All Films

Windjammer and Janmaaten - The last sailing ships

1930 • 60 min • Germany

Broadstairs and Margate Items

1930 • 22 min • United Kingdom

The Thanet coast featuring boat rides, horses and family outings.

Trifles

1930 • 16 min • United States of America

The Sheriff and County Prosecutor come to an isolated country farm where a woman killed her husband, attempting to gather evidence. Only their wives are able to solve the mystery, which they decide to keep to themselves.

The Monkey Sword Masamune

1930 • 9 min • Japan

During the late Kamakura period, there lived a famous swordsmith known as Masamune whose renown as a swordsmith was so great that even long after his passing the term “Masamune” was used to describe any fine sword. Even today, the Masamune Prize is awarded to swordsmiths of outstanding skills in their craft. In Yasuji Murata’s cutout animation The Monkey Masamune a humble messenger is rewarded with the gift of a Masamune sword when he saves the life of a monkey and her child.

It's a Bird

1930 • 14 min • United States of America

Charlie, working on a junkjard, always trying to help people in the most impossible ways with junk from his work place, hears from a German professor, that there is a bird, a Belgish Kongo, that eats metal. Charlie sets out on a ridiculous hunting expedition to catch one. With some music - the birds love music - and a strange worm he is able to catch one, but even then the bird offers some even more over-the-top surprises.

The Olympia Leap

1930 • 1 min • United Kingdom

Beginning with the dizzy height at the top of the jump, this captivating snapshot sees competitors hurtling down the slope, disappearing over the edge and finally in flight.

Near the Rainbow's End

1930 • 56 min • United States of America

Despite past friendliness, cattle ranchers Tom and Jim Bledsoe, father and son, fence off their range to prevent its use by neighboring sheep ranchers Tug Wilson and Buck Rankin, suggesting that they hope to end their recent loss of cattle. Rankin (not Rankins) shoots Tug, who is unaware of Rankin's lawless activities, in an argument and Jim is accused of murder and also stampeding the sheep. Believing Jim is guilty, Tug's daughter, Ruth, aids Buck in capturing Jim, but he escapes. Ruth gets help from Sheriff Hank Bosley, and a sheepherder, Sanchez, reveals Rankin's responsibility for both the rustling of Bledsoe's cattle and the killing of Wilson.

Bedelia

1930 • 7 min • United States of America

In this one, someone is wooing the title character who is seen sleeping in bed with her bare feet showing on screen in near close-up. When she gets up, we see her putting on her long blonde wig and false teeth, both of which constantly fall off when she's walking to the balcony!

Wailing In Hollow Valley

1930 • 60 min • China

A mad scientist dresses up as a gorilla to kidnap young girls, so he can use their brains to produce the elixir of life...

White Flame

1930 • 11 min • Belgium

The original screenplay told the story of a young man from the countryside with a city education: a boorish, violent character filled with a desperate, purely urban unease. Dekeukeleire transformed him into a butcher who commits an act of rebellion during a political demonstration at the foot of the Yser Tower (with authentic images of the 1930 meeting) which is being suppressed brutally by the authorities. White Flame secretes a drifting air of unreality straight out of Buñuel, born out of 'carnal' close-ups and an editing style which owes a great deal to Soviet films of that period.

For Women about Women

1930 • 37 min • Soviet Union

Popular science film about the structure and features of the female body, recommendations on women's behavior in everyday life, in particular during pregnancy and in the postpartum period.

Nordlandet and Tromsö

1930 • 15 min • Sweden

Footage from Tromsø, Norway in 1930.

Strike Up the Band

1930 • 6 min • United States of America

A boat sails the sea at night, with the moon watching from above. Bimbo-like sailors march around the deck, then fall through a trap door.

The Aphis

1930 • 9 min • United Kingdom

The life cycle of the rose aphid (Macrosiphum Roseus).

Fire Bugs

1930 • 8 min • United States of America

Bimbo has problems trying to put out a fire that's burning a building to a crisp.

High C's

1930 • 29 min • United States of America

The comic and musical adventures of Charley Chase as he fights in the great war.

The Thoroughbred

1930 • 58 min • United States of America

Unemployed jockey Tod Taylor gets a huge break when he is hired by Matt Riley. Within weeks, Taylor is riding Riley's horses to a string of victories. Success and the limelight go right to the jockey's head. Big-time gambler Tom Drake hires a blonde sexpot to seduce Tod and introduce him to the roulette wheel. Showing off, he starts playing for stakes way over his head. With Drake holding a huge note that Tod can't possibly pay off, he delivers an ultimatum — lose the big race tomorrow or a police detective will be waiting at the finish line to arrest him for passing bad checks.

In the Good Old Summertime

1930 • 6 min • United States of America

In this one, we get simple variations of people heading off to a May Day celebration, carrying a Maypole and a hippopotamus to serve as the Queen of the May.

The Romance of London

1930 • 7 min • United Kingdom

A travelogue of England's capital city.

On the Border

1930 • 46 min • United States of America

A Mexico/United States border patrol officer is aided by his police dog, Rinty.

How the Berlin Worker Lives

1930 • 12 min • Germany

This documentary shows how the Berliner workers lived in 1930. The director Slatan Dudow shows through images: a) the workers leaving the factory; b) the raise of the rents; c) the "unpleasant" guest, meaning the justice officer that brings the eviction notice; d) the fight of classes of the houses of capitalists and working classes; e) the parks of the working class; f) the houses of the working class, origin of the tuberculosis and the victims; g) the playground of the working class; h) the swimming pool for the working class, ironically called the "Baltic Sea" of the working class; i) the effects of humidity of basement where a family lives, with one member deaf; j) one working class family having dinner while the capitalist baths his dog; k) the eviction notice received from an unemployed family and their eviction.

A Light-Play in Black-White-Gray

1930 • 6 min • Germany, Soviet Union

This short film made by László Moholy-Nagy is based on the shadow patterns created by his Light-Space Modulator, an early kinetic sculpture consisting of a variety of curved objects in a carefully choreographed cycle of movements. Created in 1930, the film was originally planned as the sixth and final part of a much longer work depicting the new space-time.

The Utah Kid

1930 • 45 min • United States of America

The Utah Kid eludes a sheriff's posse and takes refuge in Robber's Roost, a hideout for outlaws running from the law where he meets and falls for a waylaid school teacher.

Mysterious Mose

1930 • 6 min • United States of America

Betty Boop (with dog's ears) can't sleep on a scary night, so she sings the title song and meets the gentleman in question...a surreal version of Bimbo.