24 Aug 1963
The Chair
Follows a crusading lawyer as he embarks on a campaign to save an African-American man, Paul Crump, from the electric chair. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 2007.
Twenty Years of Academy Awards
All the winners. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2000.
19480h 19min
Top Billed Cast
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The Chair The Chair Charulata 
Charulata 17 Apr 1964
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In 1870s India, Charulata is an isolated, artistically inclined woman who sees little of her busy journalist husband, Bhupati. Realizing that his wife is alienated and unhappy, he convinces his cousin, Amal, to spend time with Charulata and nourish her creative impulses. Amal is a fledgling poet himself, and he and Charulata bond over their shared love of art.
It's Up To You It's Up To You 28 May 1948
It's Up To You
A historical film contrasting the two Germanies – the good and the evil – which struggled for power between the two world wars.
Harlan County U.S.A. 
Harlan County U.S.A. 23 Jan 1977
Harlan County U.S.A.
This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastovers refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive women-folk. Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by giving us some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with New York Women in Film & Television in 2004.
Eyes 
Eyes 22 Dec 1970
Eyes
“After wishing for years to be given the opportunity of filming some of the more “mystical” occupations of our Times – which the average imagination turns into “bogeyman”… viz: Policemen, Doctors, Soldiers, Politicians, etc. – I was at last permitted to ride in a Pittsburgh police car, camera in hand” - Stan Brakhage. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 2011.
Projection Instructions 
Projection Instructions 01 Jan 1976
Projection Instructions
Regrettably, the labour of projectionists is usually only considered by the audience when they ‘screw up’. This film offers an alternative opportunity. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2014.
I Don't Know 
I Don't Know 09 Nov 1971
I Don't Know
A truly major work, I Don’t Know observes the relationship between a lesbian and a transgender person who prefers to be identified somewhere in between male and female, in an expression of personal ambiguity suggested by the film’s title. This nonfiction film – an unusual, partly staged work of semi-verité – is the first of Spheeris’s films to fully embrace what would become her characteristic documentary style: probing, intimate, uncompromising. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2014.
Asparagus 
Asparagus 17 Mar 1979
Asparagus
A symbolic reflection on issues of female sexuality, art and identity constructs.
The Sun's Gonna Shine 
The Sun's Gonna Shine 02 Jan 1969
The Sun's Gonna Shine
A lyrical recreation of Lightnin’ Hopkins’ decision at age eight to stop chopping cotton and start singing for a living. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.
Laddie 
Laddie 18 Mar 1935
Laddie
A romance between two young lovers is complicated by their prohibitive parents. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.
The Crimson Kimono 
The Crimson Kimono 21 Oct 1959
The Crimson Kimono
Two detectives clash over the hunt for a burlesque dancer’s killer in Los Angeles’ Japanese district.
Odds & Ends 
Odds & Ends 01 Jan 1959
Odds & Ends
Odds & Ends is a sly comment on the collage film and Beat culture. To discarded travel and advertising footage found at a local film laboratory, Belson Shimane added a mélange of animation—assemblages, cutouts, color fields, and line drawings—and faux hipster narration by Jacobs (credited via the anagram Rheny Bojacs) punctuated by a bongo backing. Strung together with doublespeak and non sequiturs, the monologue skirts the edge of nonsense as Jacobs waxes on about poetry, jazz, “reaching the public,” “having a good time,” and—although “money doesn’t count”—the “possibility of subsidy” through grants. Footage of champagne, tropical beaches, and exotic peoples intermingle with rhythmic drawings and stop-motion flights of fancy. The visuals race on through dazzling transformations, both amplifying and undercutting the patter. —National Film Preservation Foundation. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Iota Center Collection in 2006.
The Wormwood Star 
The Wormwood Star 01 Jan 1956
The Wormwood Star
A portrait of artist, actress, poet and occultist Marjorie Cameron, it shows images of her paintings and recitations of her poems. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2006.
Keep Cool Keep Cool 01 Jan 1971
Keep Cool
An animation (long before there were such things) for Oscar Brown Jr’s track “But I Was Cool”, from his 1961 debut album Sin & Soul. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.
Blue Value 
Blue Value 01 Jan 1996
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This is a hand-painted step-printed film which begins with slow dissolves of what appear to be decaying leaves, crumpled browns and golds and oranges which assume qualities of earth and rock shot-through with flashes of crystalline prism colors and jagged scratch marks amidst glows of multiple coloration with increasing blues, varieties of tones of blue, from turquoise to near-purple - these variations of tone (and shape, as well) gradually convey, given the comparatively few appearances of blue, a formal domination over all other tones (and attendant shapes) of the spectrum of the film. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2016.
Dear Janice 
Dear Janice 01 Sep 1972
Dear Janice
Beckett cycles through a limited number of drawings, but adds new information to each drawing every time we see it, giving the sense of a world that is infinitely rich and also obviously contained tightly within the edges of the paper. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with iotaCenter and National Film Preservation Foundation in 2007.
Persian Series 1-5 Persian Series 1-5 Persian Series 1-5
One of Brakhage's series of short films painted directly on film, from 1999. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.
Anijam Anijam 01 Jan 1984
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The bizarre adventures of the cartoon character Foska, drawn by 22 animators working in collaboration. Each animator worked on his or her own sequence only and did not know what action preceded or followed his or her sequence, except that the first drawing of a sequence is the last drawing from the previous sequence. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2010.
Spider Baby 
Spider Baby 24 Dec 1967
Spider Baby
In a dilapidated rural mansion, the last generation of the degenerate, inbred Merrye family lives with the inherited curse of a disease that causes them to mentally regress from the age of 10 or so on as they physically develop. The family chauffeur looks out for them and covers up their indiscretions. Trouble comes when greedy distant relatives and their lawyer arrive to dispossess the family of its home.
Underworld U.S.A. 
Underworld U.S.A. 22 Feb 1961
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A bitter young man sets out to get back at the gangsters who murdered his father.