- Oscar-winning documentary series: The last two installments in the Academy’s “Oscar’s Docs” series will feature new 35mm prints of Albert Schweitzer, Ama Girls, White Wilderness, Serengeti Shall Not Die, and The Horse with the Flying Tail.
‘Oscar’s Docs’ series to screen Best Documentary Feature winners Albert Schweitzer, White Wilderness, and Serengeti Shall Not Die
The last two installments of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ film series “Oscar’s Docs: The First Twenty Years of Academy Award-Winning Documentaries” will screen the nonfiction Academy Award winners from 1957–1960: Albert Schweitzer, Ama Girls, White Wilderness, Glass, Serengeti Shall Not Die, Giuseppina, and The Horse with the Flying Tail.
The first three titles will be presented on Monday, Nov. 28, at 7:30 p.m., at the Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. The last four titles will screen at the same spot on Monday, Dec. 5, at 7:30 p.m.
Albert Schweitzer, Ama Girls, White Wildernes, Serengeti Shall Not Die, and The Horse with the Flying Tail will be shown in new 35mm prints. The shorts Glass and Giuseppina will be shown in 16mm IB prints.
Note: The “Oscar’s Docs” series will resume in September 2006, when the Academy will begin its presentation of Oscar-winning documentaries from 1961–1976.
Here is a brief overview of the seven Oscar-winning documentaries listed further up.
Albert Schweitzer
According to the Academy’s press release, 1957 Best Documentary Feature Oscar winner Albert Schweitzer “was the result of a six-year collaboration between filmmakers Jerome Hill and Erica Anderson and Schweitzer himself.”
In the view of German-born theologian, philosopher, musician, and physician Albert Schweitzer, Jesus (like many others of his time and place) believed the end of the world would take place in his own lifetime and saw himself as a planetary savior.
In his 1906 book The Quest of the Historical Jesus, Schweitzer affirms that “the Jesus of Nazareth who came forward publicly as the Messiah, who preached the ethic of the kingdom of God, who founded the kingdom of heaven upon earth and died to give his work its final consecration never existed.”
Albert Schweitzer is narrated by two-time Oscar winner Fredric March (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1931–1932*; The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946) and future two-time nominee Burgess Meredith (The Day of the Locust, 1975; Rocky, 1976).
Note: For the year 1957, no Oscar was awarded in the Best Documentary Short Subject category.
* Fredric March officially tied with Wallace Beery for The Champ.
Ama Girls
An entry in the Walt Disney Studios’ series “People & Places,” the 1958 Best Documentary Short Subject winner Ama Girls depicts the lives of pearl-diving women in a Japanese fishing village.
Ama Girls, which lacks a director’s credit, was produced by Ben Sharpsteen and written by Dwight Hauser.
White Wilderness
Another 1958 Walt Disney Studios title, screenwriter-director James Algar’s Best Documentary Feature winner White Wilderness – shot on location in Canada – offers a portrait of the wildlife found in the frozen (or semi-frozen) Arctic: Polar bears, lemmings, seals, and others.
Of note, White Wilderness features a fake “lemming mass migration/suicide” sequence that was actually staged at a river in Alberta. This brazen act of animal cruelty was reportedly committed by wildlife photographer and filmmaker James R. Simon and his crew, who were responsible for shooting that segment.
Glass
Bert Haanstra’s Dutch-made 1959 Best Documentary Short Subject Oscar winner Glass / Glas depicts the process of glassblowing in the Netherlands – as accompanied by the The Pim Jacobs Quintet’s jazzy score.
Serengeti Shall Not Die
Bernhard Grzimek’s German-made 1959 Best Documentary Feature winner Serengeti Shall Not Die / Serengeti darf nicht sterben is set in northern Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park, located near the border with Kenya.
Update: Serengeti Shall Not Die has been credited with helping to raise global awareness about the importance of environmental conservation, though considering how difficult things have been at the park itself – where elephants were nearly exterminated and an estimated 40,000 animals are slaughtered by poachers each year – far, far more needs to be done.
Anyone paying attention? Things aren’t divinely ordained to remain this way.
Giuseppina
Directed by James Hill (A Study in Terror, Born Free) and sponsored by British Petroleum, the British-made Giuseppina was the Best Documentary Short winner of 1960. Set in an Italian village near Ravenna, the film depicts a day in the life of the daughter of a gas station owner.
The Horse with the Flying Tail
The Best Documentary Feature of 1960, the Disney-made The Horse with the Flying Tail tells the story of show jumper Nautical, né Pelo de Oro (“Golden Hide”), a palomino horse that won the team gold medal at the 1959 Pan American Games. Larry Lansburgh directed.
“Oscar Documentary Series: Schweitzer, Wilderness” notes
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences website.
Baby polar bear White Wilderness image: Walt Disney Productions.
Serengeti Shall Not Die image: Asta Motion Pictures | Okapia-Film Productions | Europa Filmverleih.
“Oscar Documentary Series: Schweitzer, Wilderness” last modified in November 2025.