of the time around the country - from making alarm clocks to cars.

Return of the Wolf Man

1957 • 7 min

A thief (who is also a wolf man) breaks into Dracula's castle. He encounters a skeleton, and removes a stake from the bones. The removal of the stake revives Dracula, who bites Talbot the thief. Dracula then uses an electronic device to summon the Frankenstein Monster. The Monster leaves the castle. Talbot asks Dracula to cure him of his lycanthropy, but then transforms into the Wolfman. When the Monster returns, he and the Wolfman fight. The Wolfman transforms back into his human form, and then shoots the Monster and rams a stake back into Dracula's heart.

Frankenstein Meets Dracula

1957 • 5 min

Deep within Castle Frankenstein's laboratory, Count Dracula revives the Frankenstein monster. Once awakened, Count Dracula is able to hypnotically control the monster. After the monster commits a murder, an intruder to laboratory drives a stake through Count Dracula's heart, killer the vampire. The monster attacks the intruder, who kills the monster using a hammer.

Two Lives

1957 • 45 min • Soviet Union

Twenty years ago, Nastya Samokurova left the village in the city to seek happiness. Lived in the city, easy, easy life, engaged in speculation. And now she came to visit her sister Dasha, who continued to live in the collective farm and was universally respected.

Sycylia

1957 • 8 min • Poland

An interventionist documentary describing the damage done by mining wells to historic landmarks in Bytom.

Michel de Ghelderode

1957 • 22 min

After Perséphone, his first film which he describes as “an experimental, mythological poem” and shoots under the pseudonym Luc Zangrie, he makes a portrait of playwright Michel de Ghelderode together with his friend Jean Raine. It introduces us to the world of a creator obsessed with and fascinated by death. If biographic references are present, they are only there in order to place the writer in the right setting: nostalgia for Bruges and Flanders, solitary wanders through a backward-looking, legendary Brussels. Ghelderode’s gravelly voice is the leitmotiv of the film, which focuses on rehearsals of his plays at the Théâtre de Poche and with the puppets of the Théâtre Royal de Toone. We accompany him into his study, a place of dreams and fantasy, full of baroque objects that define his world.

The Tale of the Snow Maiden

1957 • 10 min • Soviet Union

Once an old man and an old woman fashioned their daughter out of the snow, and Santa Claus revived her. The Snow Maiden was beautiful, kind, hardworking, and everyone loved her very much. Spring came. The Snow Maiden stopped playing and hid from the hot sun all the time. Somehow, the village children started jumping over a blazing fire. They persuaded the Snow Maiden to take part in the game...

The Pig Shepard

1957 • 14 min • Czechoslovakia

Puppet adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale.

Basque Sports

1957 • 8 min • United States of America

An RKO-Pathe Sportscope focusing on sports played by Basques living along the Spain-France border in the western Pyrenees and the Bay of Biscay coast. Pelota, jai alai, wood chopping, and rowing as well as traditional dances are featured.

Eine Nacht wie jede andere

1957 • 16 min • East Germany

Black and white short documentary about the patrol of the EMW radio car "Toni 14" of the Berlin police.