1960s Documentary Movies

With ghostly eyes looking through the winter landscapes of the plains and villages of Ain, where the sanctified priest the Curé of Ars once lived, Jacques Demy tried to understand this fighter for communal spirituality and his daily torments of mysticism.

In 1965, the experienced director Jaroslav Mach made a documentary film with staged scenes, which dealt with the current problems of popular Czech sport. Behind the scenes of football, the playmakers looked through slavoje's team, which is preparing for the decisive match. If Coach Ram doesn't force his boys to perform convincingly, they're in danger of relegation to league two. After a series of dramatic peripeteias, Slavoj takes the field so weakened that he is caught up in the dreaded failure. Fortunately, the club's fans will eventually take their anger out on the loss of "their" team to an innocent referee. The film also features criticism of officials... In addition to actors Martin Růžek and Bohumil Šmída, Machov's film appeared real footballers Dukla and period sports stars (e.g. František Plánička).

Symmetry is one of five shorts featured in the film "Mathematical Peep Shows." The collection was made by Charles and Ray Eames for the IBM Mathematica Exhibit which opened in 1961. The degree to which an object is symmetrical is illustrated by the number of different positions in which it can fit into a box of its shape.

An experimental film in which time breaks again and again at the moment of death, where the seconds become whole lives condemned.

An atmospheric tribute to the genius of Welsh poet and dramatist Dylan Thomas, using many of the windswept locations where Thomas himself grew up and found his inspiration. The film is hosted/presented by Richard Burton, Thomas's friend, who narrates the story and appears from time to time amidst the Welsh landscape. Burton had already appeared in Douglas Cleverdon's acclaimed BBC radio dramatization of Thomas's 'play for voices' Under Milk Wood in the 1950s and, in the early Seventies, would appear in director Andrew Sinclair's film version as First Voice. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation and National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales in 2000.

No overview available

Documents the major trial of the Nazi war criminals and the violent acts that they were accused of.

The expression of the idea through image, listening by way of seing.

A short film about the actress Jennifer Salt, directed by Brian De Palma and written by Bruce Joel Rubin. Note: As of now, the film is considered lost and no known copies are publicly available.

The notorious political campaign film produced for the 1964 United States presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater.

Italian mondo documentary

A mondo film journeying through night clubs around the world.

Documentary about a boy living with his family in extreme poverty in Rio de Janeiro.

An affecting observational documentary about the education of youngsters with learning disabilities at two Rudolph Steiner schools, in Bristol and Yorkshire. An extra on the BFI Flipside DVD Private Road

A description of the various activities of Gala Day held annually at Durham when the miners and their families come to town.

Swinging London - a phenomenon which emphasized the young, the new and the modern. Fashion, music, art, media, life style and attitude. An era of optimism, and hedonism. A cultural revolution.

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Jazz vocalist Dave Lambert auditions a new group of singers at RCA Studios in 1964.

Documentary look behind the scenes of La Caravelle, an acclaimed French restaurant in New York City.

This is a montage of different images from the JFK, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy triumphs and assassinations, all three events being observed by Lyndon Johnson as the dark figure who is plotting the anti-black rights movement.

With musical accompaniment from the zarzuela 'The drum Grenadiers' by Ruperto Chapí, a pair of custodians are in the basement of the National Library of Madrid showing some canvas awarded with the National Prize for Painting between 1941 and 1969.

No overview available

No overview available

The life of Pedro Infante, with scenes from his best films and the chaos that his tragic death caused in the public.

'Coffea arábiga' was sponsored as a propaganda documentary to show how to sow coffee around Havana. In fact, Guillén Landrián made a film critical of Castro, exhibited but banned as soon as the coffee plan collapsed.

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Party, enterianment, and Behind the scenes

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This promotional film was aired on American television on 26 November 1965, one month before the release of Thunderball (1965). Narrated by Alexander Scourby, the 48 minute documentary aired as a one hour special. It included footage of the filming at Silverstone Racetrack, Northamptonshire and of the fight aboard the Disco Volante at Pinewood Studios; media coverage of Martine Beswick, Luciana Paluzzi and Claudine Auger; and archive footage of Ian Fleming at 'Goldeneye', Jamaica.

One day in a kindergarten classroom at Van Horne Public School in Montreal. The teacher encourages children to turn their curiosity into questions and organizes group activities and play periods.

No overview available

No overview available

Italian documentary film shot in several European towns (Berlin, Hamburg, London, Paris, Venice) as well as in Rome's De Paolis Studios. The movie features a series of strip-tease numbers intermixed with real-life scenes and interviews.

Scenes showing sexual rites and dances around the world are contrasted with cabaret shows at places like the Crazy Horse Saloon.

This 1965 documentary portrait of a civil war is today a remarkable time capsule of Venezuelan political and social history, and valuable background to the ongoing social conflicts in that country. FALN chronicles key events of the era, from the 1958 overthrow of dictator Perez Jimenez, and the flawed attempts at social reform by Romulo Betancourt's government, to the 1962 emergence of the national liberation movement- the FALN. The FALN engaged in rural and urban guerrilla struggle throughout the Sixties, but, failing to achieve its desired coup d'etat or to gain the support of the nation's poor, the organization had largely dissipated by the end of the decade. A compilation documentary incorporating both archival footage and original scenes shot by members of the revolutionary movement, FALN draws parallels with American foreign policy in other countries, particularly Vietnam.

The geometry of circles and ellipses is explored using the Roman Colosseum as an example. Using the Pantheon as another practical example, this program explores the concepts of central and intercepted angles, arc segments and chords. The Etude du Cinéma de l’Ecole de Barcelona (a short-lived group that appeared in Spain in the 1960s) offers the opportunity to consider the distrust of the avant-gardes with regard to narrative. The lacunar narration whose principle the School of Barcelona adopts goes against the traditional narrative and its quest for coherence and continuity. She invites the viewer to make the disconcerting experience of unbinding and emptiness. Such an approach involves an ethical posture. The Barcelona School follows in the footsteps of a modernity that intends to move away from an alienating authoritarian discourse and claims to make the spectator a partner in creation.

On your marks. Follow cyclists from 13 countries as they cover 2.400 km of Gaspé countryside in 12 days-a course longer than those of Italy, Belgium or Spain. The long shots of curving landscape and open road are set to a mesmerizing soundtrack in this documentary, and the results are spellbinding.

The collection of TV series based on Albert Maltsa’s stories. Action happens at the time of the Great depression.

Documentary on the Indigenous tribes that live in the Venezuelan Llanos.

Unconventional portrayal of mining in the Swedish Lapland ore fields, a powerful image and sound symphony that can be experienced both as a documentary and symbolic work.