Best Documentary Short Subject
Oscar Winners
List activity
83 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
82 titles
- DirectorStuart LeggStarsLorne GreeneGérard ArthurWinston ChurchillThe people of Britain resist the German air force and navy with help from North America.
- DirectorJohn FordGregg TolandStarsWalter HustonHarry DavenportDana Andrews"Docudrama" about the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 and its results, the recovering of the ships, the improving of defense in Hawaii and the US efforts to beat back the Japanese reinforcements.
- DirectorRichard BrooksLouis HaywardStarsAlexander Bonnyman Jr.John BorichMerritt A. EdsonDocumentary short film depicting the harrowing battle between the U.S. Marines and the Japanese for control of the Pacific island of Tarawa.
- DirectorDon SiegelStarsKnox ManningJoseph GoebbelsAdolf HitlerThis short propaganda film, produced at the end of World War II, warns that although Adolf Hitler is dead, his ideas of racial hatred, violence and conquest live on in the German people, and in like-minded people in the United States.
- DirectorDavid MillerStarsRalph BellamyPostwar propaganda film in support of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. Strident but poignant, focusing on children. The film surveys the Nazi/Japanese atrocities, post-war devastation and the early relief efforts. This film was responsible for raising over $200,000,000, making it a top moneymaking film.
- DirectorGeorge L. GeorgeA documentary short about the rehabilitation of people living with spinal cord injuries following World War II.
- DirectorLeo SeltzerUnited Nations, 1947 - In this film one crippled child learns to walk: first to move, then to stand, and finally to take his first steps. The film deals with modern techniques of physiotherapy, and the need to develop the whole child - his emotions and his mind as well as his muscles - is stressed. Skilled adult workers offer not only massage and therapy, but also love and understanding, and occupational therapy for children and takes the form of both play and work. Movements learned become part of the daily jobs of feeding and dressing. Early attempts to walk are made with the help of apparatus. Finally the initially hesitant steps on his own are taken. As the film ends the boy walks.
- DirectorJames L. ShuteThis documentary short is part of The March of Time series. This one is about priest Monsignor John Patrick Carroll-Abbing setting up and running a Boys' Home in post-war Italy.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancFrank GrahamAn illustration of the role public health agencies play in citizens' lives.
- StarsJoe KingThis film examines the reasons why the United States decided to engage in the Korean War. Scenes describe Russia's attempt to gain power following World War II (Korea included), and its refusal to allow free elections in the country. Footage shows Soviet-backed North Korean troops' movement into South Korea on June 25, 1950, the United Nations' response, and the armed struggle against both North Korean and later Chinese troops led by General Douglas MacArthur.
- DirectorFred ZinnemannStarsLee AakerNeville BrandHelen BrownAn orthopedic pediatrician wants to cure a scoliosis patient, but first he needs to convince the parents, who have rejected the child because of his disabilities.
- DirectorNorman McLarenStarsGrant MunroJean Paul LadouceurA surreal story of two neighbours' destructive feud over a flower.
- DirectorJames AlgarStarsWinston HiblerDepicts the everyday home life of the families in a typical Eskimo village. The building and hunting activities of the summer, the winter activities underground when the blizzards come, and the celebration of spring with the "mask dance" are all shown.
- DirectorLindsay AndersonGuy BrentonStarsRichard BurtonWon the Academy Award for the Best Documentary Short of 1954. The subject deals with the children at The Royal School for the Deaf in Margate, Kent. The hearing-handicapped children are shown painstakingly learning what words are through exercises and games, practicing lip-reading and finally speech. Richard Burton's calm and sometimes-poetic narration adds to the heartwarming cheerfulness and courage of the children.
- DirectorWinston HiblerStarsWinston HiblerPart of Walt Disney's People and Places series. This is the story of the "Icebreakers" - ships of very special construction that are built to make their way through the heavy Arctic ice packs on a trip to Thule.
- DirectorBen SharpsteenA depiction of the lives of "ama" divers, Japanese women who dive for pearls.
- DirectorLouis Clyde StoumenStarsRaymond MasseyAcademy-Award winning short subject documentary that chronicles the Civil War through nearly 400 authentic artifacts, as opposed to using actors or sets.
- DirectorJames HillStarsAntonia ScalariGiulio MarchettiOscar® - winning short in which a young girl observes the array of quirky characters who pass her father's rural petrol station.
- DirectorBert HaanstraDocumentary about Dutch glass production in the 50s.
- DirectorFrank P. BibasStarsBob ConsidineDocumenting the maiden voyage of the SS Hope, a hospital ship operated by Project HOPE, were it brought medical care to Indonesia and South Vietnam in 1960-1961.
- DirectorJack HowellsStarsRichard BurtonAn atmospheric tribute to the genius of Welsh poet and dramatist Dylan Thomas, using many of the windswept locations where Thomas himself grew up and found his inspiration. The film is hosted/presented by Richard Burton, Thomas's friend, who narrates the story and appears from time to time amidst the Welsh landscape. Burton had already appeared in Douglas Cleverdon's acclaimed BBC radio dramatisation of Thomas's 'play for voices' Under Milk Wood in the 1950s and, in the early Seventies, would appear in director Andrew Sinclair's film version as First Voice.
- DirectorLauro VenturiStarsMarc ChagallClaude DauphinVincent PriceChagall is a 1963 short documentary film directed by Lauro Venturi which focuses on the work of artist Marc Chagall.
- DirectorCharles GuggenheimStarsJefferson ThomasErnest GreenThelma MothershedThe Arkansas school integration crisis and the changes wrought in subsequent years. This film profiles the lives of the nine African-American students who integrated Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas, during the fall of 1957. The film documents the perspective of Jefferson Thomas and his fellow students seven years after their historic achievement. Central to this story is their quiet but brave entrance into Little Rock High, escorted by armed troops under the intense pressure of the on looking crowd. We learn first hand their impressions of the past and present and their hopes for the future. Their selfless heroism broke the integration crisis and pioneered a new era. This film went on to win an Academy Award® for Best Documentary Short in 1964. "...we honor them today but let us not forget to heed their lesson..."---President Bill Clinton
- DirectorEdmond LevyStarsPaul NewmanDocumentary about the VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) program.
- DirectorAlexander HammidFrancis ThompsonStarsRobert Fields"To Be Alive!" was designed to celebrate the common ground between different cultures by tracing how children in various parts of the world mature into adulthood.
- DirectorTrevor GreenwoodStarsKieth GriggsWilliam TurnerThe film was produced for the Sierra Club as part of their campaign for a national park to protect the redwood forest.
- DirectorRobert M. FrescoDenis SandersStarsLeonid BrezhnevNeville ChamberlainAlexander DubcekShort documentary about 50 years of history of Czechoslovakia, with archive images.
- DirectorSaul BassStarsPeter HansenPaul SaltmanMixing animation with live-action, Saul Bass' "Why Man Creates" is an eight-part meditation on the nature and struggle of creativity.
- DirectorJoseph StrickStarsRichard HammerInterviews with five former American soldiers who were present at the March 16, 1968 attack on the village of My Lai during the Vietnam War; they discuss the orders that were issued leading up to the attack, their expectations of what they would find there, and the subsequent massacre of the inhabitants and destruction of the village, as well as possible motivations for the killings and rapes which took place.
- DirectorRobert AmramStarsRicardo MontalbanOrson WellesAn 18-minute helicopter-based aerial visit across the archaeological ruins in Mexico.
- DirectorJulian KraininDeWitt SageStarsWilliam G. BowenEdward ConeAaron LemonickA film portrait of teaching and learning at Princeton University. From black holes in space to the B Minor Mass. A film about teachers and students who care to ask the question "Why?"
- DirectorCharles Huguenot van der LindenDocumentary about antique mechanical toys.
- DirectorRobin LehmanA short documentary film following the life cycle of the monarch butterfly.
- DirectorRobin LehmanRobin Lehman presents an intimate view of the panorama of African wildlife, giving a sense of what it is really like to be there, and in a dramatic climax makes a poignant plea for conservation. Filmed in Zaire, Kenya and Tanzania, the film takes the viewer from deep inside an anthill, to the majestic giraffes suckling their young, african storms, dung beetle ritual dances, duels for supremacy, feeding time and playtime all end, as the animals disappear one by one while the sound of a rifle shatters the existing magic of life.
- DirectorLynne LittmanStarsHarry AsimowBarbara MyerhoffLynne LittmanA documentary study of a community of elderly Jews in Venice, California.
- DirectorBen SheddStarsBryan AllenPaul B. MacCreadyTyler MacCreadyThe Flight of the Gossamer Condor tells the inspiring true story of history's first successful human-powered flight. Renowned inventor Dr. Paul MacCready and his team were filmed creating the world-famous pedal-powered airplane as it happened. Producing this film which documents the development of a man's dream into a scientific and historic achievement was, in itself, an extraordinary effort. There was an immense risk involved in making a commitment to film a scientist's effort at achieving something which had never done before successfully.
- DirectorJohn C. JosephStarsMark HicksJan StussyA look at artist Mark Hicks of Manhattan Beach, California, a quadriplegic since falling out of a tree at age 14. His work is examined, along with a discussion of his being a student at UCLA, culminating with his first gallery show in San Francisco.
- DirectorSaul J. TurellStarsSidney PoitierPaul RobesonMargaret WebsterThe life of actor and activist Paul Robeson.
- DirectorRoland HalléPeter W. LadueStarsKarl HessKevin BurnsBarry GoldwaterA look at Karl Hess, libertarian intellectual and activist, from his background as a magazine editor in his youth to his work as a Republican speechwriter, as he became simultaneously a writer for Barry Goldwater and a member of Students for a Democratic Society. In the late 1960s he embarked on a new period in his life, moving to rural West Virginia and becoming involved in movements promoting alternative technologies and renewable energy. He discusses his views opposing large institutions, ranging from government to corporations to universities.
- DirectorNigel NobleStarsAmy IsraelA chorus of 4th- and 5th-graders at the Brooklyn Friends School and a chorus of elderly retirees at a Brooklyn Jewish seniors' center combine to give an annual joint concert. Practicing separately for several months while communicating only as pen pals, they eventually meet for a rehearsal prior to their concert. The children's various preconceptions about older people, as well as the seniors' approach to aging and their young co-performers, are a principal focus.
- DirectorTerre NashStarsHelen CaldicottVannevar BushWinston ChurchillAn Australian pediatrician gives a speech on the consequences of a nuclear war.
- DirectorCynthia ScottStarsSusana RobledoAntonio RobledoRita BoziFor a few weeks each year, in the depths of winter, senior students at the National Ballet School of Canada are treated to a style of dance that is unlike any other - flamenco.
- DirectorMarjorie HuntPaul WagnerStarsVincent PalumboRoger MorigiA look at some of the last stone carvers working in the United States, those completing the sculptures adorning the Washington National Cathedral. They discuss their craft and the cultural forces which helped define it, as well as the fading use of stone ornamentation in architecture and the history of stone carving, and they tour the cathedral to point out the history behind some of the work.
- DirectorDeborah ShafferStarsCharlie ClementsRichard NixonDocumentary of Charlie Clements, a Vietnam War pilot who was convinced by his experiences in the war that he should become a doctor working behind enemy lines.
- DirectorPamela ConnSue MarxStarsLouis GothelfReva Shwayder-GothelfFilmmakers Sue Marx and Pamela Conn document the romance between Sue's father Louis Gothelf and Reva Shwayder, each in their mid-80s. Both artists and residents of the Detroit suburbs, they met on a group tour of England after being widowed, and quickly formed a strong connection over shared interests. The two discuss concerns over living together without being married; Louis also talks about his caring for his first wife during her ten-year struggle with Alzheimer's disease, while Reva talks about the deaths of two sons several years after her husband's death.
- DirectorVivienne Verdon-RoeStarsJoanne WoodwardJean Shinoda BolenBetty Bumpers22 prominent American women discuss their activism for nuclear disarmament and their motivations in seeking the end of the arms race.
- DirectorMalcolm ClarkeBill GuttentagStarsJason GaesAdam GaesCraig GaesA young boy's successful battle against cancer and his subsequent efforts to help other children overcome their fears of the illness.
- DirectorCharles GuggenheimStarsLen CariouElam BenderRandy BenderOn May 30, 1889 the South Fork Dam, which maintained a pleasure lake for wealthy Pittsburgh industrialists and their families, failed due to very heavy rains and poor maintenance by the dam's owners. The burst dam sent a wall of water and debris, 40 feet high and half a mile wide, 14 miles downstream to the bustling industrial city of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. More than 2000 people lost their lives in the disaster. This documentary tells the story, and tells us that the disaster was easily avoidable.
- DirectorGerardine WurzburgStarsJudy GwazdauskasPeter GwazdauskasPeter Gwazdauskas, a child with Down Syndrome, attends a normal school with regular students. The documentary follows Peter and how much he has improved throughout the school year.
- DirectorSteven OkazakiStarsEstelle Peck IshigoLynn O'DonnellDorothy StroupThe story of Estelle Ishigo, one of the few whites interned with Japanese Americans during World War II. The wife of a Japanese American, Ishigo refused to be separated from her husband and was interned along with him. Based on the personal papers of Estelle Ishigo and her novel Lone Heart Mountain.
- DirectorDebra ChasnoffThis 1991 Academy Award®-winning documentary uncovers the disastrous health and environmental side effects caused by the production of nuclear materials by the General Electric Corporation.
- DirectorMargaret LazarusRenner WunderlichStacey KabatDocumentary about the magnitude and severity of domestic violence. This film features four women imprisoned for killing their batterers and their terrifying personal testimonies.
- DirectorCharles GuggenheimA short history of civil rights movements in the US.
- DirectorKary AntholisStarsGerda Weissmann KleinKurt KleinPeter ThomasHolocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein recounts her six-year ordeal as a victim of Nazi cruelty, including the loss of her parents, brother, friends, home, possessions, and community.
- DirectorJessica YuStarsMark O'BrienElizabeth DuvallIan BerzonPortrait of writer Mark O'Brien, who contracted polio as a child and spent much of his life in an iron lung.
- DirectorDonna DeweyStarsBarron ChristianDonna DeweyIn January, 1997, a team of five nurses, four anesthesiologists, and three plastic surgeons arrive in Vietnam from the United States for two weeks' of volunteer work. They operate on 110 children who have various birth defects and injuries. They also talk to the film crew about why they've made this trip and what it means to them. We watch them work, and we see the children, their families, and their surroundings in the Mekong Delta. Over the closing credits, Dionne Warwick sings Bacharach and David's "What the World Needs Now Is Love."
- DirectorSusan Hannah HadaryWilliam A. WhitefordStarsPaul HungerfordDan KeplingerA short documentary that focus on artist Dan Keplinger, a man born with cerebral palsy who manages to compose great works of art. Baltimore filmmakers Susan Hadary and William Whiteford then decided to present the life and work of King Gimp as Dan is called by his neighbors.
- DirectorKeiko IbiStarsGloria BobrofskyAbram CalderonDeborah EhrlichDocumentary about a Jewish senior citizens' acting group on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The film covers both the progress and impediments of a play the group is mounting about senior citizens looking for love and the life/love stories (past, present, and predictions) of the players.
- DirectorTracy SereteanStarsWalter DeeViola DeesThe story of Viola Dees, an elderly woman who is trying to care for her troubled grandson.
- DirectorSarah KernochanStarsS.K. ThothRobert JanoffElayne JonesThoth is a street performer currently in New York. Thoth is an individual with a complicated life and background. Thoth plays on opera with a violin in a loincloth in Central Park. Thoth is.
- DirectorBill GuttentagRobert David PortStarsTommy BudaTwo brothers, one a firefighter, one a police officer, are remembered for their bravery in New York City on September 11.
- DirectorMaryann DeLeoStarsWilliam NovickAdi RocheThis Academy Award-winning documentary takes a look at children born after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster who have been born with a deteriorated heart condition.
- DirectorEric SimonsonStarsRobert AltmanNorman CorwinWalter CronkiteA biography of Poet Norman Corwin, and the events surrounding his powerful radio broadcast commemorating VE Day on May 8, 1945.
- DirectorRobert HoustonStarsDominiqua AlexisRico E. AndersonJosh EvansOn May 2, 1963, the children of Birmingham, Alabama took to the streets to challenge segregation.
- DirectorRuby YangStarsHuang ChildrenGao JunNan NanA year in the life of children in the Province of Anhui in China, who have lost their parents to AIDS. Traditional obligations to family and village collide with terror of the disease.
- DirectorCynthia WadeStarsLaurel HesterStacie AndreeDane B. WellsIn the last weeks of her life, Lieutenant Laurel Hester has one goal - to leave her hard-earned pension to her life partner Stacie. Without it, Stacie will lose their house. For once the law is not on Laurel's side. Time is running out.
- DirectorKaren GoodmanKirk SimonIn the heart of Tel Aviv, there is an exceptional school where children from forty-eight different countries and diverse backgrounds come together to learn. Many of the students arrive at Bialik-Rogozin School fleeing poverty, political adversity and even genocide. Here, no child is a stranger. The film follows several students' struggle to acclimate to life in a new land while slowly opening up to share their stories of hardship and tragedy: Mohammed, a sixteen-year-old refugee from Darfur, witnessed the killing of his grandmother and father before escaping alone through Egypt to Israel. Having never been in a school before, his sharp mind and tremendous determination enable him to make up the years of study he never had. Johannes arrived at Bialik-Rogozin after spending most of his life in refugee camps across the Middle East. His father struggles to obtain a work visa while twelve-year-old Johannes struggles to adjust to attending school for the first time. After a slow start, his teachers realize that he is nearly blind in one eye and take him to an eye clinic. With his new glasses, before long, he is reading and writing - and helping other newcomers to adjust. After the murder of her mother, Esther and her father fled South Africa with nothing, in search of safety and peace of mind. At Bialik-Rogozin, they are welcomed with clothing, food and counsel on beginning a new life. Esther's teachers try to relieve the trauma of a nine-year-old girl who believes her mother will return. With tremendous effort and dedication, the school provides the support these children need to recover from their past. Together, the bond between teacher and student, and amongst the students themselves, enables them to create new lives in this exceptional community. Upon graduation, Mohammed provides the finest evidence of the school's ultimate success -- declaring his dream to return to Darfur and build a school for the children of the village he once fled.
- DirectorMegan MylanStarsAnti ChauhanGhutaru ChauhanVirendra Kumar DasA real-world fairy-tale about the journey of Pinki and Ghutaru, two children in rural India whose lives are forever changed by a simple surgery they never imagined possible.
- DirectorRoger Ross WilliamsStarsFarai MabhandePrudence MabhenaEnergy MaburutsePrudence Mabhena leads a group of young, disabled Africans who inspire others with their music, proving that disability does not mean inability.
- DirectorDaniel JungeSharmeen Obaid-ChinoyStarsSarkar AbbasMohammad JawadPlastic surgeon Dr. Mohammad Jawad returns to his native Pakistan to help those left horribly scarred by acid attacks.
- DirectorMalcolm ClarkeStarsAliza Sommer-HerzZdenka FantlovaAnita Lasker-WallfischAliza Sommer-Herz, aged 109 and the world's oldest Holocaust survivor, tells the story of how music saved her life: both during her time at Theresienstadt concentration camp and in the years afterwards.
- DirectorSean FineAndrea NixA personal and vibrant coming of age story about a young artist's determination never to surrender to the bleakness of her surroundings. At 15, Inocente refuses to let her dream of becoming an artist be caged by being an undocumented immigrant forced to live homeless for the last nine years. Color is her personal revolution and its sweep on her canvases creates a world that looks nothing like her own dark past. 'Inocente' is both a timeless story about the transformative power of art and a timely snapshot of the new face of homelessness in America: children. The challenges are staggering, but the hope in her story proves that the hand she has been dealt does not define her, her dreams do.
- DirectorEllen Goosenberg KentCounselors provide support, guidance and hope to despondent servicemen dealing with emotional, physical and financial troubles.
- DirectorSharmeen Obaid-ChinoyStarsAsad JamalSabaA woman in Pakistan sentenced to death for falling in love becomes a rare survivor of the country's harsh judicial system.
- DirectorOrlando von EinsiedelStarsDana AbedTia AlkerdiKhalid FarahAs daily airstrikes pound civilian targets in Syria, a group of indomitable first responders risk their lives to rescue victims from the rubble.
- DirectorFrank StiefelStarsTom WudlA brilliant but tortured 56-year-old artist channels her depression and anxiety into her work.
- DirectorRayka ZehtabchiStarsAjeyaAnitaGouri ChoudariIndian women fight the stigma surrounding menstruation and begin manufacturing sanitary pads.
- DirectorCarol DysingerStarsFatimaKashidaLearning To Skateboard In A Warzone (If You're A Girl) is the story of young Afghan girls learning to read, write-and skateboard-in Kabul.
- DirectorAnthony GiacchinoStarsColette Marin-CatherineLucie FoubleIn Nazi-occupied France, resistance took courage. Seventy-five years later, facing one's ghosts may take even more.
- DirectorBen ProudfootStarsLarry BirdLusia HarrisOscar RobertsonQueen of Basketball is an electrifying portrait of Lucy Harris, who scored the first basket in women's Olympic history and was the first and only woman officially drafted into the N.B.A. Harris has remained largely unknown - until now.
- DirectorKartiki GonsalvesStarsBellieBommanBomman and Bellie, a couple in South India, devote their lives to caring for an orphaned baby elephant named Raghu, forging a family like no other that tests the barrier between the human and the animal world.
- DirectorKris BowersBen ProudfootStarsDana AtkinsonDuane MichaelsPaty MorenoTells the story of four unassuming heroes who ensure no student is deprived of the joy of music. It is also a reminder of how music can be the best medicine, stress reliever and even an escape from poverty.