Vitagraph’s Battle of Santiago Bay (1898) blended real Spanish–American War footage with tabletop trickery. Albert E. Smith’s authentic San Juan material looked underwhelming, so he and partner J. Stuart Blackton staged the naval clash on a miniature set: cardboard ships afloat in shallow water, firecracker “explosions,” and clouds of smoke from cigars and cigarettes. Spliced together, the hybrid film was embraced as genuine by audiences and became one of the most popular war films of its day.
15 Nov 2014
Jirón is the story of “Jirón de niebla” (Shred of Fog), the last film made by Mexico’s duque of horror, Carlos Enrique Taboada, which, for several reasons, was never shown or premiered. The mistery behind the disappearance of this film will be revealed in a series of interviews with the people who worked on it.
09 Apr 2014
Documentary about the lost 1914 film "Sperduti nel buio". Film historian Denis Lotto journeys across Europe following the trail of the lost movie.
03 Apr 2024
In 1975 French Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Pierre Dominique Gaisseau traveled to Panama to make a film on the indigenous island-dwelling Kuna people. Accompanied by his wife and their daughter, Gaisseau lived with the Kuna for a year, gaining their trust and filming their most intimate ceremonies. He promised to share the resulting film with the community, but that never happened. Fifty years later, the Kunas are still waiting to discover “their” film, now a legend passed down from the elders to the new generation. One day, a hidden copy is found in Paris…While uncovering this fascinating story with humility and warmth, Swiss-Panamanian filmmaker Andrés Peyrot succeeds in capturing a true sense of culture and place. The result is simultaneously a cautionary tale raising questions around how and why documentaries are made and for whom, and a testament to the power of what it means to see yourself on the big screen.
01 Jan 1888
Lost film from 1888, directed by William Friese-Greene.
17 Oct 2024
Documentary that captures Tom Petty and the band in 1982-1983 as they finish, promote, and tour around the “Long After Dark” album (their final with legendary producer Jimmy Iovine). It aired only once on MTV in 1983. After the long lost 16mm reels were finally found, a restored version with 19 minutes of extra footage was released in 2024.
04 Apr 1913
At the opening of the film Pennsylvania Avenue is shown, nearly blocked by a motley mob of sightseers looking at the marching Suffragettes. The big banner demanding a Constitutional amendment guaranteeing equal rights to American women makes a pathway along which the Suffragettes are seen marching steadily and persistently, although still hemmed in by the mob.
10 Jul 1914
A promotional one-reel film promoting the stars of Universal Pictures.
01 Jun 2001
Marilyn Monroe's final project, "Something's Got to Give", has become one of the most talked about unfinished films in history. The story of the film and Marilyn's last days were seemingly lost… until now. Through interviews, never-before-seen footage and an edited reconstruction of "Something's Got to Give", Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days provides a definitive and fascinating look at the last act in the life of the world's most famous and tragic superstar.
25 Jun 2025
In 1985, Star Trek's George Takei joined a group of dedicated fans to make a student film deep in the California forest—only for the footage to mysteriously vanish. Nearly 40 years later, Beam Me Up, Sulu unearths this lost film, revealing not just a piece of fan history but a broader story of representation, resilience, and the ongoing fight for inclusion in media and society.
21 Apr 1976
Sex star gives an explosive behind the scenes view of the people who make sexual fantasies come true on the silver screen. Sex Stars is the first feature documentary made by Lech Kowalski.
01 Jan 1912
The good people of the Solax community realize that they have cause to make merry before the New Year because the Almighty has guided their breadwinning footsteps toward the Solax Studio's happy atmosphere, bank together like the big happy family they are, to give expression to their happiness in the form of a gift to the immediate cause of their good fortune and sunshine.
15 Feb 1925
Third installment of the "Flying Fists" silent series with boxer Benny Leonard in the lead.
26 Jun 1934
During his adventure in Mexico, Sergei Eisenstein made footage of a Mexican "Death Day" celebration for inclusion in his "Que Viva Mexico!" film project. When the 200,000-plus feet of film he eventually exposed in Mexico was first attempted to be made into a feature film, "Thunder Over Mexico", the producers excluded the Death Day material for subsequent compilation as an independent short subject. Silent with music track and explanatory English intertitles.
02 Jan 1966
Commissioned by the U.S. Treasury Department, the film follows an inspector conducting surprise inspections. Note: As of now, the film is considered lost and no known copies are publicly available.
20 May 1912
Captain Kleinschmidt leads an expedition sponsored by the Carnegie Museum to the arctic regions of Alaska and Siberia to study the natives and the animal life.
30 Sep 1940
Second attempt to create a feature film out of the 200,000-plus feet of film which Soviet film-maker Sergei Eisenstein shot during 1931-32 in Mexico for American socialist author Upton Sinclair, his wife and a small company of investors. The projected film, to be called "Que Viva Mexico", was never completed due to exhaustion of funds and Stalin's demand that Eisenstein return to the USSR (he had been absent since 1929). The first attempt at editing the footage, in the USA, resulted in "Thunder Over Mexico", released in 1934. In 1940, Marie Seton, from the UK, acquired some of the footage from the Sinclairs in an attempt to make a better cutting according to Eisenstein's skeletal outline for the proposed film. This film has apparently been lost.
03 May 1899
Short film about an express steamer
28 Apr 1933
A documentary of explorer Richard Halliburton's travels on the Indian sub-continent, featuring a mix of real and staged footage.
15 Mar 1925
Episode #5 in the Flying Fists series featuring real-life boxer Benny Leonard.
01 Jan 1893
One of the pictures to be seen in the machine, for example, was that of a blacksmith shop in which two men were working, one shoeing a horse, the other heating iron at the forge. One would be seen to drive the nail into the shoe of the horse's hoof, to change his position and every movement needed in the work was clearly shown as if the object was in real (life). In fact, the whole routine of the two men's labor and their movements for the day was presented to the view of the observer.