All Films

Water: Friend or Enemy

1943 • 9 min • United States of America

Animated film that promotes the importance of pure water. The film illustrates correct measures in keeping spring and well water from being contaminated.

Breathing Space

1943 • 10 min

Documentary which shows some of the spare-time activities of service personnel and civilians during the war.

Brides of the Frontier

1943 • 21 min • Japan

The only surviving film directed by Tazuko Sakane. A propaganda film to encourage Japanese young woman to move to Manchuria to become the wives of Japanese emigrants, so-called brides of the Continent. Villagers played roles different from their actual lives; single women from "school of training future brides" were recruited to act in the film.

Oryol Battle

1943 • 46 min • Soviet Union

Americans All

1943 • 25 min • United States of America

A film sponsored by the U.S. Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs to promote friendly relations with American countries just before World War II. Stresses the importance of the Good Neighbor Policy and Western Hemisphere cooperation in the face of Europe's disintegration. The first half is an historical summary of the American continent. Postulating that youth will build a new world, the last half considers youth at work, youth at school, health conditions, defense, and ends with a plea for American solidarity.

Letter to a Hero

1943 • 17 min • United States of America

Letter to a Hero is a 1943 American short documentary film produced by Frederic Ullman Jr. A school teacher in Monroe, NY writes a letter to her former student who is fighting in WWII. It was nominated for an Academy Award at the 16th Academy Awards for Best Short Subject, Two-Reel.

Prague Baroque

1943 • 15 min • Germany

Kulturfilm about the architecture of the city of Prague.

Point Rationing of Foods

1943 • 6 min • United States of America

Animated documentary short film demonstrating the reasons and methods of the point system of wartime food rationing.

Glamour Girls of 1943

1943 • 9 min • United States of America

Documentary short film revealing the vital work done by women in American defense plants.

The Rocky Road to Ruin

1943 • 8 min • United States of America

The hero, Handsome Harry, is poor, honest, hard-working and pure as the driven snow. The villain, first cousin to Sniveley Whiplash, is deceitful, mean, contrary, selfish and a down-right ornery cuss who would steal and hock his mother's false teeth. The pretty heroine is, at best, fickle and a front-running gold-digger but Harry is smitten with her and yearns for her hand in holy matrimony, but she opts to marry the villain and his money-bags. Years go by and Hero continues to study and work hard in the hopes his fair lady will become his. More years go by, and all concerned are aged with gray, and the heroine decides Handsome Harry is her man. The villain, takes up with young chorus girls for consolation.

L’Ile mystérieuse

1943 • 10 min • France

Adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name.

Your Hands

1943 • 16 min • Germany

A propaganda film made while Latvia was occupied by Nazi Germany in the 1940s. A party of a wealthy socialite is disrupted by a friend's friend who's come along and turns out to be a soldier. The socialite starts wondering whether she could lend a hand to the war effort.

Good Night, Rusty

1943 • 8 min • United States of America

A Puppetoon by George Pal.

The Autobiography of a 'Jeep'

1943 • 10 min • United States of America

The invention and use of a jeep are described, from the viewpoint of one of the vehicles.

The Heart Thief

1943 • 10 min • Denmark

A poetic fairy tale about a man who steals the clown's heart, seeks to give it to various people who don't want it or need it, and finally delivers it back to the clown. (DFI)

Three Friends

1943 • 17 min • Soviet Union

Jointly a turtle, a sparrow and a mouse stand up to a fox

Fog

1943 • 24 min • United States of America

United States Navy Training Film produced under the supervision to the Bureau of Aeronautics by Walt Disney Productions in Technicolor

Curtailment of Civilian Industries

1943 • 1 min • Canada

During World War II, the production of non-essential goods was kept at a minimum so that war industries could reach a maximum output. Spending power increased, but since employable men were needed by the armed forces, more workers had to be found for war industry.

Weatherbeaten Melody

1943 • 10 min • Germany

The general outline of the plot is of a bee that finds an abandoned phonograph in a meadow. The record, however, is jazz, and the interaction of different species of bugs makes this a subtle criticism of the Nazi ideals.

White Rose

1943 • 45 min • Soviet Union

The granddaughter of the old man Jagpara Sabira is beautiful, spoiled, cunning. Several young men immediately fall in love with her. They all hope to get a positive response from her and calmly go to the front. Sabira does not openly deny reciprocity to any of them. As a sign of respect, she gives a white rose to the lovers of the horseman. Every horseman, not knowing that Sabira gave the same white rose to everyone else, hopes for her love. But she sends all the horsemen to her grandfather for a final answer.

Chants populaires nº 5

1943 • 6 min • Canada

Alexandre Alexeïeff illustrated the song "Et moi je m'enfouiyais" (En passant) using the pinscreen technique. Norman McLaren illustrated "C'est l'aviron" using drawings on a fixed background, with the characters pasted in as they were drawn.

Prince Edward Island

1943 • 10 min

A short documentary about a small province on the east coast of Canada.

Keep Smiling

1943 • 3 min • United States of America

The Four Ginger Snaps sing us a song.

Lamentation

1943 • 8 min • United States of America

A silent color film of Martha Graham dancing extracts of "Lamentation".