All Films

The Voice from the Screen

1926 • 33 min • United States of America

The film introduces and discusses the technical aspects of making talking pictures. It is the first film using the Vitaphone sound film system developed at Bell Laboratories. Originally presented to the New York Society of Electrical Engineers in 1926, Edward B. Craft, the Executive Vice President of Bell Labs, gives the address and demonstration.

Octavio's Predicaments

1926 • 10 min • Spain

Spanish comedy short where Secundino Fernández is trying to get himself dressed up nicely.

Britain's Baby Princess: Empire News Bulletin No. 8

1926 • 2 min • United Kingdom

Photographs of the baby Princess Elizabeth, late Queen Elizabeth II. Included on the BFI DVD "A Royal Occasion".

Ein Film vom neuen Wien

1926 • 10 min

Short documentary about social democratic "Red Vienna" of the 1820s.

Mills

1926 • 9 min • Netherlands

Raw footage of windmills, probably made by Theo Güsten and possibly by Dick Laan as well. This footage was probably shot for the films De Zaanstreek by Güsten and Hoe de Zaansche molens verdwijnen by Dick Laan. The two films do not contain any of the same images. We see shots of, for example, the windmill called “De Windhond” (“The Greyhound”) in Woerden, and several windmills in the Zaan region.

Postojna Cave

1926 • 5 min • Yugoslavia

Probably the earliest film in the world to be shot underground. Views of the spectacular Postojna Cave, with its stalactites and stalagmites. A noted tourist attraction, this 20-kilometre network of underground passages, chambers, and galleries has had a railway line since 1874, and was first lit by electricity in 1884.

The Helicopter

1926 • 6 min • Netherlands

Footage of a helicopter at an airport. Shot from different perspectives, with much attention paid to the technology and the mechanics of the rotating blades. Several men try to fly the helicopter, but their attempts fail, and the helicopter remains on the ground the whole time. At the end, there is a small “accident”, as a part of the tailpiece breaks off. This footage was shot so that the test flights could be analyzed later.

Säter and it's Celebrated Surroundings

1926 • 16 min • Sweden

The 300 anniversary of the city of Säter.

Warwickshire V Australians at Edgbaston

1926 • 1 min • United Kingdom

Warwickshire face the Australian touring cricket team at Edgbaston

A Century before Lunch

1926 • 1 min • United Kingdom

A masterful innings by Australian batsman Macartney in the third test at Headingley.

Won By a Nose

1926 • 12 min

A horse and cabbie run into trouble while out on the town, and end up in a race.

For Those in Peril on the Sea

1926 • 1 min • United Kingdom

The Dungeness lifeboat crew launched their brand new motorised lifeboat.

With Cherry Kearton in the Jungle

1926 • 3 min

A 1926 black and white documentary film compilation from naturalist and film pioneer Cherry Kearton of his time in Africa.

Napoli e Capri

1926 • 2 min

Very rare documentary images from the travel diary of Angelo Drovetti, embarked on the steamship Regina d’Italia, a majestic steam passenger ship, along the Lloyd Sabaudo line, from Genoa to Australia through Egypt, the Middle East and India. These are the unpublished and exclusive images that document the crossing of the first large group of 85 Italian emigrants to the Australian coasts in search of fortune. In this excerpt the vessel crosses the beautiful landscapes of Naples and Capri.

Chegada do Principe de Orleans e Bragança a Joinville

1926 • 7 min • Brazil

Arrival of Governor Bulcão Viana in Joinville. Reception at the Municipality building. The arrival of the princes of Orleans and Bragança, D. Pedro and D. Elizabeth. Miss Universe contest: the missions, including the one from Brazil, in leisure and bathing suits.

Carmen

1926 • 4 min

Legendary Chicago choreographer Ruth Page arranged multiple versions of Carmen, and this film likely records a 1926 performance of her earliest arrangement of it at Ravinia Opera in Highland Park, where it was set to music from Georges Bizet's opera.

Olympic Champions

1926 • 4 min • United Kingdom

Following the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, the American athletics team delayed their journey home for the opportunity to take on the British Empire in a friendly competition at Stamford Bridge on 11 August. Although the film has a somewhat unfinished feel to it, there are some excellent shots of the Olympians as they engage in steeplechase, high jump and pole vault - often captured in slow motion.

Film Study

1926 • 4 min • Germany

Entertaining Dadaist experimental short, similar to Man Ray's work, full of shifting geometric shapes, stock footage of seagulls, flying eyeballs, and glaring floating heads.

Hints and Hobbies No. 7

1926 • 14 min • United Kingdom

How to prevent a dirty neck and amuse your guests with sugar-lumps.

Black Sunday

1926 • 9 min • Australia

Silent film footage of the Black Sunday Valentine's Day Bushfires of 14th February 1926 which swept the regions of Dandenongs and Gippsland in Victoria, Australia. Thirty-one lives were lost and the township of Powelltown was mostly destroyed. This film was used as a promotional fund-raising film for a bushfire relief fund which raised many gifts and around 100,000 Australian pounds.

O Fauno das Montanhas

1926 • 40 min • Portugal

This film is the pearl of his pioneer work in Madeira Island and captures the most of his methodology: good stories taking the most of Madeira's natural scenery, and provoking the audience with some ironic and "double-sense" scenes. The film tells the story of an English girl travelling with her father, a botanic, and a guide from madeira in the deep mountains of the island. The girl has some mental disturbs and is always scaring about an attack from the native man, appearing as a half-man/half-monster.

Rev. S.S. Jones Home Movie: Yale Collection Film 3

1926 • 18 min

Churches, offices, a winter scene, a theater, and a residence in Indianapolis, IN, and Muskogee, OK.

Busy Bees

1926 • 11 min • United Kingdom

These pictures show the marvellous industry of the Bee, the ingenuity it exercises in making its home, and the ordered programme of life that it appears to follow.

Film Address: Ethicization of Politics

1926 • 32 min • Japan

A political film written by statesman Shimpei Goto advocating for universal suffrage.