1930s Documentary Movies

The young farmer Aalami leaves his family to find work elsewhere. He gets to know the country and its people, customs and traditions at Küste in North Africa: Market life in Tetuan, the art of craftsmanship, the life of the Moors, dances and festivities in honour of the caliph, white mosques, the call of the muezzin of the minaret and the music of the shepherd flutes. Aalami also follows Franco's call and flies from Morocco to Spain to fight at Bürgerkrieg. In the end Aalami comes back to his wife and children.

A prescient documentary about city planning, which presents idyllic suburbs and nuclear families as a solution to the chaos, poverty and social decay of industrialized inner cities.

Said to pick up where "Triumph of the Will" left off, this film showcases highlights of the Nazi Party rallies in Nüremberg in 1936 and 1937. The main focus of the film begins with extended footage of the Gothic splendor of Nüremberg from the air, Hitler's arrival at the airbase, his motorcade into the city, and the ensuing ceremonies. Other, much more propagandistic elements, are edited in; they include: past Nazi party marches and rallies, parachute drops, Wehrmacht exercises in the Zeppelin fields, random military formation night rallies and random shots of massed crowds, fireworks, torch lit marches, even live explosions.

A "Pete Smith Specialty" - a fairly serious look at radio hams in the usual jokey format. Shows aircraft using morse code.

A Spanish documentary from Jean-Paul Le Chanois & Luis Buñuel made during the Spanish Civil War.

A showcase of German chancellor and Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler at the 1934 Nuremberg Rally.

An early ethnographic film. Made three years after Plessen's "Insel der Dämonen", "Kopfjäger von Borneo" is a half-fictional documentary. The plot involves a love story between a girl and a boy of incompatible social classes.

Mussolini Speaks is a 1933 documentary film highlighting the first 10 years of Benito Mussolini’s rule as Prime Minister of Italy. The film, narrated by U.S. radio broadcaster Lowell Thomas, includes footage of the Fascists’ March on Rome, the Lateran Treaty between Italy and The Holy See, engineering projects in Italy and North Africa, and excerpts of speeches by Mussolini.

This short documentary narrated by sportscaster Ted Husing explores the free-time activities of some of Hollywood's most popular celebrities. Big names such as Boris Karloff, Buster Crabbe, and Clark Gable make appearances, enjoying games of golf, field hockey, swimming, and many other fun hobbies.

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The film depicts Olav Vs and Märtha from Norway's trip to the USA in 1939

The 8-minute documentary captures the annual Festa Major de Gràcia, a traditional neighborhood festival in Barcelona, showcasing its festive atmosphere, including merry-go-rounds, boats, and popular dances.

The armed forces of the Third Reich, particularly the German army, are presented as an efficient system of bodies and machines at the seventh Nazi Party Rally that occurred in Nuremberg in 1935.

An Italian blacksmith who emigrated is wounded during the war on the French front, losing his memory. Hospitalized in a German hospital, he recovers it three years later and returns home from Tunisia, happy for the reclamation of the Pontine Marshes and the inauguration of the city of Littoria.

Swing High is a 1932 American Pre-Code short documentary film directed by Jack Cummings. In 1932, it was nominated for an Academy Award at the 5th Academy Awards for Best Short Subject (Novelty). The film documents The Flying Codonas, a family of flying trapeze artists.

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Explorer Paul Hoefler leads a safari into central Africa and what was then called the Belgian Congo, in the regions inhabited by the Wassara and the famous Ubangi tribes.

Starting with a long and lyrical overture, evoking the origins of the Olympic Games in ancient Greece, Riefenstahl covers twenty-one athletic events in the first half of this two-part love letter to the human body and spirit, culminating with the marathon, where Jesse Owens became the first track and field athlete to win four gold medals in a single Olympics.

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The first sound movie made entirely in Africa, Congorilla premiered in 1932 and permitted audiences to hear what they had only been able to see during previous safari films. Martin and Osa Johnson began in Kenya and Tanzania before moving to Uganda and the Congo Basin (Zaire). Along the way they filmed Zebra in the Serengeti, charging Rhinos in the Northern Frontier District (Southern Somalia), and recorded exciting encounters with Crocodiles and Hippos as they went down the Nile. The latter part of the film is devoted to the 7 months the filmmakers spent in the Ituri Forest with the Mbuti people as they captured village life despite the humidity, which caused batteries to deteriorate, wires and connections to erode, and mildew to form on camera cases.

This Traveltalk visit to Japan starts with a look at the country's cherry blossom trees, tulips, and ubiquitous gardens. We then see the proper manner for preparing a woman's hair and wearing a kimono.

A documentary of explorer Richard Halliburton's travels on the Indian sub-continent, featuring a mix of real and staged footage.

As part of a publicity campaign for the film 42nd Street (1933), Warner Bros. Pictures, with the assistance of the General Electric Corporation, assembled a 7-car gold- and silver-plated train they called "The 42nd. Street Special". With numerous Warner Bros. contract stars as passengers, the train made a tour across the USA. It was scheduled to make stops in more than 100 cities, ending in Washington, D.C. for the March 1933 inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. This short film records the send-off for this trip from Los Angeles' Santa Fe Station. Using a microphone set up on the rear platform of the last car, several people addressed the crowd attending the event. Those making remarks include performers, studio executives, and the mayor of Los Angeles.

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Propaganda film about Hitler's third flight over Germany on the occasion of the elections 1932. It shows the journey with rallies in over 20 German cities.

This short film presents several athletes preparing for the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.

The harvest of a pre-war British farm.

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Documentary produced by Falange and edited in Berlin, in response to the international success of the Republican production "Spain 1936" (Le Chanois, 1937).

What starts off as a conventional travelogue turns into a satirical portrait of the town of Nice on the French Côte d'Azur, especially its wealthy inhabitants.

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Robert Ripley draws and shows movies to train passengers. Vitaphone No. 1346.

This Traveltalk series short looks at pre-World War II Tokyo, highlighting the influences of Western culture.

Impressionistic short documentary of a Helsinki morning at the end of 1930s with a poetic narration.

The 1935 Morro films, shot by Martin and Osa Johnson, recount the 60,000 mile "Flying Safari" undertaken by the filmmakers as they flew their two amphibious airlanes(the Zebra stripped 'Osa's Ark' and the Giraffe-spotted 'Spirit of Africa') from Capetown, South Africa to Cairo, Egypt. Famous shots from the movie include the first-ever aerial pictures of the tops of Africa's highest peaks, Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya. Along the journey, Martin filmed Osa surrounded by a pride of Lions and together they captured amazing scenes of a baboon colony, an event striking enough to give the movie its name.

With the advent of sound, the world's leading screen idol, Douglas Fairbanks, experienced a downturn in his fortunes. His thin, reedy voice was not suited to the talkies, his marriage to Mary Pickford was on the outs, and his son, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., had replaced him as a major box-office draw. Faced with the Hollywood equivalent of a mid-life crisis, Doug called up three of his best friends - director Victor Fleming, cinematographer Henry Sharp, and production manager Charles Lewis - and took them on a six-month tour of Asia, ostensibly to shoot a travelogue for United Artists (of which Fairbanks was still a major shareholder.) Their first stop is Honolulu, followed in quick succession by Japan, China, Peking, Hong Kong, Indochina, the Philippines, Siam, and India. Fairbanks and company spend time at such noteworthy spots as the Taj Mahal, Angkor Wat, the Summer Palace and the Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum.

Luizinho is a young man passionate about Flamengo, fortunate enough to have his education paid for by the club, and plays in the team's lower divisions. A pupil of Rubens, the two compete for a spot on the professional team. Until Rubens introduces his friend to the woman he's in love with, Maria Helena. The problem is that she was Luizinho's childhood sweetheart, and the encounter rekindles their passion. A conflict begins between the two players that will be decided on the field.

Documentary on tuna fishing and the art of capturing, processing and manufacturing of the industry.

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No overview available