As the daughters of the baby boom reached adolescence, the American school system struggled to educate them on matters of sexual and social development. For teachers, classroom films about such topics were considered a godsend. They depicted the reproductive system in anatomical detail or through puzzling symbolism. Beyond sex education, classroom films addressed a wide array of social issues, from the importance of cooking skills to self-defense...

Though the era of the 16mm educational cinema has come to a close, those quirky films unspooled in the mid-century American classroom continues to fascinate viewers today. No group of titles is more popular than the safety films which capitalized on the drama and spectacle of death, lurking around every corner, every pair of scissors, every overloaded electrical cord, and every park bench where a stranger pets a puppy. Featured are fourteen safety...

This series of filmed interviews conducted by filmmaker Volker Schlondörff with acclaimed writer/director Billy Wilder is a lively lesson in filmmaking. Wilder tells hilarious anecdotes and offers keen insights into the craft of moviemaking and frank advice about survival in Hollywood. Filmed over two weeks in 1991.

This collection looks at three pioneering French filmmakers from the Gaumont studio, Alice Guy, Louis Feuillade and Léonce Perret, with both extensive examples of their work, and short biographies (in the cases of Feuillade and Perret).

Over ten hours of films survey the short works of three pioneering French filmmakers from the Gaumont studio, including Emile Cohl, Jean Durand, and Jacques Feyder.

A spectacular accomplishment in production design and special effects, Raoul Walsh's The Thief of Bagdad is a bold Arabian adventure starring Douglas Fairbanks as a carefree pickpocket who turns his appealing brand of mischievous thievery toward the attainment of happiness and an exotic Princess. The only way he can win either is by retrieving the rarest treasures hidden within the mysterious Orient, a quest that grows more fantastic with every passing...

Long before home video there flourished an alternative cinema culture on college campuses and around art theaters, where foreign film fare was often accompanied by a short subject. As reliable 16mm film equipment became available to non-professionals, artists independent of film centers began experimenting with cinema. Serious film societies sprang up in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, holding semi-private screenings of non-commercial artistic...

"In the early decades of cinema, some of the most innovative and celebrated filmmakers in America were women. Alice Guy-Blaché helped establish the basics of cinematic language, while others boldly continued its development : slapstick queen Mabel Normand (who taught Charlie Chaplin the craft of directing), action star Grace Cunard, and LGBTQ icon Alla Nazimova. Unafraid of controversy, filmmakers such as Lois Weber and Dorothy Davenport Reid tackled...