1920s Documentary Movies

Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen's legendary film uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the Middle Ages suffered the same hysteria as turn-of-the-century psychiatric patients. But the film itself is far from serious-- instead it's a witches' brew of the scary, gross, and darkly humorous.

This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.

A cameraman wanders around with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling inventiveness.

An ironic look at what it is like to be beautiful for a woman (and handsome for a few men) in the Paris of the late twenties.

Robert J. Flaherty’s follow-up to Nanook of the North shifts from the Arctic to the South Seas, portraying Samoan village life with a painterly eye. Blending ethnographic detail with a romanticized “Gauguin idyll,” the film celebrates daily rituals, communal traditions, and the passage into adulthood, suffused with what Flaherty called “pride of beauty, pride of strength.”

Impressions of Bandung, Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia), with shots of the pasar (market), the Departments of War and Government Corporations, churches, parks, the residential office, a hospital, staff and service houses of the PTT, the Concordia society, the Chinese neighbourhood, the library and the observatory in Lembang.

Documentary focusing on a cesarean section in a hospital in São Paulo.

A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.

Expedition by Gontard Herbert Kluge into the heart of the former German colony of "East Africa". This land is called Pori by the locals. The film shows mainly zoological images.

A new spin on the art of macroprojection, the “film symphony of the life and death of flowers” premiered on February 25th, 1926 in Berlin’s Piccadilly-Theater with an original music score and elaborate frame narrative.

A city symphony of Berlin.

Avantgarde film about an exhibition.

A trip through Norway, visiting the biggest cities, the fjords and mountains. Visiting farming communities as well as factories on the way, with great athletes, like Sonia Henie and meeting all from ordinary people to the King.

No overview available

Elephants disrupt the lives of a family deep in the jungles of Northern Siam, and an entire village.

Come take an avant-garde walk in the Montparnasse of the late 1920's. This district of Paris, filmed in a most unusual way, shows how dedicated it is to art. Visit its art galleries and exhibitions, take a glimpse of famous painter Fujita, of Luis Buñuel eyeing the legs of beautiful Parisian passing the terrace of the café where he sits, of Italian futurists Marinetti, Prampolini and Russolo.

Wunder der Schöpfung is an extraordinary, fascinating Kulturfilm trying to explain the whole human knowledge of the 1920s about the world and the universe. 15 special effects experts and 9 cameramen were involved in the production of this film which combines documentary scenes, historical documents, fiction elements, animation scenes and educational impact. It its beautifully colored, using tinting and toning in a very elaborated way. Some visual ideas in the sequences with a space shuttle visiting different planets in the universe seem to have to be the inspiration for Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Documentary about the bullfighter José Gómez alias Joselito, who died in the bull ring of Talavera de la Reina.

A visual composition of the world.

A walk through the landscapes of the province of Barcelona, Spain, as well as a testimony of the daily life and customs of its inhabitants.

A total of 13 framed vignettes – 14 if we count the two shots of rainy streets edited together – comprise Tavlor från London, an enchanting picture gallery of London scenes in 1922. In that year the British Empire was at its territorial height, covering a quarter of the globe and thus making London truly the world’s capital. It’s something of a surprise to learn that the film was made by the great Swedish cinematographer Julius Jaenzon, shortly after he shot Victor Sjöström’s masterpiece Vem Dömer?

Emak-Bakia (Basque for Leave me alone) is a 1926 film directed by Man Ray. Subtitled as a cinépoéme, it features many techniques Man Ray used in his still photography (for which he is better known), including Rayographs, double exposure, soft focus and ambiguous features. The film features sculptures by Pablo Picasso, and some of Man Ray's mathematical objects both still and animated using a stop motion technique.

No overview available

First National gala celebrity banquet with stars.

An animated film exploring what it might take to communicate with Mars, using mirrors, huge flashing electric lights or gigantic strips of black cloth set out in the desert.

Inflation (1928) is an experimental silent film at eight minutes which is sometimes categorized as a documentary. By now Richter is well beyond playing with light & shadow. Inflation explores the subject of money through photographs & with with stop motion animation techniques, adding faces of people impoverished & enriched by the unpredictability of finance. It functions almost as a political cartoon in motion, building to a chaotic & catastrophic climax.

A short, hand-tinted promotional film made by the D'Oyly Carte Opera company to show off the new wardrobe and set dressing for the 1926 production of The Mikado. About six scenes from The Mikado are shown, then designer Charles Rickets steps onto the stage with a final look at the costumes and the film ends. The players in the production are legendary Savoyards, well-known from recordings of the period, but this is the only time a movie camera caught them in their roles, though sadly minus the singing. About four nitrate prints of this film are known to exist; two of which are at the BFI in London.

The building of Sevzapkino. Columns of demonstrators are moving along Bolshaya Dmitrovka, Dzerzhinsky square, Pushkinskaya (Strastnaya) square, Kamenny Most (The Big Stone Bridge) and Red Square. Decorated cars and trucks. This is a Military parade on Red Square. L.D. Trotsky, N.I. Muralov, S.S. Kamenev are among the commanders. The demonstrators are carrying the models of a boat, plane and globe. The theatrical march. The members of the government and guests including K. Tsetkin are watching from the tribunes. There are lots of planes on the airdrome and square. M.M. Litvinov, N.I. Rikov and others stand near the plane. The plane builds jp speed, soars in the air, leads for landing and lands. Hordes of people gathered at the aerodrome. Camera operator is shooting. The church on the corner of Ulitsa Myasnitskaya (Kirovskaya), the building of GUM (State Department Store) and Khamovnichesky (Frunzensky) Council. Illuminated building.

Mannequin hands hold a pair of dice. A castle is perched on a hilltop. Below it, a posh, modern villa. Meanwhile, far from Paris, two men with masked faces play dice in a bar. They decide to drive to Paris. Country roads, hills, fences. The posh "chateau" appears again: meticulous garden, fancy interior, odd sculptures. And at home? "No one, NO ONE." For the next two days, masked figures play dice, frolic by the pool, perform exercises with a ball. Two new figures arrive. Masked. They search and find the dice. They dance. Mannequin hands hold a pair of dice.

The founding of the first English colony at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1612 and the many problems that confronted the struggling colonists are depicted.

Kyiv, 1929. Shots of the city as it wakes up and its awakening echoes with the lyrical pictures of the rebirth of nature. Kaufman’s attentive camera pauses for a long time on the smiling faces of children, painting a lyrical picture, a confession of love for Kyiv.

Documentary short film depicting the filmmaking activity at the Paramount Studios in Hollywood, featuring dozens of stars captured candidly and at work.

Documenting the trip of the airship "Norge" across the Pole ocean, called Roald Amundsen, Ellsworth and Nobiles flying expedition 1926.

The first Portuguese documentary. A remarkable look at the lives of the working people of Nazaré, a fishing town in Western Portugal.

The Dangers of the Fly is an educational film made by Ernesto Gunche and Eduardo Martínez de la Pera, also responsible for Gaucho Nobility (1915), the biggest blockbuster of Argentinean silent cinema. De la Pera was a talented photographer, always willing to try new gadgets and techniques. This film experiments with microphotography in the style of Jean Comandon's films for Pathé and it is part of a series which included a film about mosquitoes and paludism and another one about cancer, which are considered lost. Flies were a popular subject of silent films and there are more than a dozen titles featuring them in the teens and early twenties.

Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Streetcar collision / Arms manufacturing plant resumes operation / Assembling an automobile / Bicycle and motorcycle races / A parade of Red Army armored units and an attack exercise.

Karel Plicka was also cinematographer of this short movie. Editor in charge was Alexander Hackenschmied. There is an extraordinary emotional charge, every shot is working on its own, such as photographs, paintings and poetic complement intertitles in this short. From the perspective of nature and the perspective is shifting to the people and their habits, work and clothes. Peculiar documentary shots underscore Ruthenians (men, women and children) who are interested in looking into the camera and the curious "eye" showing off their habits.

A propaganda film about the beautiful country Norway, meant for tourists abroad.

A montage of the skyscrapers of Manhattan opens with a succession of stationary views of the upper portions of numerous buildings. This is followed by a wide variety of fluid shots, which also begin to show more and more of the surrounding city, in addition to the skyscrapers themselves.

Inguti, an old African chief, recalls his life as a young hunter. He sets out to find food for the forthcoming feast. On reaching the shore of Fire Mountain lake he finds dead fish which he believes to be an ill omen. On his return, he warns the witch doctor that the land is cursed, but his warning is ignored and he is pronounced mad. While the tribe continue with the feast, Inguti leaves with his wife and small son.