851. The Land - To Have and To Hold (14:34)

Date:
1940
Main contributors:
United States. Department of Interior. Division of Motion Pictures
Summary:
Recounts the history of land ownership by small farmers in the U.S. Free land for farmers gradually disappeared as the west was settled through the 19th century, resulting in the necessity for farmers to buy land with mortgages. Describes the creation of the 1916 Federal Farm Loan Act and regional land bank systems to enable tenant farmers to become landowners. "Shows how the cooperative mortgage credit system works in the everyday lives of John and Mary Farmer, who are typical of the 600,000 members of national farm loan associations now using their own credit system to achieve the goal of owning debt-free farms" (Motion Pictures of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1945, 21).

852. The story of wheat (11:39)

Date:
1940
Summary:
Deals with the history, growth, harvesting, and preparation of wheat for its most important use as bread.

853. They also serve (07:48)

Date:
1940
Main contributors:
Grierson, Ruby, 1904-1940
Summary:
"Story of an average wartime housewife whose dawn to dusk activities provide support for the duties of soldiers and defence workers."--BFI website.

854. Community Sing: Songs of Stephen Foster (11:02)

Date:
1939
Main contributors:
Columbia Pictures Corporation
Summary:
A Columbia short subject presentation, distributed for classroom exhibition by Teaching Film Custodians. Presents Stanley Brown, Donald Grayson, and others in a program of Stephen Foster songs: Oh Susanna, Beautiful Dreamer, Jeanie with the Light Browns Hair, Old Folks at Home, Camptown Races, and My Old Kentucky Home. Costumed performers in an antebellum Southern plantation setting, each song is given a brief introduction with invitation for the audience to sing along. [Spoken dialogue and song lyrics include mutliple uses of the pejorative "darky."]

855. Heritage (15:42)

Date:
1939
Main contributors:
Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau
Summary:
History of the settlement of the western Canadian prairie lands, from pioneers in covered wagons to the booming wheat industry of the early 20th century. Shows that the prosperity brought by wheat built the western cities and led to rampant increases in production, when "wheat flowed like a golden river." The plowing of vast acreage without concern for soil conservation led to the disastrous collapse of the western agricultural economy. "Long years of intensive drought, coupled with a disastrous fall in prices, forced many Prairie farmers to board up their homes and seek work elsewhere. But the majority remained, hating to leave the land they had broken, often lacking the capital to make a fresh start. To these, the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration, working through engineers and scientists on the experimental farms and stations, restored faith and morale. Conservation of moisture, development of new methods of farming and conversion of sub marginal land to other uses all helped to put these derelict farms once again on a working basis" (National Film Board of Canada catalog record http://onf-nfb.gc.ca/en/our-collection/?idfilm=18392).

856. Juarez (29:51)

Date:
1939
Summary:
Teaching Film Custodians classroom film of excerpts from the 1939 Warner Bros., feature film, "Juarez". Dramatizes the struggle of Benito Juarez to maintain independence and republicanism in Mexico from 1863 to 1867. Focuses on the Juaristas' resistance to French-supported Emperor Maximilian. Records that, with the end of the Civil War, the United States government warned Napoleon to withdraw his troops from Mexico. Shows Maximilian gambling on a victory by the loyalist Mexican troops over the Republican Army, failing, and being executed.

858. Bring the World to the Classroom (19:54)

Date:
1938
Main contributors:
ERPI Classroom Films, Inc., Encyclopaedia Britannica Films Inc.
Summary:
Promotes the catalog of ERPI Classroom Films to educators, presenting excerpts from dozens of films with narration extolling their effectiveness (ERPI Classroom Films was the predecessor to Encylopædia Britannica Films, an acronym derived from Electrical Research Products, Inc.). "Designed to show how the sound film can surmount many barriers to human learning by bringing to the classroom concepts otherwise difficult or impossible to present" states narration. Examples of microphotography, animated diagrams, time-lapse and slow motion photography demonstrate the applications of the motion-picture film in the classroom. Travelogue, foreign cultures, training and trades are brought to the classroom. Cites a study finding that classroom films are particularly effective with "low I.Q." students. Includes time-lapse film of the solar eclipse of 1932.

859. Distance races (10:04)

Date:
1938
Main contributors:
Erpi Classroom Films, Lawson Robertson, Dean Cromwell, Brutus Hamilton, Harold A. Bruce, Amateur Athletic Union of the United States
Summary:
Includes races from 1,000 to 10,000 meters and steeplechase. Style of distance runner contrasted vividly with that of dash man. Differences in typical physiques. Steeplechase portrays various methods employed by participants in clearing barriers. An instructional sound film.

860. Livestock and Mankind (10:58)

Date:
1938
Main contributors:
United States. Department of Agriculture. Bureau of Animal Industry
Summary:
An address given by Dr. John R. Mohler, Chief of the USDA Bureau of Animal Industry, provides narration for this film reporting on the work of the Bureau. "Animal husbandry and veterinary science increase the usefulness of domestic animals to mankind. Research, regulatory, and informational work of the United States Department of Agriculture; Cooperation with the States in the eradication of diseases; inspection of herds; laws regulating dairy conditions; livestock improvement; scientific poultry raising" (Motion Pictures of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1945, 35).

861. Future stars (09:05)

Date:
1937
Summary:
Mass exercise, tumbling, acrobatics, horseback riding, soapbox derbies, rowing, swimming and flying miniature airplanes.

862. Parabola (08:45)

Date:
1937
Summary:
Presents a rhythmical development and elaboration of parabolic curves synchronized with the Darius Milhaud ballet suite "La Creation du Monde."

864. The romance of Robert Burns (16:12)

Date:
1937
Summary:
Presents a fictionized story woven about episodes in the life of Robert Burns. Includes Burns's trip to Edinburgh to visit wealthy patrons and his ill-treatment at their hands. He recites to them "A Man's a Man for a' That." Returning to his native village, he stops the wedding of his sweetheart to another man.

865. Alaska's silver millions (30:55)

Date:
1936
Summary:
This informative short film narrated by Father Bernard Hubbard 'The Glacier Priest' shows in detail the large and lucrative salmon fishing industry in Alaska, from the catching of the fish to their canning.

866. Little dutch mill (08:41)

Date:
1934
Main contributors:
National Cinema Service
Summary:
In this Max Fleischer classic, two Dutch children find themselves in trouble with a menacing miser. 3-D animation.

867. Industrial Britain (21:52)

Date:
1933
Summary:
"Grierson had always admired the documentary work of American filmmaker Robert Flaherty (Nanook of the North) and hired him to make Industrial Britain, though he and his staff ultimately had to complete the film when money ran out. As with other Grierson influenced documentaries of the mid-1930's, its frequent low angle close-ups heroicize the workers, their patience and their toil. The skills of glass blowers, machinists and other craftsmen are, the narration suggests, the bedrock of England's industrial might and the ability to sustain the British Empire"--Videodisc sleeve.

868. Knight duty (21:44)

Date:
1933
Summary:
Features Harry Langdon, the great baby-faced comedian, as a meek little man trapped in a wax museum. Shows how he has hilarious encounters with cops, wax figures, and jewel thieves.

869. The little king : Christmas night (07:55)

Date:
1933
Summary:
Presents a cartoon movie of Soglow's Little King. On Christmas Eve, the Little King sneaks two tramps into the castle. The next morning, the three men are thrilled by the presents Santa left behind.

870. When in Rome (10:00)

Date:
1932
Summary:
A travelogue of Rome. Captures ancient sites of the city, Roman society, the Fascist population, and intimate scenes of Benito Mussolini at home with his children.

871. Tin (17:05)

Date:
1930
Summary:
Shows opencast mining, sluicing, and bucket dredging in tin mines in the Malay States; tin as it is shipped to the United States; and the processes of making tin plate, tin cans for food containers; and various tin-base alloys.

872. Through life's windows (16:18)

Date:
1927
Summary:
An educational film on eyesight which shows headaches, inefficiency in work and accidents to be results of defective vision. By animation and models, the mechanics of the eye are shown and the comparison between the eye and camera lens is drawn. Every movie maker should be interested in the diagram illustrating astigmatism and the film should be of value to schools in impressing the necessity of good vision.

873. Anemic cinema (04:56)

Date:
1926
Main contributors:
Marcel Duchamp
Summary:
Marcel Duchamp's only film is an example of "graphic cinema." It wittingly demonstrates the intertwining of the visual and verbal responses to viewing a film. The title itself- "anemic" is an anagram of "cinema." Disks of spirals which create optical illusions alternate with disks containing elaborately obscene puns. Duchamp condenses the whole range of sexual elements involving emergence and penetration of a plane surface into a model association between the illusions of gyrating cones and the allusions to breasts, genitals and defecation. --WorldCat

875. The great train robbery (19:27)

Date:
1903
Summary:
A presentation of two of the first feature films in history, with the addition of sound. Bandits tie up the station master, stop the train, rob the mail car, take the passenger's valuables, and then escape, and the station master's daughter frees her father, alerts a group at a dance who then chase and overtake the robbers.

876. This Is Indiana (29:02)

Date:
0000
Summary:
Presents the importance of farming and farm life in Indiana and shows how mechanized methods have improved products and brought better economic conditions to the farmers. Explains what the Farm Bureau Cooperative Association is and how it has helped the farmers. Uses views of the Indiana State Fair to indicate that the farmer is the center of focus there.