More Oscar-Winning Documentaries
by Andre Soares
The Academy Award-winning documentaries of 1959 and 1960 will be screened on Monday, December 5, at 7:30 p.m., in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. That is the final installment of the series "Oscar’s Docs: The First Twenty Years of Academy Award-Winning Documentaries.”
Bert Haanstra’s 1959 Oscar winner for Documentary Short Subject, Glas / Glass, portrays the process of glassblowing (accompanied by a jazzy score). The Documentary Feature winner of that year, Serengeti darf nicht sterben / Serengeti Shall Not Die, directed by Bernhard Grzimek, depicts the plight of the Serengeti National Park in northern Tanzania. Grzimek’s documentary has been credited for helping raise worldwide awareness for the preservation of the environment, though considering how difficult things have been at the Serengeti - where elephants were nearly exterminated, and an estimated 40,000 animals are slaughtered by poachers per year - much more needs to be done.
Directed by James Hill (A Study in Terror, Born Free) and sponsored by British Petroleum, Giuseppina was the Documentary Short winner of 1960. Set in an Italian village, the film depicts a day in the life of the daughter of a gas station owner. No, not an Exxon gas station. The Documentary Feature winner, the Disney-made The Horse with the Flying Tail, tells the story of show jumper Nautical. It was directed by Larry Lansburgh.
Both feature documentaries will be shown in new 35mm prints. The shorts will shown in 16mm IB prints.
“Oscar’s Docs” will resume in September 2006, featuring Academy Award-winning documentaries from 1961-1976.
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I’ve been trying to find a copy of Glas but haven’t yet it’s a really good documentary on glass blowing from what i’ve read it has good reviews but since its from 58 or 59 it’s a bit hard to find a copy.