All Films

Tent City

1951 • 36 min • Israel

Таёжная сказка

1951 • 10 min • Soviet Union

It takes place in the forest. Two Wolverines came to move to the new location plaguing. Sly Fox pretended to be their friend, to steal a boat with their belongings. Smart Woodpecker helped wolverine.

Mensen in de stad

1951 • 17 min

A documentary about urbanisation.

The Outsider

1951 • 12 min • United States of America

Susan, a pretty high school student, has everything going for her—except popularity. She can't figure out why she is so "out of step" with the rest of the crowd. She finally comes to realize that her habit of "hanging back" and "not trying to fit in" is making her unpopular. She vows to change her ways and go along with the crowd, which means that people will like her.

Longhorns

1951 • 5 min

Longhorns is cine-dance with a surrealist tang. There are no human figures in this early short from Hilary Harris, only a pair of Texas longhorns turning endless spirals in the tall reeds of a New York inlet. The strangeness of this scene abstracts the horns’ mesmerizing rotation, the better for Harris to explore the choreographic possibilities of cutting and framing (Cyril Jackson’s propulsive drum score provides the beat). Harris was a lifelong sculptor in addition to being a pioneering experimental filmmaker, and in Longhorns we see him reveling in the interplay between the two mediums. Though somewhat shaggier than his later motion studies (such as 9 Variations on a Dance Theme), Longhorns remains a tactile treat. The majestic images of clouds, in particular, evince his special ability to transform the mundane into something revelatory. —Max Goldberg, fandor.com

Balzac

1951 • 24 min • France

Balzac is a 1951 short documentary film by French director Jean Vidal. It is a biopic on the work, life, and loves of the French playwright and novelist Honoré de Balzac, his evolution as a writer and how his individual works fit into the design of La Comedie Humaine. The film was nominated for an Academy Award in 1952 and won first prize for best director at the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival the same year.

Gods of Bali

1951 • 55 min • Netherlands

This is an anthropologically rich documentary, focusing on worship of temple deities, how the gods and the demons interface with Bali life, and the dances, trances, legend restagings, etc. that serve as both the Balinese "language" and the basis for their interactions with the immortals.

Bim, the Little Donkey

1951 • 45 min • France

An Arab boy, Abdullah, loves his donkey, Bim, but another boy, Massoud, who also happens to be a prince, is jealous of Abdullah and his relationship with Bim, so Massoud steals the donkey and plays mean tricks on him, such as painting him and trying to cut his ears off. Abdullah tries to rescue Bim but is caught by palace guards and is imprisoned. Realizing Abdullah's love for his donkey, Massoud becomes ashamed of his meanness and frees Bim and Abdullah. However, the donkey eats Massoud's father's lunch and is taken to a butcher. Abdullah and Massoud try to rescue Bim from the butcher, but robbers get there first and steal the donkey along with the butcher's goods. The robbers escape to the sea, and Abdullah and Massoud stage one last rescue attempt with all of their friends to try to save Bim.

Cab Calloway Home Movie #1

1951 • 5 min • United States of America

A 16mm black-and-white, silent home movie film by Cab and Zulme "Nuffie" Calloway during a tour of the Caribbean, with film edge code indicating a year of 1951.

Chimes in Bells

1951 • 10 min • Norway

This is Oslo Kinematografer's Christmas greeting from 1951, where a family invites the audience to sing Christmas songs with them.

The Thundering Trail

1951 • 55 min • United States of America

Lash and Fuzzy have been sent to escort the new Governor to the Capitol City. West and his outlaw gang are out to stop them. When Lash's first attempt is foiled, he realizes the Governor's supposedly deaf and dumb servant is the informant and sets a trap for the gang.

A Bouquet of Thirty Million People

1951 • 48 min

When he loses his sight during one of the battles of the Korean War, Geon-yeong(Choe Hyeon) is taken to a military hospital. There he meets a nursing officer named Hye-yeong(Hwang Yui-hui), but still misses Soon-hui in his hometown. When Geon-yeong's mother donates one of her eyes to him, he is no longer blind.

Medieval Dutch Sculpture

1951 • 12 min • Netherlands

Dutch sculpture in the late Middle Ages.

Helgoland dem Frieden

1951 • 16 min • East Germany, Germany

Under the sign of the swastika, it was, amongst other things, turned into a naval base, it got heavily destroyed in two waves of attack in April of 1945 by British bombers. After the war, Heligoland was made available as bombing training ground for the English army by the West-German government. Seven young people occupied the isle and began to repair the emergency shelter for sailors who got in danger. This and further major actions eventually ended the bombing exercises. Back then, the watchword was: “Heligoland to the Germans! “ – “Heligoland for peace!”

Matisse

1951 • 8 min • France

Between 1950 and 1955, Henri Langlois tried to produce, on behalf of the Cinémathèque française, several films devoted to great artists, with their cooperation, by entrusting them with virgin film stock. Wrote Langlois on the unfinished project, epic in scope: "We had the idea of ​​asking poets, painters, scholars, writers and even repressed filmmakers [...] to make films in 16mm, with the means at hand, without taking into account any commercial concern or censorship." What precious little came of the project was eight minutes of film from Matisse and twenty-some from Marc Chagall, released at a later date.

Jackson Pollock 51

1951 • 11 min • United States of America

The photography of German photographer Hans Namuth is largely credited for Pollock’s rise to fame, and as the painter gained a higher profile, along with Abstract Expressionism in general, Namuth returned to capture Pollock’s “action painting” on video for the short documentary below. In a cinematically brilliant move, Namuth asked Pollock to create a painting on glass, so that he could film underneath, giving the viewer the experience of actually being the canvas. Lacking a lighting crew, they shot in the cold Long Island expanse of grassland outside of Pollock’s home.

Self-Conscious Guy

1951 • 10 min • United States of America

Marty wants a spot in the School play, but is undone by nerves

Right or Wrong? (Making Moral Decisions)

1951 • 11 min • United States of America

A group of young boys break some windows at a warehouse. The security guard recognizes one of them as a neighborhood boy, Harry. Harry is hauled into the police station and told things will go easier on him if he tells who his accomplices were. Harry must decide which is better, shouldering the blame for the entire incident or ratting out his friends.

Modern Football

1951 • 27 min • United States of America

Robert Altman's first film was this 26-minute short, which has a football coach explaining how to play the sport. This is basically an educational short where the viewer learns about the various rules of the sport as the narrator explains them while we see reenactments.

Cambridge May Week Boat Races

1951 • 8 min • United Kingdom

Picnickers in punts, ‘bumpers’ and bubbly.

Sur le pont d'Avignon

1951 • 5 min • Canada

Extravagantly gowned marionettes pantomime this old French folksong, sung by the Trio Lyrique. The song describes the traffic over the bridge at Avignon--the beautiful ladies and gallant gentlemen, the musicians and singers, learned professors, uniformed soldiers, comedians, acrobats, and village pranksters.

The Bully

1951 • 10 min • United States of America

Chuck's a big kid who picks on the little kids... what can be done to stop his reign of terror?

Jack and Jill

1951 • 20 min • United States of America

Workplace safety

On the Border

1951 • 20 min • Yugoslavia

Life and work of frontier force, guarding national safety.