"Oscar Winning Documentaries", being a part of the Documentary Section of PLUS CAMERIMAGE, is organised in cooperation with The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is a selection of short and feature documentary films to win the Oscar® for documentary filmmaking since the category was established by the Academy in 1941.

The whole project "Oscar's Docs 1941 - 1997 Series" is a special retrospective organized by the AMPAS and it features the best prints available at the documentary collection of the Academy Film Archive. Very often they are newly struck or restored editions.

Together with the Archive's Director, Mike Pogorzelski and Archive's Documentary Curator, Ed Carter, we have selected 13 films which tell their stories in an exciting visual way. The rewiev becomes an important part of our documentary section "Image of the World - World in Images".



We will present the following films:


THE FIGHTING LADY
USA, 1944, 61 min.
cin. Edward J. Steichen
produced by Louis de Rochemont
Follows the fictionalized career of an aircraft carrier in World War II from the Marcus Islands campaign, through Tinian, the air assault on Truk, the "Marianas Turkey Shoot" and much more. The film was shot by combat cameramen on board ships and in the air, showing actual Navy and Marine pilots, officers, and crewmen up close and personal.





WITH THE MARINES AT TARAWA
USA, 1944, 19 min.
cin. Norman Hatch, William H. Kelliher, John F. Ercole, John F. Leopold
As the war in the Pacific escalated in ferocity and body count, as island by island the armed forces of the US advanced closer to the final destination, Tokyo, films reflected the rising tide in the horrors of war. The film is a harrowing immersion into that combat zone, as it unfolded on November 20-23, 1943, when the Second Marine Division lost nearly a thousand men taking a remote atoll in the Gilbert Islands, a killing field the Marines christened "bloody Tarawa".



THE TRUE GLORY
UK, USA, 1945, 87 min.
cin. armed forces cameramen
dir. Garson Kanin and Carol Reed
A monumental documentary on the liberation of occupied Europe. Covering the period from the D-Day invasion to the fall of Berlin. The narration is interspersed throughout with dramatized testimony from participants: A group of Frenchmen describe the horrors of occupation, one American brags about the speed of Patton's advance into Germany, and another marvels that the Remagen bridge is the only one left standing over the Rhine.




THE LIVING DESERT
USA, 1953, 69 min.
cin. Robert H. Crandall, N. Paul Kenworthy Jr.
produced by Walt Disney
A day in the life of creatures living in a desert in the southwestern U.S. Toads, reptiles, wild pigs, insects, mice and birds are followed going about their daily routine and the struggle to find food and not become food themselves.






THE TRUE STORY OF THE CIVIL WAR
USA, 1957, 33 min.
cin. none credited
dir. Louis Clyde Stoumen
A history of the Civil War, utilizing montages of still images, including pictures from famed photographers such as Mathew Brady, Timothy O'Sullivan, Alexander Gardner and others; as well as newspaper articles, contemporary sketches and engravings.






AMA GIRLS
USA, 1958, 29 min.
cin. Ernest A. Heiniger
produced by Ben Sharpsteen
A look at a day in the life of a Japanese fishing village. We see how the lives of everyone is concerned in some way with the sea and harvesting its bounty. Special focus is given to the Ama girls, those healthy young maidens who dive up to 60 feet beneath the waves in search of choice sea weed to sell. Scenes of domestic life are also shown, as well as how the entire village works together to process the valuable sardine catch.




SERENGETI SHALL NOT DIE
West Germany, 1959, 85 min.
cin. Alan Root, Hermann Gimbel, Richard Graf, Michael Grzimek
directed and produced by Bernhard and Michael Grzimek
In 1957, Professor Bernhard Grzimek and his son Michael arrived to start a research on the wildebeest migration and to make a film on it. They brought out one of Germany's top documentary cameraman, but filming wildlife was so alien to him that he left within a couple of weeks. So the Grzimeks took on Alan Root, who had little experience but knew the Serengeti well. A year later, Michael was killed when he crashed his plane and Root was left to finish the filming.




LE CIEL ET LA BOUE (Sky Above and Mud Below)
France, 1961, 90 min.
cin. Gilbert Sarthre, Jean Bordes-Pages
directed by Pierre-Dominique Gaisseau
produced by Arthur Cohn and Rene LaFuite
Follows the seven-month trek of a group of Europeans in New Guinea. During the perilous expedition through jungle and across high altitudes, the group encounters tribes of headhunters and cannibals, observing and filming their rituals and ceremonies. By journey's end, some of the group have had to call it quits and be evacuated, those remaining are haggard and exhausted, and three Muyu bearers have been lost to malaria, dysentery, and exposure to the elements.



DYLAN THOMAS
UK (Wales), 1962, 32 min.
cin. Hone Glendinning, Harry Orchard
produced by Jack Howells
Eloquently pays tribute to Dylan Thomas using many of the locations where Thomas himself grew up and found his inspiration. Richard Burton walks along the windswept shore at Laugharne, mixes with the drinkers in the local pub and re-visits Thomas' poetry to produce an atmospheric, evocative and elegiac tribute.






CZECHOSLOVAKIA 1968
USA, 1969, 13 min.
cin. none credited
produced by Denis Sanders and Robert Fresco
Without narration, contains films and photos covering the span of Czech history from 1918 to 1968. The tanks of the Red Army in Prague were welcomed as liberators in May 1945. In 1968, when they returned to reassert Soviet rule and dominance, they were less than welcome and were met with force and resistance by the Czech people. Equating Nazism with communism, the film attempts to reveal the brutal nature of Soviet rule.



SENTINELS OF SILENCE
Mexico, USA, 1971, 18 min.
cin. Jim Freeman,
dir. Robert Amram
Filmed almost entirely from a helicopter, this film presents spectacular views of seven of the most important archaeological sites in Mexico: Teotihuacan, Monte Alban, Mitla, Tulum, Palenque, Chichen Itza and Uxmal. Narrated by Orson Welles, the film conveys a spiritual and aesthetic impression of the lost civilizations of ancient Mexico.





THE GREAT AMERICAN COWBOY
USA, 1973, 91 min.
cin. Reed Smoot, Preston Fox, Kieth Merrill, Alan Cassidy
dir. Kieth Merrill
Rodeos and the people who work in them are the focus of this documentary. It demonstrates the resonance between the modern rodeo and the lifestyle of pioneer settlers of the American West. The film's main focus is on veteran Larry Mahan and a newcomer, Phil Lyne, as they prepare for, and compete in their events.





DON'T
USA, 1974, 19 min.
cin. Robin Lehman, Ken Moreman
dir. Robin Lehman
A study of the lyric passage of a Monarch butterfly, from its birth and its delicate metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly, through its journey from country to city. From the first frame, the audience experiences the tension of this perilous flight as numerous adversaries, from a praying mantis to a railroad train to man himself, threaten the butterfly's buoyant freedom. A lively soundtrack, with music composed by Frederick Chopin, persuades us to live, for a few moments, in this fleeting world.




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