Alaska’s Eighth Wonder (Reel 2)

Alaska’s Eighth Wonder (Reel 2) 1925

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The second reel of an orphaned 1925 nature documentary, the footage follows the movement and calving of glaciers. Viewed from the present, the film is transformed into a document of loss and vulnerability, a challenge to the “timeless” view of nature put forth by early naturalists.

1925

Film gaufré: Sonia Delaunay

Film gaufré: Sonia Delaunay 1925

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This rare fashion film is an exquisite showcase of Sonia Delaunay’s ‘Simultaneous’ dresses and fabrics, quite possibly made at the artist’s Parisian studio and home at 19 Boulevard Malesherbes. Dating around 1926-7 and filmed using the tricolor additive Keller-Dorian process (later also known as ‘Kodacolor cine film’), the film presents Delaunay’s geometric designs in rich colours. Having gradually shifted focus from painting to textile and clothing design in the early 1920s, and advocating the production of unique, one-off pieces, Delaunay treated her design work – and quite clearly also this film production – as an extension of her artistic practice. The film was one vehicle with which to make her case that there should be no hierarchy between fine and decorative arts (among other things, Delaunay used the film in her lectures about the influence of painting on clothing design).

1925

Booster Bonzo; Or, Bonzo in Gay Paree

Booster Bonzo; Or, Bonzo in Gay Paree 1925

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George Studdy’s cartoon pup makes the transition to the cinema screen and sets the tone for many a British tourist with his drunken high jinks in Paris.

1925

Panorama Van De Koningshaven

Panorama Van De Koningshaven 1925

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Shots of the port of Rotterdam, with images of the busy maritime traffic along the Maas river and the vertical-lift bridge above the Koningshaven, “the modern miracle of technology”.

1925

The Old Family Toothbrush

The Old Family Toothbrush 1925

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1925 animated cartoon in two-color Technicolor. The Old Family Toothbrush features a character named Kid Noah in “A New Redhead Satire” filmed in Naturecolor, using the Wilson Wetherald Process.

1925