1948 documentary short on Poland (reel 2)

Identifier
irn1005182
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2003.214
  • RG-60.7134
Dates
1 Jan 1948 - 31 Dec 1948
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • Silent
Source
EHRI Partner

Creator(s)

Biographical History

Julien Hequembourg Bryan (1899-1974) was an American documentarian and filmmaker. Bryan traveled widely taking 35mm film that he sold to motion picture companies. In the 1930s, he conducted extensive lecture tours, during which he showed film footage he shot in the former USSR. Between 1935 and 1938, he captured unique records of ordinary people and life in Nazi Germany and in Poland, including Jewish areas of Warsaw and Krakow and anti-Jewish signs in Germany. His footage appeared in March of Time theatrical newsreels. His photographs appeared in Life Magazine. He was in Warsaw in September 1939 when Germany invaded and remained throughout the German siege of the city, photographing and filming what would become America's first cinematic glimpse of the start of WWII. He recorded this experience in both the book Siege (New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1940) and the short film Siege (RKO Radio Pictures, 1940) nominated for an Academy Award in 1940. In 1946, Bryan photographed the efforts of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency in postwar Europe.

Scope and Content

Reel 2. Street scenes, buses, people on sidewalks. Trolley with sign reading “DWORSKA”. Inside a trolley full of passengers. View out the trolley windshield at street, people waiting to board and a policeman standing on a median. Sidewalk scenes, two men walking by with boots over their shoulders, women looking at a cart displaying wares. Boy runs by with newspapers under his arm. People stand on the sidewalk reading papers in front of a large poster with “IRENA DUNNE” headline. Newspaper stand. Funeral parade and hearse led by people carrying wreaths. Horse and cart passing on street in front of building with “DZWIGI” sign. Construction site with a man pushing a wheelbarrow. Additional street scenes of pedestrians and vehicles. People stand beside train tracks as a train passes. Men board the train and look out from the railcar door. (01:45) Factory smokestacks wreathed in steam. INTs factory, hot metal cylinder pulled from furnace. CU molten metal being poured into molds labeled “GIESCHE-ELECTROLYT.” Men shovel fuel into a furnace. Woman pours drinks from large pitcher into mugs of the factory workers. CU worker drinks from mug. Girls sort bits of metal on a conveyor belt. CU hands sorting. Girl with an earring with the sign “ODPADY” behind her. More shots of hands and girls sorting. (02:36) EXT Elevated tracks, the surface of a mine. INT Men working in a mine shaft, shoveling loads into carts. CU man using a pickaxe. Loading carts to be taken to the surface. Miners leave the shaft and come to the surface. Men walk their bikes. (03:23) Map with illustration of a factory labeled “SILESIA.” Animation of train tracks leading from the factory to the Baltic sea. Train passes camera. Building with “GDYNIA” sign. Port and ships. Coal being loaded onto a ship. LS of cranes. Men pushing a load of wood. (04:11) Some overlap with Film ID: 3004 Trolley passes in front of a clock tower and other buildings. Street and tall row houses. River lined with buildings. Unloading boat. Girls walk three in a row down a street while holding a Hitler youth flag. Polish army marches. Portraits in a window display of Polish statesmen Józef Piłsudski, Ignacy Mościcki, and Edward Rydz-Śmigły. CU of portraits of Ignacy Mościcki and Józef Piłsudski beneath a dark ribbon. More shots of portraits in shop windows. Ceremony where President Mosczieksky passes the baton to Marshall Smigly-Ridz. Polish soldiers on horseback using horses for crowd control. Polish Cardinal Hlond. Boys perched in trees to watch the parade. Polish military marches in parade. Young women wearing traditional costumes while watching. (05:54) Sky full of airplanes passing. Map of Poland with a large swastika to the West. Animation of hands coming out of swastika and grabbing Poland. Coat of arms of Poland being removed by Nazi soldiers. Airplanes in the sky. Polish propaganda posters. Polish military on horseback, using artillery, and machine guns. Tanks and trucks during the German siege of Warsaw, beginning WWII, in September 1939. Blown up bridge. People in streets, civilians helping to dig trenches. Airplanes and bombings. People sort through rubble. Several bodies of people who died in the German bombings. CU Woman cries. Woman in window with religious statue. Boy holds a birdcage amongst the rubble. Women walk through the debris and pray at the foot of a cross. People wait in line for bread. INT Hospital hallway lined with nurses tending to babies. CU babies. CU older woman crying. Nurses bandage the leg of a patient. CU boy with a bloody bandage over his eye. (08:19) View of the smoking city from the air. Fires raging. Scrolling title card with years 1940 to 1944 with flames. Map of Poland 1945. LS across the river towards ruined buildings. Damaged buildings from the street. Woman pouring from a bottle into the mug of a Soviet soldier. CU Soviet soldier drinking from a mug. Soldier holding bouquet of flowers gives a woman a kiss. Buildings in ruins. Damaged trolley. Trolley going by, full of people and decorated with wreaths. People shoveling rubble. Smiling girl holding a blanket and chatting with a soldier. Women using pickaxes to load carts on a track. Women rebuilding a railroad track. Men pulling on a rope to pull down the wall of a damaged building. Children walking in a line on a street lined with rubble. CU of children eating and drinking out of mugs. THE END over an illustration of a flag with the Polish eagle.

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Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.