Experimental film of a wave, recorded on the bay of Naples.
Consisting of a single shot, Spiders on a Web is one of the earliest British examples of close-up natural history photography. Made by one of the pioneers of the British film industry, G.A. Smith, this short film details spiders trapped in an enclosure, and despite the title, does not actually feature a web.
Charming animated illustration of one of nature's wonders from Britain's most inventive pioneer of wildlife filmmaking.
Directed by one of the pioneers of the cinematic industry, James Williamson, The History of a Butterfly - A Romance of Insect Life is an intriguing look at the life cycles of butterflies and moths. Caterpillars are seen hatching, feeding and ready for pupation and with three caterpillars changing into chrysalis and the birth of a peacock butterfly, this black and white silent film is an early example of British natural history filmmaking.
"Percy Smith (1880-1944) was world famous as a photographer of plant life. Probably the first British example of time-lapse photography as applied to the growth of plants." Monthly Film Bulletin, November 1955.
The carrot caterpillar hides among and feeds on the leafy foliage in carrot fields. A man demonstrates how difficult it is to detect and remove them from the carrot plants. They propel themselves with their six feet and twelve suction cups. To ward off enemies, they display two horns which secrete a malodorous liquid. Before the chrysalis stage of their development, they attach themselves to a surface and two days later burst from their shell. After spending the winter as a chrysalis, they emerge as swallowtail butterflies. Once they have bathed their wings in dew and dried off, they are ready to fly. (Library of Congress)
A film about the Veluwe region of the Netherlands, by the director of the Gemeentelijke Schoolbioscoop in Rotterdam. We see detailed images of villages, towns, moors, streams, ponds, poultry, and sheep farming. Van der Wel shot his own footage (according to the intertitles), but also used existing films. He drew mainly on the ‘city films’ from the catalogue of HAP & BenS. We see, for example, images from the films "Oosterbeek aan den Rijn" and "De Steeg" made by the Arnhem film company AFKO; and from the films made for Haghe Film "From Arnhem en omstreken" to "Barneveld and Elburg", directed by Willy Mullens.
A bug’s life laid bare in this charming cut-out animated tale.
Professional dancer Diotima finds herself the apex of a love triangle when she is pursued by two mountain climbers, Vigo and his older friend.
Finland’s first nature documentary. The filmmakers’ expedition leads them all the way to the Åland Islands and the Karelian Isthmus.
Short film showing (with limited accuracy) the life-cycle of myxomycetes.
On the South Pacific island of Bora Bora, a young couple's love is threatened when the tribal chief declares the girl a sacred virgin.
The courtship rituals of animals and plants are compared to those of contemporary society, with educational and frequently humorous results.
Mary Field edits the time-lapse photography of F. Percy Smith to show the life cycle of ferns and related plants.
Time lapse documentary about the lifecycle of flowers.
The film Terre Magellaniche represents the fruit of multiple and risky trips that the explorer Alberto M. De Agostini made in the Patagonian mountain range and in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. Executed with rare mastery and exquisite artistic sense, the film shows the explorer in the labyrinth of Patagonian channels, penetrating the deep fjords between large masses of floating ice of curious shapes, coming from the immense glaciers that descend from the Cordillera and bathe its frontal walls on the waters of the sea. Transported to regions of extraordinary beauty, situated in front of gigantic mountains, from which majestic waterfalls rush, the viewer experiences the illusion of finding themselves in a mysterious kingdom of dream and enchantment.
City of Wax is a 1934 American short documentary film produced by Horace and Stacy Woodard about the life of a bee. It won the Oscar at the 7th Academy Awards in 1935 for Best Short Subject (Novelty). Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with the UCLA Film and Television Archive in 2007.
A 1934 GB production that was picked up in 1937 by Educational for 20th Century Fox distribution about the gannet, (a beautiful white and exceedingly graceful bird deemed the best fisherman in the world), that inhabits a small rocky island off the coast of Wales. The film won the 1938 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (One- Reel).
A wilderness girl raises a deer and a mountain lion to be friends.