All Films

How to Prepare a Class Report

1953 • 10 min • United States of America

This educational film from the 1950s instructs viewers how to prepare for a class report.

Dance of the Blonde Slave's Revenge

1953 • 5 min

An ultra-low-budget burlesque short filmed in 3-D.

Reel 42: Japan, Philippines, Thailand - 1953

1953 • 12 min

From the Home Movies Collection.

Along the Kama River

1953 • 26 min • Soviet Union

Views of the Kama River, landscapes of the Perm region, river traffic. Views of the cities of Solikamsk, Berezniki, Molotov (Perm), and Votkinsk. Industry, agriculture, and culture of the Perm region. Memorial places in the city of Votkinsk associated with the name of famous composer Tchaikovsky.

Die Piraten-Inseln und ihre Bewohner

1953 • 11 min • Germany

A look at the rocky islands in the middle of the Gulf of Biafra in the Bay of Victoria and the people who live there.

Israel & Jordan

1953 • 16 min

Amateur colour footage showing Israel and Jordan in 1953. The film opens in Jerusalem, showing the cityscape, walls, people and street scenes. Scenes in Jordan include landscapes, street scenes, crowds and dignitaries at a religious procession, mountain and valley views, architecture and ruined buildings, an encampment and ends with views of Petra.

Flipper, The Seal

1953 • 10 min • United States of America

Follows the early life of a young seal on the Pribilof Islands. Shows him nursing at his mother's side, struggling to avoid the ponderous bull seals, getting rescued from a rock crevice and learning to swim. Demonstrates how biologists count, tag and trace the seals in order to conserve the herds.

Oslofilm: Bygdøy - en idyll i storbyen

1953 • 11 min • Norway

Bygdøy is the Peninsula in Oslo that has always been a place of residence for kings and clergy people. Now it has become a recreation area for Oslo's inhabitants, with museums, restaurants, beaches, and many other leisure and entertainment opportunities.

Robert E. Lee: A Background Study

1953 • 15 min • United States of America

Robert E. Lee, born in Virginia in 1807, was deeply influenced by his Southern heritage and the legacy of his family, particularly his father, who served in the American Revolution. Raised by his mother, Lee learned values of self-control and integrity. He graduated second in his class from the United States Military Academy and had a distinguished military career, serving the Union before the Civil War. Despite his opposition to secession, he chose to lead the Confederate Army when Virginia seceded. Lee's military strategies were notable, achieving significant victories, yet he faced ultimate defeat at Gettysburg. After the war, he became president of Washington College, promoting peace and reconciliation while embodying principles of integrity and duty.

The Santa Suit

1953 • 11 min • United States of America

A puppetry short from husband-and-wife team, Martin and Margi Stevens - in this, Spot dresses up as Santa so as not to disappoint Stripe

Oslofilm: From Ekely. The city and the artists

1953 • 13 min • Norway

Ekely was painter Edvard Munch's property in Oslo, where the Oslo municipality established a colony for artists. Norwegian artists, such as sculptor Hilt, are seen at work.

The Second Conscience

1953 • 14 min

Gendarme Hoppe is packing to leave for a long-awaited vacation in Germany. Before he can leave the post, however, a Jewish boy shows up. Hoppe must make a decision about the child's life.

Operation Blue Jay

1953 • 28 min • United States of America

The U.S. Signal Corps construct a huge airbase in Thule, Greenland.

It's Time for Everybody

1953 • 15 min

This fifteen-minute sales film for CBS Radio was directed by Bobe Cannon, designed by T. Hee and Sterling Sturtevant, with backgrounds painted by Bob Mcintosh, Jules Engel, and Michi Kataoka. In 1954, Cannon directed a follow-up sales film for CBS Television called Tune in Tomorrow.

A Communications Primer

1953 • 22 min

An early attempt to present communications theory, made to encourage the breaking down of barriers of thinking between disciplines and to discourage thinking of communications in a limited way. Music composed by Elmer Bernstein.

The Word

1953 • 20 min • United States of America

The Word is a 1953 American short documentary film produced by John Adams. The film is about Frank Laubach and his work on literacy. The Word was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

Come Closer

1953 • 6 min • United States of America

Directed, assembled by Hy Hirsch.

Pedacito de tierra

1953 • 36 min • Puerto Rico

It presents of one of the major challenges faced by DivEdCo’s fieldworkers: how to convince the island’s rural farmers of the continued importance of traditional agricultural practices in the face of Puerto Rico’s rapid modernization and industrialization under Operation Bootstrap. The film encourages families to make good use of arable land by cultivating healthy and affordable crops.

Form Phases IV

1953 • 3 min • United States of America

Breer's earliest experiments in animation are wonderfully dense yet lyrical abstractions based on Breer's own geometric paintings. - Harvard Film Archive

Health: Your Posture

1953 • 11 min • United States of America

Authority figures lecture school children about good posture until one little girl develops body dysmorphic disorder and hallucinates in front of her bedroom mirror.

Form Phases III

1953 • 3 min • United States of America

Different stages of paintings made with ink. The ink fuses, spreads.

Kangaroos

1953 • 11 min

Encylopedia Britannica presents information about kangaroos.

Istrian Roads

1953 • 13 min • Yugoslavia

Documentary film about Istria.

The Nightmare

1953 • 2 min • Netherlands

In a bad dream, a man finds himself on a pirate ship where the barber gives the crew a rather violent shave. Philips Philishave commercial by Dutch puppet animator Joop Geesink.