Build Your Vocabulary (Second Edition)(1967)

Another Romance of Celluloid: Electrical Power(en)

This short begins at Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam). The electricity generated here by the Colorado River is sent to Hollywood, where movie studios need it to make movies. After a tour of the MGM studios' power plants, we see short advertisements for upcoming MGM releases.

Sneezed-out Ideas(es)

Come back to this day, next year. Ain't nothing, chief.

Thomas Lang: Creative Control(en)

Thomas Lang presents the unique and innovative system that he has used to develop his awesome speed, control, finesse and coordination-a step-by-step system that will allow you to hone your drumming chops so that you can play more effectively, in any style of music.

Trillium(lv)

There are about 250 people with a unique ancestry. Livonians – one of the smallest and most endangered nations. Each of Livonians has a duty to preserve their identity and the great history of their ancestors. Trillium follows the footsteps of a poet and researcher Valts Ernštreits, who is one of 20 people able to speak fluent Livonian – an indigenous language related to Estonian and Finnish – in his efforts to look after the language and culture of these ancient settlers of the Baltic Sea coast.

Writing the Land(en)

In this short documentary, a Musqueam elder rediscovers his Native language and traditions in the city of Vancouver, in the vicinity of which the Musqueam people have lived for thousands of years. Writing the Land captures the ever-changing nature of a modern city - the glass and steel towers cut against the sky, grass, trees and a sudden flash of birds in flight and the enduring power of language to shape perception and create memory.

The Hyperglot(en)

Despite an unrivaled talent for communicating, Jake has trouble talking to women. When an impossible situation presents itself, Jake ignores the signs and goes on a wild goose-chase to pursue his quest for love. When his plan is foiled, a new best friend helps him finally express himself successfully to a woman – without uttering a single word.

What Happens In Your Brain If You See a German Word Like...?(de)

A surreal trip into the world of an extremely long german word.

Štúrovci na Dobrej Vode(sk)

Tuorås Dalska(sv)

In the small community of Älvdalen in northern Dalarna, Sweden, the unique language Elfdalian (Älvdalska) is spoken. This documentary follows Ing-Marie's personal story about how it is and has been to live with the Elfdalian language.

It Ain't Necessarily So(en)

It Ain't Necessarily So captures a budding Japanese jazz singer and her biracial vocal instructor who struggle to agree on the proper way to sing Gershwin’s “I Loves You Porgy.” Humor is no stranger to jazz singers Eiko Katayama and Kazue Hiraoka who star alongside Masa Fox, their English teacher. "Master at capturing hyper-awkward moments... brilliantly explore how representations of culture and identity ain’t necessarily how they appear." --Wilda Wong, San Diego Asian Film Festival

Baseball: The Pete Rose Way(en)

Pete Rose instructs children in the fundamental mechanics of playing baseball.

School Vandalism(en)

Explores school vandalism by re-creating a true incident involving four youths. Discusses motives and consequence of vandalism.

Se ti Sabir(en)

"Se ti sabir" is a film reflecting on language, intelligence, and our relationship with new technologies and non-human species.

Secret of the Waterfall(en)

The confluence of words and movement propels this multi-layered collaboration by Atlas, choreographer Douglas Dunn, and poets Anne Waldman and Reed Bye. Dunn's athletic choreography is performed to the rhythms, cadences, and associative meanings of the poets' "cascade of words," which function as music. Atlas introduces narrative references, ironically staging the dance in unexpected locations, including domestic interiors and vehicles. In a self-referential deconstruction that punctures the theatrical illusion, the poets are seen reading their texts and interacting as self-conscious performers within the dance. Atlas and his collaborators intersect the language of words with the language of the body.

Stay Maybe? We Think We Made a Film(en)

An Asian film crew’s attemptsat making a film while navigating the strict laws of filming in the UK. They don’t have a budget or enough preparation, all they have is a shared passion to create. Stay Maybe is a comparison of cultures, at times sublimely political and desperately hilarious; it is made by and for the people who are divided by language but united by cinema; a film about filmmaking – blurring the lines between fiction and reality.

Cry Rock(en)

The wild beauty of the Bella Coola Valley blends with vivid watercolor animation illuminating the role of the Nuxalk oral tradition and the intersection of story, place and culture.

How to Build an Igloo(en)

This classic short film shows how to make an igloo using only snow and a knife. Two Inuit men in Canada’s Far North choose the site, cut and place snow blocks and create an entrance--a shelter completed in one-and-a-half hours. The commentary explains that the interior warmth and the wind outside cement the snow blocks firmly together. As the short winter day darkens, the two builders move their caribou sleeping robes and extra skins indoors, confident of spending a snug night in the midst of the Arctic cold!

Comprehensive School(en)

The joys of 1960s modern education - as seen at a not-exactly-typical local comp.

Twice Upon a Time(en)

This short satirical film takes us to Stereoville, a city where citizens must literally double up in their efforts to deal with the community’s 2 official languages. In Stereoville, each speaker of one language is tied to a speaker of the other, back-to-back. Into this two-stepping society stumbles a character whose very existence causes considerable consternation among locals: an unattached individual with command of both languages.

R-Rated(en)

A teacher attempts to teach his students to properly enunciate the letter 'R'.