Author Archive: Retro

DOCUMENTARY

This is a charming little film about answering little kids’ questions. Parents are encouraged to answer every question their little darlings ask in a patient and accurate fashion, lest they grow up to be like awkward shy Molly, who never asks any questions. Not shown are the kids who say “Why?” over and over again just to annoy their parents, or the really embarrassing questions they sometimes come up with. Of course, this doesn’t take place in the real world, but in the ideal world of educational films, where teachers have time to patiently go over tests individually with their students, uncles are never inappropriate with little girls, and only really, really old and sick people die. It goes without saying that parenting is a lot easier in that world. Why? I don’t give a darn! He’s our shortstop!

Here, Willard Hahn films the Chaco region of Paraguay, exploring the ranch of American Bob Eaton, featuring Ligua Indian vaqueros. Also shown is a hand-cranked radio “bringing civilization to the wild Chaco.” Also featuring the Mennonite settlement of Filadelfia, old streetcar in Asunción. For more on Willard Hahn, visit www.afana.org/hahnwillard.htm

The film recounts the life of a young député who joins the Freemasons in order to relaunch his career. He thus learns of how the Freemasons are conspiring with the Jews and the Anglo-American nations to encourage France into a war against Germany.

Includes Day of Freedom, Munich 1938 Arts Festival and The Eternal Jew.

U.S. Navy training film, demonstrates how to survive under emergency conditions in the north temperate regions.

This is one of two nature and cultural documentaries by director and writer Heinz Seilman (the other is the 1973 Vanishing Wilderness). He shares the directorial and writing honors with Henry Brandt. Focus is on the wildlife and indigenous peoples in the former Belgian Congo (later Zaire, and now the Democratic Republic of Congo). A backdrop for the action is a central volcanic range of mountains flanked by green jungle on the one side and a dry desert on the other. The scenery changes as much as the animals that inhabit the different zones. Even though some of the local customs may have been especially staged for the camera, the people are still interesting, the images and animals striking, and the commentary informative.

Famed explorer-documentarians Martin and Osa Johnson devoted two years to the production of their 1935 Baboona. Covering 60,000 miles by air, land and water, the Johnsons ventured deep, deep into the darkest jungles of Africa. The images range from the spectacular (a huge herd of elephants filmed from overhead, an enormous flock of birds literally blanketing an inland lake) to the dangerous (a charging rhino, a battle between a warthog and a leopard) to the touching (a family of baboons looking out for one another in the midst of marauding predators). As usual, Martin and Osa seldom let the facts get in the way of a good story: If a scene can be “hypoed” with slick editing and contrived close-ups, the Johnson never miss the opportunity. Co-edited by newsreel specialist Lew Lehr (ironically best known for his short-subject series “Monkeys Iss the Cwaziest People”), Baboona was released in the U.S. by Fox Studios.