Cinequest

Ebb-tide

Go with the flow: to gentle but spellbinding effect this innovative natural history film glimpses marine life astride rising tides at Millport on the Isle of Cumbrae. Urchins, lugworm, weaver-fish and crabs are the shy-but-elegant stars coaxed onto the screen (with the assistance of Millport’s local research station) for this archetypal edition of Gaumont-British Instructional’s 1930s cinema series Secrets of Life.

Development of the English Town

A brisk visual summary of the changing faces of the English town throughout the ages, from the ancients and their hill-forts to the Second World War -- enlivened by the appearance of ghostly denizens to defend their eras against the narrator's various strictures!

Any Evening After Work

A man contracts a sexually transmitted disease, but is reluctant to seek medical help - until a no-nonsense lecture about the risks he is taking forces him to change his mind.

Mrs. T. and Her Cabbage Patch

Poetic tribute to Mrs Turner's vegetable growing prowess, plus the delights of "wartime steaks".

The Life Cycle of the Newt

Underwater and microscopic photography by F. Percy Smith tell the story of a newt's life.

Nature's Double Lifters

Mary Field edits the time-lapse photography of F. Percy Smith to show the life cycle of ferns and related plants.

Plants of the Underworld

The world of fungi captured by micro-cinematography and time-lapse photography.

Kings in Exile

King Penguins are first seen in their natural habitat, the Antarctic, after which we see them in the Edinburgh Zoo. With slow-motion pictures we see how they swim with the use of their flippers and feet. Their mating and incubating of their eggs and later, the hatching of them; the rearing of the young at various stages of their growth are also shown.

Shadow in the Stream

Explores the natural history of the otter, depicted through the fictitious account of a day in the life of Otto the Otter and his mother. The narrator claims that the short features "the first film ever taken of an otter swimming underwater."

They Made the Land

Documentary highlighting how land has been reclaimed for agriculture in Scotland.

The World in a Wine-Glass

Short documentary showing infusoria in a wine-glass.

Once We Were Four

The Secrets of Life series (1934-50) may not conform to modern expectations of nature filmmaking, inclined as it is towards giving cute fluffy creatures human names and characteristics. But it couldn't be accused of shielding kiddies from the harsher realities of the food chain, as this exercise in ruthless Darwinism demonstrates to unintentionally hilarious effect. A more than usually eccentric narrator introduces us to the newborn bunny quartet of Donald, James, Charles and Clifford, but as the film's title gives away, "the boys" aren't a...

Overlooked

A Secrets of Life short.

Polly All Alone