The Mission Trail
★ 6.5 · 1946 · 9m · Documentary
This Traveltalk series short follows the route laid out by the famous chain of 21 Spanish missions, begun in 1769 and extending northward for over 500 miles, from San Diego to Sonoma, California. We stop briefly at San Luis Rey and San Juan Capistrano (to watch the swallows) as well as San Juan Bautista and other missions.
More Like This
Wood Street
2026
Two unhoused men turned community leaders— John and LaMonté —organize their neighbors in the face of displacement, addiction, and a failing social system.
More info →
Devil's Gate
2011 · ★ 5
Footage of Devil's Gate Dam insterspersed with text occultist text by Jack Parsons, co-founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who some believe opened a portal for dark energy nearby.
More info →
Mediterranean Holiday
1962 · ★ 8
A 1962 West German documentary film directed by Hermann Leitner and Rudolf Nussgruber.
More info →
Missions of California
1907
A series of static shots of the buildings of the California Mission system, as they existed in 1907. Because many of the Mission buildings were in poor states of repair in 1907, director Norman Dawn uses glass shots, a technique where paintings are applied to a sheet of glass placed between the camera and the objects being photographed, in order to restore roofs and walls that had been destroyed.
More info →
Fascinating India
2014 · ★ 8.2
"Fascinating India" spreads an impressive panorama of India’s historical and contemporary world. The film presents the most important cities, royal residences and temple precincts. It follows the trail of different religious denominations, which have influenced India up to the present day. Simon Busch and Alexander Sass travelled for months through the north of the Indian subcontinent to discover what is hidden under India’s exotic and enigmatic surface, and to show what is rarely revealed to foreigners. The film deals with daily life in India. In Varanasi, people burn their dead to ashes. At the Kumbh Mela, the biggest religious gathering of the world, 35 million pilgrims bathe in holy River Ganges. This is the first time India is presented in such an alluring and engaging fashion on screen.
More info →
Los otros californios
2011 · ★ 5
Isolated in Mexican South Baja California desert, exciting and fragile, rancher´s life is showed by amazing as unknown characters.
More info →
I Married Adventure
1940 · ★ 8
A 1940 Columbia Picture feature film, "I Married Adventure" stars Osa Johnson and closely follows her 1940 best-selling book of the same name. Osa portrays herself in studio-produced scenes which bridge the transition between actual documentary footage segments as the film recounts the Johnson's nine world expeditions to Africa, Borneo, and the South Seas. Jim Bannon, a Hollywod stuntman who lent his voice to many western's including Red Ryder, Don Clark, and Albert Duffy narrate this adventure classic that compiles the very best images from the Johnsons' original feature films.
More info →
The Way to the West
1947
Hitchcock went the wrong way! Head south by southwest with this travelogue from Bath to Cornwall.
More info →
Silk Road Ghosts
2014
Silk Road Ghosts takes the viewer off the beaten path as I ply a circuit, following in the footsteps of the ancient conquerors, passing through some of the more remarkable parts of Central Asia's Silk Road. From Almaty in Kazakhstan, I set out towards a daunting rendezvous with the Darvasa Gas Crater in Turkmenistan. Along the way I dot many of the road's pivotal locations, bearing witness to its myriad ghosts which served to glorify the annals of our planet's history.
More info →