Public Domain Movies
Running Time: 78 mins Black & White
Starring: Martin Johnson
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.
Running Time: 80 mins Color
Description Coming Soon
Running Time: 64 mins Black & White
Scuba divers explore the waters of the Western Hemisphere, meeting sharks, sting rays, devil fish and barracuda, as well as sea lions, sea elephants, groupers and other denizens of the deep. Filmed along the Bahamas reefs and the California/Mexico coast.
Running Time: 10mins Color
A Video Tour of Eight National Wildlife Refuges
Running Time: 2 mins Color
America's Wildest Places - Volume 4. From the Appalachian highlands of West Virginia... to the teeming shores of San Francisco ... to the wild backcountry of Alaska... "America's Wildest Places/Volume 4" takes you from coast to coast... with a special appearance by President Theodore Roosevelt as your guide!
Running Time: 50 mins Black & White
Starring: Wallace Caswell Jr, Evolutio Henderson, Hubert Dykes. Narrated by Lowell Thomas.
Panama City, Florida's chief of police, Captain Walter Caswell, rounds up illegal fishing boats while fending off sharks and whales. Produced by Raymond J. Friedgen.
Color
Running Time: 55 mins Black & White
World famous archer Harold Hill goes hunting for birds, bears and elk.
Black & White
Running Time: 90 mins Color
Starring: Narrated by Orson Welles
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.
Black & White
Black & White
Running Time: 36 mins Black & White
Starring: Joris Ivens
The film is a documentary portraying a struggle as man tries to subdue nature. To prevent flooding and for purposes of land reclamation, the people of the Netherlands struggle and succeed in building a breaker, thereby eliminating the wild inland body of water once known as the Zuider Zee (now called Ijsselmeer).
Black & White
Running Time: 11 mins Color
Togiak National Wildlife Refuge
Running Time: 66 mins Black & White
RKO Radio Pictures. Excellent underwater photography in this documentary about deep sea exploration.
Running Time: 10 mins Black & White
Wildlife on the Deserts of America's Great Southwest.
Running Time: 82 mins Black & White
A classic documentary in glorious black and white, the film is mostly silent, with a musical score added. There is a sound introduction by Byrd himself and a narrator describes the section showing the actual flight over the South Pole (though his narration is hurried). The film is beautifully photographed and won the Academy Award for cinematography in 1930.