The Wall

The Wall 1962

7.00

Like the best USIA films, The Wall distills political events into an emotionally clear and compelling ideological "story". In 1962 Walter de Hoog gathered footage from U.S. and German newsreel sources and crafted this taut short film about the first year of the Berlin Wall. Straightforward, keenly balanced narration portrays Berliners as "accepting the wall but never resigned to it". The extraordinary footage of the first escapes was propaganda enough-- His challenge was to make the politics human.

1962

The News Parade of 1934!

The News Parade of 1934! 1934

5.50

Significant events from 1934, in the United States and abroad, are covered in newsreel format.

1934

Offers Herself as Bride for $10,000

Offers Herself as Bride for $10,000 1931

5.00

In an on-camera interview, Ohio working girl Mary Clowes explains that she is offering her hand in marriage to whoever can provide $10,000 to support her parents, who have since lost their farm and who, following the deaths of her two brothers, rely on her as their lone source of financial support.

1931

A Call for Help from Sing Sing!

A Call for Help from Sing Sing! 1934

1

This plea to reduce the growing numbers of imprisoned youths, with its warning from the celebrated warden of Sing Sing prison, is drawn from the October 1, 1934, issue of Hearst Metrotone News. The segment’s dynamic visuals, on-camera personal appeal, and extended length make the story atypical for a newsreel, but the form’s usual breathless pace is applied to a cautionary fable: the too-frequent “road” of youth from school through unemployment, homelessness, and crime and on to the gates of the penitentiary. -National Film Preservation Foundation

1934