Michiel van Erp shows us what the Dutch do in their spare time and takes a look at the industry behind all these leisure activities.
2006-10-18
8.5
A fun fair behind the dikes
The Silver Beach Amusement Park operated from 1891 to 1971. For a small price, visitors could go for a swim in Lake Michigan, play games of chance, take in the organ music playing on the midway, or get a bite to eat. Revisit the midway roller coaster, Shadowland Ballroom, the carousel, the Ferris wheel, the waterslide, the penny arcade, visits by Hollywood movie stars, and more. It’s all part of the history of St. Joseph and southwest Michigan.
An abridged history of motion pictures: In 1888 George Eastman registered the made up word “Kodak” as a trademark. In 1894 Jean Aimé “Acme” Le Roy presented the first film screening in New York City. In 1895 Auguste and Louis Lumière filmed workers leaving their factory in Lyon. In 1903 Thomas Alva Edison orchestrated and captured on film the electrocution of an elephant in Coney Island. In 2011 Anja Dornieden and Juan David González Monroy filmed dwarfs dancing on a stage at an amusement park in China. In 2012 Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy.
The film that Michael Janusonis of the Providence Journal claims, "is not to be missed," is an exhilarating ride; a poignant and often hilarious look at one of New England's great landmarks. YMBTT takes you all the way back to 1847, to the early beginning of Rocky Point Park, then flies fast like a roller coaster to its current, demolished state. Along the way we meet colorful and insightful characters who rode the rides, who ran the rides, and who kept the park running for all those years. You'll see hurricanes and Presidents, the Yo-Yo and the Flume, and you'll just about be able to taste those clam cakes and that chowder from the World's Largest Shore Dinner Hall.
Vienna’s Prater is an amusement park and a desire machine. No mechanical invention, no novel idea or sensational innovation could escape incorporation into the Prater. The diverse story-telling in Ulrike Ottinger’s film “Prater” transforms this place of sensations into a modern cinema of attractions. The Prater’s history from the beginning to the present is told by its protagonists and those who have documented it, including contemporary cinematic images of the Prater, interviews with carnies, commentary by Austrians and visitors from abroad, film quotes, and photographic and written documentary materials. The meaning of the Prater, its status as a place of technological innovation, and its role as a cultural medium are reflected in texts by Elfriede Jelinek, Josef von Sternberg, Erich Kästner and Elias Canetti, as well as in music devoted to this amusement venue throughout the course of its history.
It’s roller coasters! French fries! And lots of good times! It’s a high-flying, double dipped, screeching, squealing, scream-your-eyes-out documentary about one of America’s greatest amusement parks, Kennywood!
Few amateur films with sound were produced in the 1930s and fewer remain extant. A charming artifact that demonstrates the expressive possibilities and technical limitations of amateur talkies, "The Spider and the Fly" includes a backyard Labor Day gathering, a trip to the Riverview Amusement Park, and a homemade Halloween parade of witches and ghouls.
Before there was Disneyland, there was Coney Island. By the turn of the century, this tiny piece of New York real estate was internationally famous. On summer Sundays, three great pleasure domes--Steeplechase, Luna Park and Dreamland--competed for the patronage of a half-million people. By day it was the world's most amazing amusement park, by night, an electric "Eden".
Dwarves Kingdom is a documentary film about a theme park featuring performances by little people with dwarfism who live in a fantasy recreation of a magical empire. Built by a wealthy Chinese businessman, this other-worldly kingdom, officially called World Ecological Garden of Butterfly and Little People Kingdom, is located in the mountains surrounding the city of Kunming in Western China.
In the 1970s, the Spanish dictatorship opened up to the outside world and allowed a group of Danes to build Tivoli World, the first amusement park on the Costa del Sol, a copy of Tivoli Garden in Copenhagen.
Class Action Park explores the legend, legacy, and truth behind the 1980s water park in Vernon, New Jersey that long ago entered the realm of myth. Known for its dangerous, unsupervised rides and lack of regulation, guests of Action Park expected to walk away with injuries and were lucky if they made it out alive. Shirking the trappings of nostalgia, the film uses investigative journalism, original animations, recordings, and interviews with the people who lived it to reveal the true story of Action Park.
Through archival footage, 3D animations, interviews with former employees, visitors, collectors and fans, the film reconstructs the story of what for many was the Argentine Disneyland.
Since 1926 the Philadelphia Toboggan Company #36, (PTC 36) has occupied a place in the hearts and minds of children of all ages who visit Seabreeze Amusement Park. In March of 1994, a tragic fire took the beloved carousel from this Rochester, NY community. This is the story of the aftermath and the determination of the owners of Seabreeze Amusement Park to build a new carousel in the grand tradition of PTC 36
A fun, nostalgic look at the rich history of Lagoon Amusement Park, which has enchanted visitors for generations with its rides, rock concerts, and family fun for more than a century.
What made more money than the entire American movie industry through the 50s and 60s? Pinball. Special When Lit rediscovers the lure of a lost pop icon. A product of the mechanical and electrical age, the American invention swept the world and defined cool. Now it is relegated to a nostalgic footnote deserving a better fate. Joining the fans, collectors, designers and champion players from across the globe who share a world many of us didn't know still existed.
Recover the community through individual stories with which we can connect with other people. This project aims to bring to light, through the symbolic and psychology, those similarities that exist between interpersonal differences.
The perfect way to reminisce about your Walt Disney World vacation! It's all here, exquisitely photographed and fully narrated. From Liberty Square to Fantasyland, the file covers every part of the Magic Kingdom. There's much more, though... an entire resort playground with all the luxurious resort hotels and rustic campgrounds that make up the Vacation Kingdom. Here's a beautiful souvenir of the single most popular vacation destination in the world!
How to create the imagination of movement for fun parks is the theme of this documentary. Although engineers try and try to create machines that shake, tilt, turn, lift and drop people in a way that fools their senses, the real McCoy cannot be imitated: Roller Coasters just let you experience movement much, much more intense than everything else - even on the screen.
A grieving young inventor finds solace in repairing an antique typewriter.
While under the guise of taking his family on a weekend winter getaway, Loid's attempt to make progress on his current mission Operation Strix proves difficult when Anya mistakenly gets involved and triggers events that threaten world peace.
A girl called Hannah goes back to her hometown (Gatlin) to find her mother but on the way she picks up a strange man who fore-shadows her life with a passage from the bible. When she gets there she wakes up Isaac from a coma he has been in for 19 years. Isaac is awake and wants to fulfil the final prophecy.
As viable water is depleted on Earth, a mission is sent to Saturn's moon Titan to retrieve sustainable H2O reserves from its alien inhabitants. But just as the humans acquire the precious resource, they are attacked by Titan rebels, who don't trust that the Earthlings will leave in peace.
Set in the 1800s, the film is about a "dacoit" tribe who take charge in fight for their rights and independence against the British.
Disowned in the past by his father, Kurt Menliff, a cruel and sadistic nobleman, returns to the family castle to reclaim his inheritance.
Ivan sets off on a dangerous mission into Syria to save his ex-commander Grey after his capture by ISIS. With the help of U.S. military patrols, he succeeds in freeing Grey and attempts to escape the country while being hunted by terrorists.
Couple Jin-goo and Joo-hee have been experiencing a lover's slump after their marriage. Meanwhile, a new couple in the neighborhood, Hyun-jin and Yoo-jeong came to the other couple's house to introduce themselves. They're attracted with each other's husbands and wives, and in the end, crosses the line that is not supposed to be crossed within neighbors. After that day, two couples' passion intensifies...
A woman struggles to keep her stepdaughter from harms way after she hires an assassin to kill her husband, but the hitman turns and blackmails her for the crime.
The Imjin War reaches its seventh year in December of 1598. Admiral Yi Sun-shin learns that the Wa invaders in Joseon are preparing for a swift withdrawal following the deathbed orders of their leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Determined to destroy the enemy once and for all, Admiral Yi leads an allied fleet of Joseon and Ming ships to mount a blockade and annihilate the Wa army. However, once Ming commander Chen Lin is bribed into lifting the blockade, Wa lord Shimazu Yoshihiro and his Satsuma army sail to the Wa army’s rescue at Noryang Strait.
Takumi and his daughter Hana live in Mizubiki Village, close to Tokyo. One day, the village inhabitants become aware of a plan to build a camping site near Takumi's house offering city residents a comfortable "escape" to nature.
The R of the title stands for the young protagonist, Rune, fearlessly played by Pilou Asbæk. Imprisoned for violent assault, he's a cocky, good-looking young man placed in the hardcore ward, where his survival depends on quickly learning the prison's parallel world of rules, honor, and obligations. R also stands for Rachid, a young Muslim prisoner who becomes Rune's friend and accomplice, defying the rigid racial stratifications among the inmates.
Ernesto lives in depression and decides to hire a hit-man to end his own life. However, his plan takes an unexpected turn when he meets Rita, whose love gives him a new reason to live.
Sayen follows a lead to the picturesque desolation of the Atacama Desert. There, she reluctantly teams up with a young Atacameño girl, Quimal, looking to clear her father’s name and save her town from becoming an arid wasteland due to Acteon’s exploitative water usage.
After a high-ranking North Korean official requests asylum, KCIA Foreign Unit chief Park Pyong-ho and Domestic Unit chief Kim Jung-do are tasked with uncovering a North Korean spy, known as Donglim, who is deeply embedded within their agency. When the spy begins leaking top secret intel that could jeopardize national security, the two units are each assigned to investigate each other.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone celebrate South Park's 25th anniversary with a concert in Colorado, featuring Primus and Ween.
At an elite boarding school for girls, six friends jokingly engage in a late night ritual, calling forth the spirit of a dead former student who reportedly haunts their halls. Before morning, one of the girls is dead, leaving the others wondering what they may have awakened.