Best Documentary Movies of 1929

A 1929 Fox newsreel interview with the author and spiritualist, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He speaks about his greatest literary creation, Sherlock Holmes, and his work in spiritualism. Release year attributions of 1927 are incorrect. For further details see: http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/S/SirArthurConanDoyle1929.html

The short sequence, photographed by Jack E Cox, has Hitchcock trying his best to embarrass the film's Czech lead Anny Ondra, who ends up giggling and turning her back to the camera...

A silent film by John Grierson. It tells the story of Britain's North Sea herring fishery.

A montage of the skyscrapers of Manhattan opens with a succession of stationary views of the upper portions of numerous buildings. This is followed by a wide variety of fluid shots, which also begin to show more and more of the surrounding city, in addition to the skyscrapers themselves.

Animated figure Talkie gets a visit from his friend Mutie in search for a job. Talkie takes him to the Western Electric sound lab...

Faces of walkers in Alameda Park

Children playing

Ladies acting and blowing kisses.

Airmen and friends at Hacienda San Carlos

Road construction

Cosme Renella entering the plane.

Cathedral and Plaza Grande

Faces Bullfighters

People watching the plane

Theater women or 'the comics'

Ballroom dancing

The Hippodrome

Charlie Chaplin look-a-like doing bullfighting.

Plane flight.

Three couples rehearse a scene in the car.

Church, Portería and Convent of San Francisco

Paseo de las banderillas announcing the bulls

Woman and man on horseback

Parade with portrait of Eloy Alfaro

Professional bullfight Plaza Belmonte

Aerial views of the city of Quito

Indigenous Feasts of the Black Mama Pujilí

Hall dance 1929

Driving a machine

Indigenous women at Lake San Pablo

Arch of Santo Domingo The Tram

Doctors Meeting

Arch of the Queen

Civil military and religious authorities

Fishing boat

A glorious glimpse of mirth and merriment. (Topical Budget 944-2)

This is one of the earliest representations of the Philippines in moving images. Stored in the British Film Institute archives, this administrative reconnaissance film exhibits the Culion leper colony in the province of Palawan and is being shown for the first time in the country.

Hermann Hähnle demonstrates some of his camera techniques for capturing wild life at the Federsee lake in Southern Germany.

As the title suggests, ‘Telling The World’ was made for an overseas audience as was much of the Government film unit’s output. It covers the roles and functions of the Cinema and Photographic Branch and shows Bert Ive filming some of the iconic images he would capture of important Australian events and places. The opening sequence shows a meeting between the Cinema Branch’s Officer-in-Charge Lyn Maplestone and Bert Ive, who appear periodically throughout the film. Ive continued to work for the branch until his death in 1939. The film has been sepia toned, a specialised chemical treatment enhancing black and white film with a warmer tone. Some scenes in the processing laboratory are tinted red. An excellent example of the period’s documentary and innovative filmmaking techniques.

Marvel at the daring stunts performed by motorcyclists at their grand gymkhana in Egham in 1929.

An ironic look at what it is like to be beautiful for a woman (and handsome for a few men) in the Paris of the late twenties.

Under the Southern Cross also known as The Devil's Pit or Taranga, is a 1929 American drama film set in New Zealand, directed by Lew Collins for Universal Studios, who also wrote the screenplay. Originally titled Taranga by the original director Alexander Markey, but was completed by Collins and released as Under the Southern Cross in 1929, then with the introduction of sound was given a soundtrack and retitled The Devil’s Pit in 1930. The film was shot on White Island, which has an active volcano. It is one of four films (with Down on the Farm, Hei Tiki and On the Friendly Road) which lay claim to be the first "New Zealand talkie", although dubious as the sound was added to the 1930 release in the United States. Only fragments of out-takes are left. The film probably has no connection with the 1927 British film of the same name, directed by Gustav Pauli.

One of the Fitzpatrick traveltalks, this film begins in Valencia. We travel down the Spanish coast, visiting the people who live in caves. We end up in Granda, visiting the Alhambra and several other locations.

A travelogue shot on 35 mm by Walter and Aloha Wanderwell, capture the 1920 era’s ongoing enthrallment with the speed and range offered by motorized wheels.