The Four Elements

Jan 1, 1966

0h 13m

★ 5.2

Overview

An educational film about power sources that’s rendered as a lyrical meditation on heat and vapor, The Four Elements is a poetic and avant-garde documentary Curtis Harrington made for the United States Information Agency.

Genres

Documentary

The Four Elements Trailers

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Cast

No Cast found.

Artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss create the ultimate Rube Goldberg machine. The pair used found objects to construct a complex, interdependent contraption in an empty warehouse. When set in motion, a domino-like chain reaction ripples through the complex of imaginative devices. Fire, water, the laws of gravity, and chemistry determine the life-cycle of the objects. The process reveals a story concerning cause and effect, mechanism and art, and improbability and precision, in an extended science project that will mesmerize the mind.

7.0

Another Side of the Forest

May 10, 1974

Developments in the Canadian forestry industry during the 1970s are shown being carried out both as lab experiments and in the field to protect and conserve the country's vast forests. These include turning a Newfoundland bog into woodland, fostering British Columbia seedlings that withstand mechanical planting, inoculating Ontario elms against the bark beetle, devising ways of controlling fire, and more.

6.7

Super Size Me

Jan 17, 2004

Morgan Spurlock subjects himself to a diet based only on McDonald's fast food three times a day for thirty days without exercising to try to prove why so many Americans are fat or obese. He submits himself to a complete check-up by three doctors, comparing his weight along the way, resulting in a scary conclusion.

6.0

Brink of Disaster!

Jan 1, 1972

A student is held up in the library while a riot rages outside. As SDS protesters head to burn the library down, he has to fend them off with his baseball bat. This film opens with actual footage of civil disturbances in the 1960s, and moves on to images of historical American figures.

1.7

Keeping Clean and Neat

Aug 9, 1956

Two eighth graders doing an assembly on cleanliness and neatness seek underclassmen. A look into Don and Mildred's hygienic endeavors.

10.0

The Tea Coffee Experiment

Dec 27, 2017

A group of friends come up with the brilliant idea of testing the non-existent drink known as "Tea Coffee".

9.0

Never Again Is Now Global

Invalid Date

Holocaust survivors, children of survivors, and grandchildren - as well as German freedom fighters - express their shock at the Covid era's fear-mongering and divisive dictates that are reminiscent of the prelude to the Holocaust. This ambitious five-part docu-series is the brainchild of Holocaust survivor and human rights activist Vera Sharav.

0.0

When Should Grown-Ups Stop Fights?

Jan 1, 1955

Vassar College's Department of Child Study produced this training film for nursery school staff, one of a series on "Preschool Incidents." Unstaged playground scenes of two to five-year-olds in conflict are shown, then repeated for further analysis and discussion. We learn how to "size-up situations," differentiating between "playful attacks" the kids can adequately handle themselves and truly aggressive behavior (as when "a child has gone on a rampage") that requires immediate adult intervention.

0.0

Rummaging for Pasts

Nov 23, 2001

Rummaging for Pasts is an experimental juxtaposition of two cinematic documents: the video diary of an international archaeological excavation and a collection of assorted eight millimeter found footage of Indian weddings.

6.8

Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story

Jan 28, 2020

Exploring the rise and fall of the groundbreaking animated series Ren & Stimpy and its controversial creator, John Kricfalusi, through archival footage, show artwork and interviews with the artists, actors and executives behind the show.

0.0

New Miensk

Jan 1, 1954

A propaganda documentary on the post war reconstruction of Miensk, capital of Belarus.

4.5

Human Lampshade: A Holocaust Mystery

Sep 29, 2012

This story follows one man's quest to uncover the origins and reveal the mysteries of a possible Holocaust artifact some historians now say never existed: lampshades made of human skin. When the flood waters of Hurricane Katrina receded, they left behind a wrecked New Orleans and a strange looking lamp that an illicit dealer claimed was 'made from the skin of Jews.'

No Image Available

0.0

Drømmen om i Morgen

Dec 3, 1945

Social democracy propaganda film about future dreams for Denmark in 1960. Although Denmark is free again, the former opponent and worker, Svend, is disillusioned: "It is all something soft". The dream of the future is incarnated by a young woman, Karen, who shows Svend the visions of a better life in the 'youth's land'. There are homes and a nuclear-powered car for everyone.

7.0

Edge of Darkness

Nov 1, 2015

The film features amazing scenes of places never before seen gathered by key space missions that culminated with groundbreaking discoveries in 2015. It features a spectacular flight though the great cliffs on comet 67P, a close look at the fascinating bright "lights" on Ceres, and the first ever close ups of dwarf binary planet Pluto/Charon and its moons.

7.7

Le Parti du cinéma

Feb 1, 2021

No overview available.

9.0

The Tigris Expedition

Apr 3, 1979

Explorer Thor Heyerdahl and his ten-man crew sailed their reed boat, the Tigris, over routes he believes were followed by Sumerian traders 5,000 years ago. The film goes beyond science to focus on the man, Heyerdahl, in an effort to explain what motivates him to risk his life in the search for knowledge.

0.0

So Clever Are German Spies

Dec 1, 1914

A horse and cart carrying two nuns is stopped by two men with fixed bayonets.

No Image Available

0.0

A Hero's Death

Aug 8, 2001

It was the biggest escape in the history of the Berlin Wall: in one historic night of October 1964, 57 East-Berliners try their luck through a tunnel into West Berlin. Just before the last few reach the other side, the East German border guards notice the escape and open fire. Remarkably, all the refugees and their escape agents make it out of the tunnel unscathed, but one border guard is dead: 21-year-old officer Egon Schultz.

No Image Available

0.0

Vodní energie

Jan 1, 1952

No overview available.

The Four Elements

Overview

Genres

The Four Elements Trailers

Cast

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