The Factory: How a Product is Made(1956)

Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory(fr)

Working men and women leave through the main gate of the Lumière factory in Lyon, France. Filmed on 22 March 1895, it is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made, although Louis Le Prince's 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by seven years. Three separate versions of this film exist, which differ from one another in numerous ways. The first version features a carriage drawn by one horse, while in the second version the carriage is drawn by two horses, and there is no carriage at all in the third version. The clothing style is also different between the three versions, demonstrating the different seasons in which each was filmed. This film was made in the 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.

Megacities(en)

Megacities is a documentary about the slums of five different metropolitan cities.

Atlas(en)

The concept of machine-made knit was known as early as the 1850s, but it was only during the 1920s that the quality of the material had improved. When the plant known as "Atlas" was introduced in 1931, the shop windows drew a lot of attention, and Aho & Soldan was ordered to make a promotional film. In this well-paced film, we see the jersey production step by step.

North China Factory(en)

This documentary from 1980 depicts a factory community in China where over 6000 workers process, spin and weave raw cotton into 90 million yards of high-quality cloth per year. Also seen are the workers' residential, social, recreational and educational facilities, all located on factory property. The film presents an engrossing study of a lifestyle that is very different from that of the Western world.

24 City(zh)

As a decades-old state-run aeronautics munitions factory in downtown Chengdu, China is being torn down for the construction of the titular luxury apartment complex, director Jia Zhangke interviews various people affiliated with it about their experiences.

Billion Dollar Babies: The True Story of the Cabbage Patch Kids(en)

Doll hospitals, cabbage ‘births,’ a four-year legal battle over the origin of the idea and a billion-dollar toy brand that put the wheels of modern-day Black Friday shopping riots into motion. This is the unbelievable true story you never knew about the toy craze that started it all, the Cabbage Patch Kids.

The Beanie Bubble(en)

The Beanie Bubble follows the unbelievable tale of America’s most fascinating phenomenon – Beanie Babies. Flashing back to the 90’s and early 2000’s, we take an in-depth look at how the era-defining zeitgeist came to be, the mysterious man behind the mania, and the lives that were forever changed in its wake. This is not simply a retelling, but rather an exploration of the American Dream and what makes all people susceptible to buying into a fantasy.

A Powerful Passion(it)

A journey through a century of Ambrosoli family history.

Ho Chi Minh Kim Chi(en)

The sights and sounds of a kimchi factory in Vietnam.

Charlie Marx and the Chocolate Factory(en)

Charlie Marx and the Chocolate Factory started as an investigation of the link between politics and chocolate, at the Karl Marx Confectionary Factory in Kiev, Ukraine. Since access to the factory was denied, the project had to be re-considered, re-invented or re-enacted. Mostly made of archival footage and re-enacted performances based on the company's website, the film merges what was left of the initial idea with what has been collected and realized instead. It borrows from the genres of video art, 'Man on the street' interview, direct address, corporate film, essay, and music video, without legitimately belonging to any of them. The film unravels as a reflection on its own failure, and yet keeps on investigating what has always been at stake: the shift from public to private property (and from analog to digital technology), dialectics of permanence and change, language as a mirror of ideology, and post-Soviet oligarchy culture.

Barbie Nation: An Unauthorized Tour(en)

Blows the roof of Barbie’s “Dreamhouse,” revealing generations of people obsessed with the world’s most popular toy. At Barbie conventions and anti-Barbie demonstrations, from San Francisco’s gay pride parade to Croatia’s bunkers, Barbie fans, foes, fetishists – and Barbie’s creator Ruth Handler – reveal the history and fantasy behind the icon.

Manufactured Landscapes(en)

MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES is the striking new documentary on the world and work of renowned artist Edward Burtynsky. Internationally acclaimed for his large-scale photographs of “manufactured landscapes”—quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines and dams—Burtynsky creates stunningly beautiful art from civilization’s materials and debris.

Le Monde secret de la petite brique LEGO(fr)

Turtle Power: The Definitive History of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(en)

In the spring of 1984, a strange new comic book sat beside cash registers in select shops, too big to fit in the racks, and too weird to ignore. Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles presented a completely original breed of super hero. It was too bizarre, too crazy. It broke all the rules and should never have worked. Until it sold out. Again and again and again. For 30 years. Now, peek under the shell and see how this so-called "happy accident" defied every naysayer to become one of the most popular and beloved franchises in the world.

Machines(hi)

This portrayal of the rhythm of life and work in a gigantic textile factory in Gujarat, India, moves through the corridors and bowels of the enormously disorienting structure—taking the viewer on a journey of dehumanizing physical labor and intense hardship.

The Monsters Factory(fr)

In Portugal, the daily life of a bronze foundry, specialized in the semi-industrial production of spare parts for the naval field, is compared with the freedom of spirit characterizing the "pottery of monsters" on a village square where everyone gathers.

More High Impact Forklift Safety(en)

With graphic re-enactments of industrial accidents, the More High Impact Forklift Safety Video gives viewers a scared-straight lesson on the importance of forklift safety. This forklift video is great for training your forklift operators on accident awareness and prevention.

All for the good of the World and Nosovice(cs)

An original portrayal of a small Czech village where – as the locals put it – an UFO has landed in the form of a kilometre-long silverish factory: a Korean Hyundai automobile plant. The village, hitherto famous mostly for its sauerkraut and the “Radegast” beer was thus turned into an industrial zone – the largest greenfield investment project in the Czech Republic’s history. Nonetheless, for a long time many farmers resisted selling the land upon which the factory was now standing. Eventually, they all succumbed under the pressure from the neighbours, and even the anonymous death threats. The filmmakers returned to Nošovice two years after the dramatic property buyouts, at the time when the factory has just started churning out cheap cars. Combining the perspectives of seven characters, they have composed a portrayal of a place suddenly changed beyond recognition that is playful and chilling at the same time: a politically engaged absurd flick about a field that yields cars.

S.A.L.P. Esercizio di memoria(it)

A documentary about the industrial, urbanistic and social aspects of the Società Anonima Lavorazione Pelli (S.A.L.P) factory located in Rivarolo Canavese, thirty kilometers north of Turin.

IEC Long(pt)

The word panchão was first heard in Macao. From the Chinese pan-tcheong or pau-tcheong, dictionaries define it as a Macanese regionalism also known as China cracker. Who inhabits the ancient IEC Long firecracker factory?