1930s Documentary Movies

Dovzhenko and Solntseva's documentary about the Bukovina region.

The problem of slum dwellings in the 1930s.

Follows the legendary female pilots Raskova, Osipenko, and Grisodubova in their failed but magnificent attempt to make the first nonstop trans-Siberian flight. Using documentary reenactments, Vertov depicts the flight, the crash, the rescue, and the women’s heroic return to Moscow, where crowds shower them with flowers, and leaders with speeches.

Scientists demonstrate the wonders of magnified objects.

The new power stations are beating like hearts to the pulse of modernisation. At gigantic expense and effort, the Soviet Union is rapidly industrialised. The state plan foresees the construction of forty power-generation centres across the country. However, the people must first be enlightened about the nature and use of electrical current. Horses and tractors, households and industry, nature and the world of work, neon signs and the construction of power stations all depend on this miraculous new source of energy. The famous Soviet director Lev Kuleshov masterfully realises this project with documentary shots, acted scenes, and lots of creative trick sequences.

A pro-Republican documentary short made during the Spanish Civil War.

For his first feature-length documentary, Bek-Nazarian uses both archival footage and re-enacted scenes to create a historical and poetic fresco about the transformation of the Nairi province into a flourishing Soviet republic.

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 film is about the establishment of a kolkhoz (collective farm) in a Kurdish village in Soviet Armenia.

A feature-length documentary based on film reports from the Spanish civil war.

Produced for the National Federation of Building Workers Ciné-Liberté, a Popular Front organization intended to counteract capitalist interests in the film industry, Epstein’s union documentary examines building policy from the perspective of ordinary workers and notable architects. In addition to touring the Cathedral of Chartres and the Paris Exposition of 1937, the film features rare interviews with Le Corbusier (at his drawing board, no less) and Auguste Perret.

An agitation and propaganda film calling on the workers and peasants of Georgia to subscribe to the Third State Industrialization Loan. The only directorial work by V. Sidamon-Eristov, a leading Georgian film artist. The film was not released due to its poor artistic quality.

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

A pro-Republican propaganda film made during the Spanish Civil War. It combines documentary reporting and narrative elements.

This film shows contrasting views of women with problematic pregnancies and the outcomes resulting when they seek out a back-alley abortionist, a trained and licensed abortion provider in a clinic, or an obstetrician capable of performing a Caesarian Section. The full film appears to be lost, but shortened versions, including one with dialogue scenes added in Germany in 1935, can be found on the internet. Additionally, Eisenstein's role in making the picture remains unclear: did he direct some or all of it, just edit it, or merely leave it to Alexandrov and Tisse to make? Released in the USA 1930 in a 65 minute (5800 ft.) version with English intertitles and a music track under the title BIRTH.

A history connoisseur's dream and a compelling, off-beat war documentary all in the same film, "Fury over Spain" chronicles 1936, the first bloody year of the Spanish civil war. Location filming by omnipresent government cameramen helps lend a raw, earthy feel to the desperate, life-and-death struggle against General Francisco Franco's Nationalist insurgents.

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.

A german adventurer leads an expedition to the Serra dos Martírios, in search of gold.

Killing to Live is a 1931 Soviet documentary directed by Vladimir Korolevitch.

Re-enactment of how the 726-carat Jonker diamond was discovered in South Africa in 1905 by the family of Jacobus Jonker; how it was sold to Harry Winston; and how it was cut by Lazarre Kaplan.

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.

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.

This is a short film that, although a documentary in appearance, has very little to do with the generic conventions of that form. It would seem, then, that what we have here is the embryo of what he was subsequently to call the "elementary": an abstract or lyrical modality in the perception and exposition of the real.

About the non-stop flight of three Soviet pilots around the globe on the stratoplane "Pobeda-1".

A visual travel diary on the expedition led by Brondeel in 1934. This expedition to Belgian Congo, by truck, became a testimony to the social conditions of Africans during the colonial era.

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

An ethnographic treasure that documents with visual bravado the harsh conditions of life in the isolated mountain village of Ushkul.

The propaganda documentary about the readiness of the Red Army to repulse any enemy is based on documentary shots taken during the real maneuvers of the Red Army. Armadas of tanks, immense columns of infantry, dozens of fighters and bombers, thousands of cavalry, legendary divisions of the Civil War. The film glorifies Soviet military power and shows the Soviet people what the war will be like when the imperialists attack the USSR — quick, victorious, almost bloodless.

A Nazi documentary extolling Germany’s Siegfried Line (“West Wall”) just before WWII, compiled from newsreel units under Fritz Hippler to showcase the fortifications’ construction and defensive purpose.

The film is dedicated to eradicating illiteracy in rural areas. Urban pioneers teach rural people to read and write.

A pro-Republican propaganda documentary made during the Spanish Civil War. It reports on the demonstration held in Barcelona on December 27, 1937 to commemorate the capture of Teruel by the Republican forces.

Home movie from Man Ray while on vacation with Pablo Picasso, Paul, Nusch and Cecile Eluard, Emily Davies, Valerie and Roland Penrose. The friends have fun with themselves and performing for the camera.

Between captured images, animations and scientific descriptions, the puraquê electric fish is presented through the eyes of Humberto Mauro and Carlos Chagas Filho.

Shows the workings of Britain's Air Post service.

A Soviet documentary made for the 10th anniversary of the new Turkish Republic in the year 1934.

Experimental collection. It began with a synchronized movie recording of a speech by Anatoly Lunacharsky, former People's Commissar of Education and Director of the Research Institute of Literature and Art, on the importance of sound cinema. Then came an hour-long movie "Five-Year Plan" - a documentary essay about the first five-year plan. Then - a small cartoon with newsreel elements "Tip-Top", the hero of which was making a round-the-world trip. By genre it was a political satire. Then there were recordings of Sergei Prokofiev's march from the play "Love for Three Oranges" and other musical numbers performed by a choir, solo singers, symphony and jazz orchestras, as well as actors from Sergei Obraztsov's puppet theater.

Between the feelings of the man who believes himself to be deceived and of the surgeon's instinct, it is the latter which triumphs in Doctor Bernon, who saves the man presumed to be his wife's lover. He then realizes that this is not the case and that she is still worthy of him.

Famous kabuki performer Kikugoro IV performs the Lion Dance, in which a young girl is possessed by the spirit of a lion and transforms into the demonic beast.

Anarchist militia column raised in Valencia (Las Salesas) in 1936; it was particularly feared by a variety of communists and reactionaries and none too well-liked by the CNT leadership because of its ideological staunchness and commitment to social revolution and libertarian communism.

A short documentary depicting the director's family.