Primary

Primary is a documentary film about the primary elections between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey in 1960. Primary is the first documentary to use light equipment in order to follow their subjects in a more intimate filmmaking style. This unconventional way of filming created a new look for documentary films where the camera’s lens was right in the middle of what ever drama was occurring. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 1998.

Mountain Music

Mountain Music illustrates what happens when technology gets too advanced too soon. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

小学校～それは小さな社会～

Intimately following 1st and 6th graders at a public elementary school in Tokyo, we observe kids learning the traits necessary to become part of Japanese society.

In the Army Now

Bones Conway and Jack Kaufman, two misguided youths, join the reserves to make some easy money for their entrepreneurial dreams. Unfortunately, no sooner than they finish basic training they find themselves at war as part of the water purification team.

Stip & Pensil

Toni, Aghi, Bubu, and Saras get the task of making essays. They create a free school for street children but they chose to earn money than learn.

Appointment in Tokyo

Produced by the Army Pictorial Service, Signal Corps, with the cooperation of the Army Air Forces and the United States Navy, and released by Warner Bros. for the War Activities Committee shortly after the surrender of Japan. Follow General Douglas MacArthur and his men from their exile from the Philippines in early 1942, through the signing of the instrument of surrender on the USS Missouri on September 1, 1945. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

The Sound of Music

In the years before the Second World War, a tomboyish postulant at an Austrian abbey is hired as a governess in the home of a widowed naval captain with seven children, and brings a new love of life and music into the home.

Sesame Street: Elmo's World: Reach for the Sky!

Join Elmo as he discovers how much fun it can be to go to school, to jump really high, and to reach for the sky. Elmo finds out the importance of going to school.

Dance for All

America's Hidden Weapon

Documentary short film demonstrating the way wartime farming measures in 1943 resulted in the greatest American food crop in history. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

Hoop Dreams

Every school day, African-American teenagers William Gates and Arthur Agee travel 90 minutes each way from inner-city Chicago to St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois, a predominately white suburban school well-known for the excellence of its basketball program. Gates and Agee dream of NBA stardom, and with the support of their close-knit families, they battle the social and physical obstacles that stand in their way. This acclaimed documentary was shot over the course of five years.

The Dirty War on the NHS

John Pilger unearths the hidden agenda behind the NHS crisis.

The Art Director

A film's art director is in charge of the set, from conception to construction to furnishing. This short film walks the viewer through art directors' responsibilities and the demands on their talents. They read a script carefully and design a set to capture the time and place, the social strata, and the mood. They must be scholars of the history of architecture, furnishings, and fashion. They choose the colors on a set in anticipation of the lighting and the mood. Their work also sets styles, from Art Deco in the 20's to 30s modernism. Then it's on to the next project. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

En enkelt til Korsør

Rasmus defends his Ph.D in Danish literature entitled "The Romantic Idiot", but with his special qualifications there are not many jobs around. To reduce his study loan he settles for a temporary teaching job at an adult education programme in the provincial town of Korsør. Here, Rasmus meets a complex group of people and takes part in their lives. He falls dramatically in love with one of his pupils, Signe, who dreams of having a child with her partner, Camilla. Playing the role of a romantic idiot in Korsør just isn't plain sailing for Rasmus.

Martian Child

A recently-widowed science fiction writer considers whether to adopt a hyper-imaginative 6-year-old abandoned and socially-rejected boy who says he's really from Mars.

Être et avoir

The documentary's title translates as "to be and to have", the two auxiliary verbs in the French language. It is about a primary school in the commune of Saint-Étienne-sur-Usson, Puy-de-Dôme, France, the population of which is just over 200. The school has one small class of mixed ages (from four to twelve years), with a dedicated teacher, Georges Lopez, who shows patience and respect for the children as we follow their story through a single school year.

God Respects Us When We Work, But Loves Us When We Dance

Les Blank's poetic documentation of 1967's Los Angeles Easter Sunday Love-In. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2002.

Carta Para Além dos Muros

Letter Beyond the Walls reconstructs the trajectory of HIV and AIDS with a focus on Brazil, through interviews with doctors, activists, patients and other actors, in addition to extensive archival material. From the initial panic to awareness campaigns, passing through the stigma imposed on people living with HIV, the documentary shows how society faced this epidemic in its deadliest phase over more than two decades. With this historical approach as its base, the film looks at the way HIV is viewed in today's society, revealing a picture of persistent misinformation and prejudice, which especially affects Brazil’s most historically vulnerable populations.

Lo zebù e la stella

A zebu disappears while children are drawing it. They find it again in the woods. The notes of a harp accompany their multi-coloured joy. This short was made with children from a nursery school in Mantua. Playing with colours, the children seem to conquer the world.

Manzanar

Short film about the Manzanar Japanese American internment camp. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2011.