The Story of Petroleum

Oct 30, 1923

0h 25m

★ 6.7

Overview

Reel 1, an oil field is located, drilled, brought in, and pumped. Shows the Garber Field in Oklahoma. Reel 2 shows how pipe is laid and cleaned. One section crosses the Red River. Includes views of an oil camp and of a casinghead gasoline extraction plant. Reel 3, oil is distilled at a refinery. Reel 4, wax is removed from oil, processed, and prepared for distribution. Oil products are carried in tank cars, trucks, barges, and ships.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

Department of the Interior

United States Bureau of Mines

The Story of Petroleum Trailers

No Trailers found.

Cast

No Cast found.

This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.

7.0

Los 5 Faust de F. W. Murnau

Nov 26, 2002

No overview available.

7.5

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City

Sep 23, 1927

A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.

5.4

The Dangers of the Fly

Nov 23, 1920

The Dangers of the Fly is an educational film made by Ernesto Gunche and Eduardo Martínez de la Pera, also responsible for Gaucho Nobility (1915), the biggest blockbuster of Argentinean silent cinema. De la Pera was a talented photographer, always willing to try new gadgets and techniques. This film experiments with microphotography in the style of Jean Comandon's films for Pathé and it is part of a series which included a film about mosquitoes and paludism and another one about cancer, which are considered lost. Flies were a popular subject of silent films and there are more than a dozen titles featuring them in the teens and early twenties.

0.0

Testimonio de un obrero petrolero

Jan 1, 1978

Trade union leader Manuel Taborda, a pioneer of workers' organisations in the oil industry, recounts his experiences and those of his colleagues from 1920 to 1936, with an emphasis on the struggles against foreign companies and the government.

3.8

Tossing a Nigger in a Blanket

Apr 6, 1898

A method soldier boys have for amusing themselves in their leisure moments. New comrades are frequently initiated by the old-fashioned sport of tossing in a blanket. The newly arrived recruit, who is the victim of their sport, enjoys himself, perhaps, less than the other participants.

No Image Available

6.0

The Strength and Agility of Insects

Aug 4, 1911

A short, early documentary work showing insects exhibiting extreme strength and agility.

0.0

Oil Springs

Jun 13, 2025

The story will mostly take place in the town Oil Springs, Ontario, where the oil industry in North America was born. By making a case study of this town, we can better understand how the industry operates today. The documentary will explore themes of colonialism, climate change and Canadian identity.

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0.0

Make Mine Service

Mar 28, 1952

Training and Customer Service information film sponsored by the Marketing Retail Sales Department of the Standard Oil Company. Features product placement for brands like Atlas and Chevron.

6.0

Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge

Oct 15, 1888

A film by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince, shot in late October 1888, showing pedestrians and carriages crossing Leeds Bridge.

5.2

Carmencita

Mar 14, 1894

The first woman to appear in front of an Edison motion picture camera and possibly the first woman to appear in a motion picture within the United States. In the film, Carmencita is recorded going through a routine she had been performing at Koster & Bial's in New York since February 1890.

No Image Available

0.0

The Chillouks, a Central African Tribe

Oct 1, 1910

Short documentary on a central african tribe called 'The Chillouks'.

No Image Available

0.0

International Dances

Apr 9, 1901

A short dance film in Pathécolor, also know as stencil colouring. The editing cuts correspond with the dancers' costume changes. More about stencil colouring at http://zauberklang.ch/filmcolors/timeline-entry/1218/.

0.0

Monica in the South Seas

Nov 3, 2023

Finnish filmmaker and artist Sami van Ingen is a great-grandson of documentary pioneer Robert Flaherty, and seemingly the sole member of the family with a hands-on interest in continuing the directing legacy. Among the materials he found in the estate of Robert and Frances Flaherty’s daughter Monica were the film reels and video tapes detailing several years of work on realising her lifelong dream project: a sound version of her parents’ 1926 docu-fiction axiom, Moana: A Romance of the Golden Age.

No Image Available

0.0

The Diver

Mar 15, 1911

A fascinating pictorial document: On an old, cluttered work ship, a man is helped on with a bulky, old fashioned diving suit. It's a complicated process, many layers and sections are carefully applied. He goes over the side. Some men row out to what looks like a wrecked barge and set dynamite. Then the diver returns and now laughs and acknowledges the camera. The other men, now safely away, blow up the barge.

7.8

Man with a Movie Camera

May 12, 1929

A cameraman wanders around with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling inventiveness.

5.4

How the Berlin Worker Lives

Dec 31, 1930

This documentary shows how the Berliner workers lived in 1930. The director Slatan Dudow shows through images: a) the workers leaving the factory; b) the raise of the rents; c) the "unpleasant" guest, meaning the justice officer that brings the eviction notice; d) the fight of classes of the houses of capitalists and working classes; e) the parks of the working class; f) the houses of the working class, origin of the tuberculosis and the victims; g) the playground of the working class; h) the swimming pool for the working class, ironically called the "Baltic Sea" of the working class; i) the effects of humidity of basement where a family lives, with one member deaf; j) one working class family having dinner while the capitalist baths his dog; k) the eviction notice received from an unemployed family and their eviction.

7.2

Collapse

Sep 12, 2009

From the acclaimed director of American Movie, the documentary follows former Los Angeles police officer turned independent reporter Michael Ruppert. He recounts his career as a radical thinker and spells out his apocalyptic vision of the future, spanning the crises in economics, energy, environment and more.

No Image Available

8.0

Among Wild Birds

Nov 28, 1927

Finland’s first nature documentary. The filmmakers’ expedition leads them all the way to the Åland Islands and the Karelian Isthmus.

7.2

The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream

Jan 12, 2004

Since World War II North Americans have invested much of their newfound wealth in suburbia. It has promised a sense of space, affordability, family life and upward mobility. As the population of suburban sprawl has exploded in the past 50 years Suburbia, and all it promises, has become the American Dream. But as we enter the 21st century, serious questions are beginning to emerge...

The Story of Petroleum

Overview

Genres

Production Companies

The Story of Petroleum Trailers

Cast

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