New Documentary Movies on Hoopla - Page 242

Project XX: The Jazz Age

1956

Project XX: The Jazz Age

1956
The period between the end of World War I and the crash of 1929 is known as the Jazz Age in America, a time of high-energy nightclubs, wild Prohibition evasion and an "America first" attitude. Narrated by Fred Allen. Note: Originally part of Project XX, this film was also distributed separately on 16mm for schools and libraries, qualifying it as a standalone documentary.
All the World's Memory

1956

All the World's Memory

1956
7
A documentary about the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. It presents the building, with its processes of cataloguing and preserving all sorts of printed material, as both a monument of cultural memory and as a monstrous, alien being.
The Mystery of Picasso

1956

The Mystery of Picasso

1956
7.3
Using a specially designed transparent 'canvas' to provide an unobstructed view, Picasso creates as the camera rolls. He begins with simple works that take shape after only a single brush stroke. He then progresses to more complex paintings, in which he repeatedly adds and removes elements, transforming the entire scene at will, until at last the work is complete.
Unidentified Flying Objects: The True Story of Flying Saucers

1956

Unidentified Flying Objects: The True Story of Flying Saucers

1956
5.8
Interviews and documentary footage combine with the fictional story of an air-force pilot who encounters aliens.
Jazz Ball

1956

Jazz Ball

1956
7
A made-for-TV musical revue, compiled from soundies and film and TV performances by jazz greats from the 1930s to the 1950s.
The History of Flight: We Saw It Happen

1953

The History of Flight: We Saw It Happen

1953
This documentary, chronicles the first 50 years of flight, from the Wright Brothers first flight in 1903 to 1953. It includes interviews with an original mechanic who worked in their bicycle shop and a wide range of other pioneers such as Frank Long, Igor Sikorsky, Glen Martin, Alan Lockheed, Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, LeRoy Grumman, Robert Gross Connie and Wellwood Beel.
Guernica

1951

Guernica

1951
5.9
Alain Resnais & Robert Hessen use the famous Picasso mural "Guernica" in combination with newspaper headlines in an anti-war cry against the Spanish Civil War. Narration by Jacques Pruvost highlights the Guernica atrocity of April 1937, followed by a poem by Paul Eluard read by María Casares to a discordant score by Guy Bernard.
Colette

1951

Colette

1951
6.3
In conversation, in her Paris apartment, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, mime, dancer, novelist, wonders whether she should give the green light to a proposed film about the houses in which she lived. “I’m no longer photogenic,” she insists; nearly 80, marriages, affair with a stepson and intermittent lesbianism behind her, refusing now even to mention the arthritis that confines and assaults her, Colette is vivacious. Yannick Bellon’s captivating postmodernist film, as much a study of evanescence as any poem by Dickinson, segues into the film that Colette, a few years before her end, has just said she doesn’t want to do. Giving voice(over) to her own commentary, she goes back, first, to the home in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, Yonne, where she was born.
Un homme est mort

1951

Un homme est mort

1951
Film about the death of the worker Édouard Mazé, killed in Brest by the mobile guards, during the demonstrations and strikes of 1951.
Kon-Tiki

1950

Kon-Tiki

1950
7.4
"Kon-Tiki" was the name of a wooden raft used by six Scandinavian scientists, led by Thor Heyerdahl, to make a 101-day journey from South America to the Polynesian Islands. The purpose of the expedition was to prove Heyerdal's theory that the Polynesian Islands were populated from the east- specifically Peru- rather than from the west (Asia) as had been the theory for hundreds of years. Heyerdahl made a study of the winds and tides in the Pacific, and by simulating conditions as closely as possible to those he theorized the Peruvians encountered, set out on the voyage.
Our Living Declaration of Independence

1950

Our Living Declaration of Independence

1950
Freedom, rights, obligations, the pursuit of happiness -- meanings of these terms are explored as this film develops its theme that the Declaration of Independence is not a dead historical document, but a vital force and guide to living today.
Submarine Warfare

1946

Submarine Warfare

1946
6
In this documentary we get a glimpse into the world of submarines and have access to rare archive footage. From the first attempts during the American Civil War to WW2 and the nuclear subs of today, the history of the submarine has been fraught with difficulties.
The Story of Submarine Warfare in the Pacific

1945

The Story of Submarine Warfare in the Pacific

1945
The U.S. Pacific submarine fleet was all that was available in the early days of America's involvement in World War 2 and it took the fight to the Japanese with great success.
Appointment in Tokyo

1945

Appointment in Tokyo

1945
5.8
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.
Nazi Concentration Camps

1945

Nazi Concentration Camps

1945
7.7
Produced and presented as evidence at the Nuremberg war crimes trial of Hermann Göring and twenty other Nazi leaders, this film consists primarily of dead and surviving prisoners and of facilities used to kill and torture during the World War II.
The Stilwell Road

1945

The Stilwell Road

1945
Documentary - Documentary about the construction of the Stilwell Road--originally called The Ledo Road--a 478-mile passage from Assam, India, to Ledo, Burma, during World War II. The road, which was built by 63,000 workers and cost $150 million, was used by the British, Chinese and Indian armies to transport supplies, troops and other essentials from India to Burma in order to keep the Japanese from overrunning the entire theater. - Ronald Reagan, Harold Alexander, Claude Auchinleck
War Comes to America

1945

War Comes to America

1945
7
The seventh and final film of Frank Capra's Why We Fight World War II propaganda film series. This entry attempts to describe the factors leading up to America's entry into the Second World War.
To the Shores of Iwo Jima

1945

To the Shores of Iwo Jima

1945
6.7
Documentary short film depicting the American assault on the Japanese-held island of Iwo Jima and the massive battle that raged on that key island in the Allied advance on Japan. Four cameramen died bringing this footage to the public
The Battle of San Pietro

1945

The Battle of San Pietro

1945
6
This documentary movie is about the battle of San Pietro, a small village in Italy. Over 1,100 US soldiers were killed while trying to take this location, that blocked the way for the Allied forces from the Germans. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.
Why We Fight: The Battle of China

1944

Why We Fight: The Battle of China

1944
6.5
The sixth film of Frank Capra's Why We Fight propaganda film series illustrates Japan's occupation of China, including Madame Chiang Kai-Shek's stirring address before congress, the rape of Nanking, the great 2,000 mile migration, and Claire Chennault's Flying Tigers.