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A list of avant-garde and experimental films made in the 1930s. Unless where noted, all films had sound and were in black and white.
Title | Director | Cast | Nation | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1930 | ||||||
L'Âge d'Or | Luis Buñuel | Gaston Modot, Lya Lys, Max Ernst | France | Surrealist feature, produced by Charles de Noailles [1] | ||
Autour de la fin du monde | Eugène Deslaw | Abel Gance | France | Extraordinary, semi-experimental "making of" documentary shot on set of Abel Gance's "La fin du monde;" silent [2] | ||
Apteka (Pharmacy) | Stefan Themerson, Franciszka Themerson | Poland | Rayographic animation, lost [3] | |||
Aimless Walk | Alexandr Hackenschmied (Alexander Hammid) | Czechoslovakia | City film [4] | |||
Borderline | Kenneth Macpherson | Paul Robeson, H.D. | United Kingdom | Pool film; silent [5] | ||
A City Symphony | Herman G. Weinberg | United States | City film, never shown, disassembled and partly used in Autumn Fire [6] | |||
Crying for the Carolines | Leon Schlesinger, Neil McGuire | Milton Charles | United States | A "Spooney Melodie;" Semi-abstract music short [7] [8] | ||
Earth | Oleksandr Dovzhenko | Soviet Union | Silent feature; part of the director's Ukraine Trilogy. | |||
It's a Bird | Harold Mueller | Charles Bowers, Lowell Thomas | United States | Semi-animated short where an egg transforms into an automobile [9] | ||
Ein Lichtspiel: Schwarz/Weiss/Grau | László Moholy-Nagy | Weimar Republic | ||||
Light Rhythms | Francis Brugière, Oswell Blakeston | United Kingdom | Light-oriented, non-animated abstract film [10] | |||
Mechanical Principles | Ralph Steiner | United States | Abstract film based on machinery; sometimes dated to 1933 [11] | |||
Mennschen am Sonntag (People on Sunday) | Curt Siodmak, Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer, Fred Zinnemann, Rochus Gliese | Erwin Splettstößer, Brigitte Borchert | Weimar Republic | City film, partly written by Billy Wilder; silent [12] | ||
The Power of Suggestion | M.G. MacPherson (director), Jean D. Michelson (editor) | United States | Artkino [13] production; Lost film [14] [6] | |||
À propos de Nice | Jean Vigo | France | City film | |||
Romance Sentimentale | Grigory Alexandrov, Sergei Eisenstein | Mara Griy | France | "Étude cinematographique" [15] | ||
The Story of a Nobody | Jo Gerson, Louis Hirshman | United States | Experiment in subjective camerawork, Lost film [16] | |||
Studie(s) Nr. 2-4 | Oskar Fischinger | Weimar Republic | Abstract animations; Nr. 4 Lost [17] | |||
R.5, Ein Spiel in Linien (Studie Nr. 5) | Oskar Fischinger | Weimar Republic | Abstract animation [17] | |||
Studie Nr. 6 | Oskar Fischinger | Weimar Republic | Abstract animation [17] | |||
Such Is Life | Carl Junghans | Vera Baranovskaya, Theodor Pištěk | Czechoslovakia | Czech avant-garde social realist feature; silent [18] | ||
Tomatos Another Day | James Sibley Watson Jr. | United States | Absurdist comedy written by Alec Wilder [19] | |||
The Trap | M.G. MacPherson (director), Jean D. Michelson (editor) | United States | Artkino [13] production, Lost film [6] | |||
Wochenende (Weekend) | Walter Ruttmann | Weimar Republic | Audio-only film collage; no image [20] | |||
Yamekraw | Murray Roth | Hugo Marianni & His Mediterraneans | United States | Vitaphone "opera film" visualization of tone poem by James Price Johnson, heavily indebted to German expressionism. [21] [22] [23] | ||
1931 | ||||||
Autumn Fire | Herman G. Weinberg | Erna Bergman, Willy Hildebrand | United States | Cinematic poem; mixed nature and city film [6] | ||
A Bronx Morning | Jay Leyda | United States | City film; silent [24] | |||
City of Contrasts | Irving Browning | United States | City film [25] [6] | |||
Dance Film | Ralph Steiner | United States | Dance film [6] | |||
A Day in Santa Fe | Lynn Riggs, James Hughes | United States | City film [10] [26] | |||
Douro, Faina Flouval | Manoel de Oliveira | Portugal | City film | |||
Enthusiasm: Symphony of the Donbass | Dziga Vertov | Soviet Union | Documentary film with montage of both visuals and sound | |||
Hearts of the West | Theodore Huff | United States | Genre parody [6] | |||
Imperial Valley | Seymour Stern | United States | Experimental documentary, sometimes dated to 1932 or 1933; Stern taken off production which was finished by others, Lost film [27] [28] | |||
Limite | Mário Peixoto | Olga Breno, Raul Schnoor | Brazil | Advertised as 'pure cinema;' first Brazilian avant-garde film [29] | ||
At the Prague Castle | Alexandr Hackenschmied | Czechoslovakia | Semi-documentary [4] | |||
Panther Woman of the Needle Trades, or The Lovely Life of Little Lisa | Ralph Steiner | Elizabeth Hawes, Morris Carnovsky | United States | Satire, print extant at MOMA [6] | ||
Portrait of a Young Man in Three Movements | Henwar Rodakiewicz | United States | Feature length experimental film, begun in 1925 [30] [31] | |||
Studie(s) Nr. 7-9 | Oskar Fischinger | Weimar Republic | Abstract animation [17] | |||
Surf and Seaweed | Ralph Steiner | United States | Photographic abstract film, sometimes dated to 1930. [32] | |||
The Light Penetrates the Darkness | Otakar Vávra, František Pilát | Czechoslovakia | Photographic abstract film [33] | |||
Taris, roi de l'eau | Jean Vigo | France | Documentary about a swimming champion | |||
1932 | ||||||
Blood of a Poet | Jean Cocteau | Lee Miller, Pauline Carton, Odette Talazacuez | France | Surrealist feature, produced by Charles de Noailles; often misdated to 1930–31 [34] | ||
Burleska | Jan Kučera | Czechoslovakia | Experimental short; Kučera's only film [35] | |||
Destiny | Josef Berne | United States | Dated "ca. 1932" [6] | |||
Europa | Stefan Themerson, Franciszka Themerson | Poland | Abstract animation, based on the poem by Anatol Stern; lost, but partially reconstructed in 1984 [3] | |||
The Fortune Teller | Jerome Hill | United States | Tinting and hand-coloring added in the 1960s [36] [37] | |||
Granite, a.k.a. The Quarry | Ralph Steiner | United States | [6] | |||
Harbor Scenes | Ralph Steiner | United States | [6] | |||
Histoire du soldat inconnu | Henri Storck | Belgium | ||||
L'idée | Berthold Bartosch | France | Surreal animation; music by Arthur Honegger | |||
Koloraturen (Coloratura) | Oskar Fischinger | Weimar Republic | Abstract animation [17] | |||
Kuhle Wampe | Bertolt Brecht, Slatan Dudow | Weimar Republic | Agitprop film, written by Bertolt Brecht with music by Hanns Eisler. | |||
Land of the Sun | Seymour Stern | United States | Experimental documentary [38] [27] | |||
Little Geezer | Theodore Huff | United States | Genre parody [6] [39] | |||
Ornament Sound Experiments | Oskar Fischinger | Weimar Republic | Synthetic sound experiments [17] | |||
Poem 8 | Emlen Etting | Mary Binney Montgomery, Caresse Crosby | United States | Dance film, shot in 8mm, silent [40] | ||
Před maturitou (Before Matriculation) | Svatopluk Innemann, Vladislav Vančura | Jindřich Plachta, František Smolík | Czechoslovakia | Semi-experimental feature film [35] [41] | ||
Qué vivá México! | Sergei Eisenstein, Grigori Alexandrov | Félix Balderas, Martín Hernández | Mexico | Begun in 1931, never completed by Eisenstein; edited into numerous other films [42] | ||
Studie(s) Nr. 10-11 | Oskar Fischinger | Weimar Republic | Abstract animation [17] | |||
Studie Nr. 12 | Oskar Fischinger, Hans Fischinger | Weimar Republic | Abstract animation [17] | |||
Sur les bords de la caméra (Pictures on the Sideline) | Henri Storck | Belgium | ||||
Visions of Lourdes | Charles Dekeukeleire | Belgium | ||||
1933 | ||||||
7 till 5 | Norman McLaren | United Kingdom | Amateur city film [43] | |||
Dawn to Dawn | Josef Berne, Seymour Stern | Julie Haydon, Ole M. Ness, Frank Eklof | United States | a.k.a. "Black Dawn," short, Naturalist melodrama [44] [6] [45] | ||
Deserter | Vsevolod Pudovkin | Boris Livanov, Vasili Kovrigin | Soviet Union | Asynchronous use of sound and image [46] | ||
Drobiazg Melodyjny (Moment Musical) | Stefan Themerson, Franciszka Themerson | Poland | Rayographic animation, Lost [3] | |||
Footnote to Fact | Lewis Jacobs | United States | City film [47] | |||
G-3 | Ralph Steiner | United States | Also dated to 1932 [6] [48] | |||
Las Hurdes: Tierra Sin Pan | Luis Buñuel | Abel Jacquin, Alexandre O'Neill | Spain | Documentary, co-written by Buñuel and Surrealist poet Pierre Unik, with music by Darius Milhaud | ||
In the Icy Wastes of Dialectical Materialism | Luis Buñuel, Charles de Noailles | France | Re-edited section of L'age d'or, rendered as comedy and shown in leftist theaters in Eastern Europe; lost. [49] | |||
Lot in Sodom | James Sibley Watson Jr., Melville Webber | Friedrich Haak, Hildegarde Watson | United States | Experimental short based on Biblical story [50] | ||
Mr. Motorboat's Last Stand | John Flory, Theodore Huff | Leonard Stirrup | United States | Satire [6] [45] | ||
On the Sunny Side | Vladislav Vančura | Filip Balek-Brodský, Hana Bečková | Czechoslovakia | Didactic feature film [35] [51] | ||
Une nuit sur le mont chauve | Alexandre Alexieff, Claire Parker | France | First pinscreen animation, also dated to 1934, 1931 [52] | |||
Oil—A Symphony in Motion | M.G. MacPherson (director), Jean D. Michelson (editor) | United States | Only extant Artkino [13] production [6] [37] [53] [54] [55] [56] | |||
Oramunde | Emlen Etting | Caresse Crosby, Mary Binney Montgomery | United States | Dance film [37] [57] | ||
Poslovi konzula Dorgena (Consul Dorgen's Business) | Oktavijan Miletić | Šime Marov, Ivan Alpi-Rauch | Yugoslavia | Experimental dramatic short; won a prize awarded by Louis Lumière [58] [59] | ||
Prostoy sluchay (A Simple Case) | Vsevolod Pudovkin | Aleksandr Baturin, Mariya Belousova | Soviet Union | Naturalist drama, begun in 1931; silent [60] | ||
Pueblo | Seymour Stern | United States | Experimental documentary; never finished, Lost film [27] | |||
Synchromy | Mary Ellen Bute, Lewis Jacobs, Joseph Schillinger | United States | Abstract animation, never completed [61] | |||
Tilly Losch in the Dance of Her Hands | Norman Bel Geddes | Tilly Losch | United States | Dance film, dated 1930–33 [37] | ||
The Earth Sings | Karel Plicka, Alexandr Hackenschmied | Czechoslovakia | Experimentally edited ethnographic semi-documentary, with music score [4] | |||
Zéro de conduite | Jean Vigo | France | ||||
1934 | ||||||
Atoms of Eternity | Čeněk Zahradníček | Czechoslovakia | ||||
Beyond This Open Road | B. Vivian Braun | United Kingdom | ||||
Café Universal | Ralph Steiner | United States | Satire featuring members of The Group Theatre [6] | |||
Camera Makes Whoopee | Norman McLaren | United Kingdom | Amateur film; montage experiments [62] | |||
La Joie de vivre | Anthony Gross, Hector Hoppin | France | Stylized, surreal animated film [63] | |||
The Furies | Slavko Vorkapich | United States | Surreal special effects insert for feature, "Crime without Passion" [64] | |||
Hands | Ralph Steiner, Willard Van Dyke | United States | Sponsored by the Works Project Administration; also dated 1936-7 and edited into later films [65] [16] | |||
Happiness | Aleksandr Medvedkin | Petr Zinoviev, Elena Egorova | Soviet Union | Soviet satire; stylized, silent [66] | ||
The Hearts of Age | William Vance, Orson Welles | Virginia Nicolson, Orson Welles | United States | Amateur experimental film, made at the Todd School, Chicago [37] | ||
Kreise (Circles) | Oskar Fischinger | Weimar Republic | Abstract animation, exists in two versions, color [17] | |||
Liebesspiel | Oskar Fischinger | Nazi Germany | Abstract animation, first exhibited posthumously; silent [17] | |||
Man of Aran | Robert J. Flaherty | Ireland | Fictionalised documentary | |||
Marijka nevěrnice (Faithless Maritza) | Vladislav Vančura | Hana Maria Pravda | Czechoslovakia | Semi-experimental feature [35] [67] | ||
Muratti Greift Ein (Muratti Gets in the Act) | Oskar Fischinger | Nazi Germany | Dancing cigarette animation, Gasparcolor [17] | |||
Prisoner | Roman Freulich | George Sari, Jack Rockwell | United States | Expressionistic short, made in Hollywood, lost film [6] | ||
Quadrate (Squares) | Oskar Fischinger | Nazi Germany | Abstract animation, silent, Gasparcolor [17] | |||
Rhythm in Light | Mary Ellen Bute | United States | Abstract animation [68] | |||
Ein Spiel in Farben (A Play in Colors) | Oskar Fischinger | Nazi Germany | Abstract animation, a.k.a. Studie No. 11a, color [17] | |||
Studie Nr. 13 (Coriolan Fragment) | Oskar Fischinger | Nazi Germany | Abstract animation, unfinished [17] | |||
Sweet Land of Liberty | Leo Hurwitz | United States | Satirical documentary; Lost film [69] | |||
Žijeme v Praze (We Live in Prague) | Otakar Vávra | Czechoslovakia | City film [70] | |||
1935 | ||||||
A Colour Box | Len Lye | United Kingdom | ||||
Colour Cocktail | Norman McLaren | United Kingdom | Abstract animation; lost film [71] | |||
Ghost Town: The Story of Fort Lee | Theodore Huff, Mark Borgatte | United States | Semi-documentary [25] [72] | |||
Gypsy Night | Josef Berne, Harold Hecht | United States | Musical short, set in a Gypsy camp, color [73] | |||
The Hands on Tuesday | Čeněk Zahradníček | Czechoslovakia | [74] [35] | |||
Hollywood | Vic Kandel, Robert Del Duca | United States | Satire, Lost film [69] | |||
Kinetic Molpai | Ted Shawn | Ted Shawn and his Men Dancers | United States | Modern dance film [75] | ||
Komposition in Blau (Composition in Blue) | Oskar Fischinger | Nazi Germany | Abstract animation in Gasparcolour [17] | |||
November | Otakar Vávra, Alexandr Hackenschmied | Czechoslovakia | [70] [35] | |||
Muratti Privat | Oskar Fischinger | Nazi Germany | Dancing cigarette animation, black and white [17] | |||
Pie in the Sky | Ralph Steiner, Elia Kazan, Molly Day Thatcher, Irving Lerner | Elia Kazan, Russell Collins | United States | Satire [76] | ||
Pink Guards On Parade | Oskar Fischinger | Nazi Germany | Abstract advertisement, Gasparcolor, unfinished; recreation on video made in 2000 by William Moritz [17] | |||
Poison | Man Ray | Man Ray, Meret Oppenheim | France | Double "portrait" film of Ray and Oppenheim [77] | ||
Polychrome Phantasy | Norman McLaren | Canada | Abstract animation, color [78] | |||
Synchromy No. 2 | Mary Ellen Bute, Ted Nemeth | United States | Abstract animation [79] | |||
Zwarcie (Short Circuit) | Stefan Themerson, Franciszka Themerson | Poland | Abstract animation, music by Witold Lutoslawski, Lost [3] | |||
1936 | ||||||
145 W 21 | Rudy Burckhardt | Paul Bowles, Aaron Copland | United States | [80] | ||
The Birth of the Robot | Len Lye | United Kingdom | ||||
Black and White Rhapsody | Martin Frič | Czechoslovakia | City film [35] | |||
Dada | Mary Ellen Bute, produced by Ted Nemeth | United States | Abstract animation, black and white [81] | |||
Hell Unlimited | Helen Biggar, Norman McLaren | United Kingdom | Anti-war political short [82] | |||
The New Architecture and the London Zoo | László Moholy-Nagy | United Kingdom | ||||
Redes | Emilio Gómez Muriel, Fred Zinnemann | Silvio Hernández, Rafael Hinojosa | Mexico | Cinematography by Paul Strand, music by Silvestre Revueltas; Eisenstein-influenced revolutionary film [83] | ||
Rose Hobart | Joseph Cornell | Rose Hobart | United States | Collage film [84] | ||
1937 | ||||||
Even—As You and I | LeRoy Robbins, Harry Hay | Hy Hirsh | United States | |||
Escape | Mary Ellen Bute, produced by Ted Nemeth | United States | Abstract animation, color [81] | |||
Monsieur Fantômas | Ernst Moerman | Belgium | ||||
An Optical Poem | Oskar Fischinger | United States | Abstract animation, distributed by MGM, color [17] | |||
Parabola | Mary Ellen Bute, Ted Nemeth, Bill Nemeth, Rutherford Boyd | United States | Abstract animation [85] | |||
Przygoda Czlowieka Poczciwego (The Adventure of a Good Citizen) | Stefan Themerson, Franciszka Themerson | Poland | Satire [3] | |||
Seeing the World No. 1: A Trip to New York CIty | Rudy Burckhardt | United States | City film [10] | |||
Silnice spívá (The Highway Sings) | Elmar Klos, Alexandr Hackenschmied | Czechoslovakia | Experimental advertising film [4] | |||
1938 | ||||||
Bookstalls | Joseph Cornell | United States | Collage film, title added posthumously; Silent [10] [86] | |||
Carousel: Animal Opera | Joseph Cornell | United States | Collage film [10] | |||
The Children's Jury | Joseph Cornell | United States | Collage film, Silent [10] | |||
The Children's Trilogy: Cotillion, The Midnight Party, The Children's Party | Joseph Cornell | United States | Collage film, put into a final form by Larry Jordan ca. 1967–70, Silent [10] | |||
Family Film | José Val del Omar | Spain | ||||
Fragment from Caroland's Mansion | Frank Stauffacher | United States | [87] | |||
Jack's Dream | Joseph Cornell | United States | Collage film, put into a final form by Larry Jordan ca. 1970 [10] | |||
N or NW | Len Lye | United Kingdom | ||||
Thimble Theater | Joseph Cornell | United States | Collage film, title added posthumously; Silent [10] | |||
Tree Trunk to Head | Lewis Jacobs | Chaim Gross | United States | Semi-documentary, silent [88] | ||
1939 | ||||||
The City | Ralph Steiner, Willard Van Dyke | United States | City film for New York World's Fair, written by Pare Lorentz [89] | |||
Dance of the Colors | Hans Fischinger | Germany | Abstract animation, color [17] | |||
Haiti | Rudy Burckhardt | United States | [90] [91] [92] | |||
Love on the Wing | Norman McLaren | United Kingdom | Abstract animation, color [93] | |||
Scherzo | Norman McLaren | United Kingdom | Abstract animation, color [94] | |||
Spare Time | Humphrey Jennings | United Kingdom | Short documentary about British people at leisure, inspired by Mass Observation | |||
Spook Sport | Mary Ellen Bute, Ted Nemeth, Norman McLaren | United States | Abstract animation, color, animation by McLaren [81] | |||
Stars and Stripes | Norman McLaren | United Kingdom | Abstract animation, color [94] | |||
Time in the Sun | Marie Seton | United Kingdom | Composite film, made of footage shot by Sergei Eisenstein for Qué vivá México! [95] | |||
Robert Florey was a French-American director, screenwriter, film journalist and actor.
Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, particularly early ones, relate to arts in other disciplines: painting, dance, literature and poetry, or arise from research and development of new technical resources.
Nicola Napoli, was the President of Artkino Pictures, Inc., the primary distributor of Soviet films in the United States, Canada, Central America and South America from 1940 to 1982. Napoli was a double agent Soviet Spy for the United States. In 1941, he became an informant for the secret information concerning formulas and products manufactured by Dupont Corporation of America. As part of his role he was a member of Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) and is known to have passed classified Soviet intelligence information (NKVDUS) to US intelligence during World War II. He was the secretary for the Anti-Fascists movement in, New York.
Ralph Steiner was an American photographer, pioneer documentarian and a key figure among avant-garde filmmakers in the 1930s.
Alexandr Hackenschmied, born Alexander Siegfried George Hackenschmied, known later as Alexander Hammid was a Czech-American photographer, film director, cinematographer and film editor. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1938 and became involved in American avant-garde cinema. He is best known for three films: Crisis (1939), Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) and To Be Alive! (1964). He made Meshes of the Afternoon with Maya Deren, to whom he was married from 1942 to 1947. His second marriage was to the photographer Hella Heyman, who had also collaborated with Hammid and Deren on several films.
James Sibley Watson Jr. was an American medical doctor, philanthropist, publisher, editor, photographer, and early experimenter in motion pictures.
Moods of the Sea (1941) is a non-narrative experimental film by Slavko Vorkapich and John Hoffman, set to the music of Felix Mendelssohn known as the Hebrides Overture.
Slavoljub "Slavko" Vorkapić, known in English as Slavko Vorkapich, was a Serbian-born Hollywood montagist, an independent cinematic artist, chair of USC School of Cinematic Arts, chair of the Belgrade Film and Theatre Academy, painter, and illustrator. He was a prominent figure of modern cinematography and motion picture film art during the early and mid-20th century and was a cinema theorist and lecturer.
Gaston Modot was a French actor. For more than 50 years he performed for the cinema working with a number of great French directors.
Spencer Douglass Crockwell was an American commercial artist and experimental filmmaker. He was most famous for his illustrations and advertisements for The Saturday Evening Post and for murals and posters for the Works Progress Administration.
Louis "Lou" Hirshman (1905-1986) was an American artist known for his witty and imaginative use of found objects for caricatures of celebrities and politicians, and in later years for scenes of everyday life.
She's No Lady is a 1937 American comedy film directed by Charles Vidor and starring Ann Dvorak, John Trent and Harry Beresford. It was produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures.
Henri Chomette (1896–1941) was a French actor, screenwriter and film director. He was the brother of the film director René Clair.
Opus IV is a 1925 German absolute film directed by Walter Ruttmann. The film is approximately 3m 55s in length. It uses abstract animation.
Lullaby is a 1929 American silent drama film directed by Boris Deutsch and starring Michael Visaroff, and Riva Segal. In Lullaby there is not only a deeply realistic plot that is investigated by the director with a skilled use of light and close-up but also a sort of dream plot that lives in the interiority of the female protagonist represented through faces of demons tormenting her sleep and cubist alteration of the cityscape realized using Deutsch's paintings. In the development of the film the two planes, the real one and the dream one, merge each other and the reality for the female protagonist is one that embraces both sphere of matter and spirit. A work that ahead of its times. Only in 40s, after 14 years, Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid will make similar films. Boris Deutsch declared that "is desire was to get at the abstract reality, the realm of mental imagery and imagination, without losing of the world of reality"
Hildegarde Lasell Watson was an American actress, singer, writer and arts patron.
George W. Weeks (1885–1953) was an American film producer. During the early 1930s he was involved with Sono Art Pictures and Mayfair Pictures. In the 1940s he released his films, including the Range Busters series featuring Ray "Crash" Corrigan, through Monogram Pictures.
Mechanical Principles is a 1930 experimental short film directed by Ralph Steiner.
Danse Macabre is a 1922 American short film directed by Dudley Murphy and conceived by ballet dancer Adolph Bolm, who also stars in the film. Set to Danse macabre, a symphonic poem for orchestra by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns, the film depicts Youth (Bolm) and Love attempting to evade the grasp of Death in Spain during the Black Plague. The film is one of a series of twelve "visual symphonies" set to classical music by Murphy, and was advertised as the first dance film to be synchronized with a sound score.
Unrelated to the U.S. distributor of Soviet films, Artkino was the name chosen by two amateur movie enthusiasts, Jean D. Michelson and M.G. McPherson, from Burbank, California. In the late 1920s and early 1930s they completed several fiction shorts, which they shot in 35mm, including "War Under the Sea" (1929), "The Trap" (1930), and "Oil" (1930–33). —JAN-CHRISTOPHER HORAK
Oil was produced by a Los Angeles collective of amateur filmmakers, called "Artkino," who here attempted a lyric documentary from the point of view of the oil itself. Cinematographer: Jean Michelson.
one of a seven-DVD series exploring American avant-garde cinema from 1894–1941.
"Ghost Town: The Story of Fort Lee" (1935, Theodore Huff) played after lunch Monday afternoon, a sad and moving documentary about the disappearing or destroyed silent film studios of Fort Lee, a metaphor for the Great Depression and the United States' financial collapse.
Film/Theatre/Compositional Matrix