Rick Prelinger

This year's LOST LANDSCAPES pictures the infrastructures, peoples and landscapes of California, centering on San Francisco’s everyday past and the futures we have tried to build. Casting an archival gaze on San Francisco and cities, towns and places throughout California where nature and culture meet, the film recalls moments in the history of our state's resources, the scars of settlement and its backbones: transportation, extraction, communication, travel and labor — all intersecting in a panoramic city/state symphony documenting the past and suggesting possible futures in an age of systemic uncertainty. This year's film (the 17th!) combines home movies, government-produced and industrial films, feature-film outtakes and many other surprises (including many newly discovered San Francisco historical images).

The amazing story of how the Berkeley police department, the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands, an Academy Award winner and Mr. Spock from TV’s Star Trek are all connected by “Sudden Birth”, one of the most unintentionally hilarious and disturbing educational films ever created.

Compilation of archival film images of Detroit's people and places 1925-1976. Made to be shown to participatory audiences who identify locations, ask questions, and discuss the future of this great city.

A journey from the Atlantic to California made from a collection of 9,000 home movies, "No More Road Trips?" reveals hidden histories embedded in the landscape and seeks to blend the pleasures of travel with premonitions of its end.

This documentary short takes you inside the fascinating world of film preservation and restoration.

A dream walk through the United States of America; a meditation on the thoughts and ideals of its inhabitants, as they are exposed in their silent but eloquent home movies.

Tells the history and importance of The National Film Registry, a roll call of American cinema treasures that reflects the diversity of film, and indeed the American experience itself.

Collage of sequences drawn from a wide variety of ephemeral (industrial, advertising, educational) films, touring the conflicted landscapes of twentieth-century America.

Collage of sequences drawn from a wide variety of ephemeral (industrial, advertising, educational) films, touring the conflicted landscapes of twentieth-century America.

This film covers the early history of post World War II educational films, especially those involving traffic safety by the Highway Safety Foundation under direction of Richard Wayman. In the name of promoting safe driving in teenagers, these films became notorious for their gory depiction of accidents to shock their audiences to make their point. The film also covers the role of safety films of this era, their effect on North American teenage culture, the struggle between idealism and lurid exploitation and how they reflected the larger society concerns of the time that adults projected onto their youth.

Rick Prelinger’s Lost Landscapes projects are evolving compendiums of footage from amateurs, industrials, and newsreels that present city-specific histories. This piece, created by Prelinger and alex cruse, brings us rare and rediscovered images of Oakland and the East Bay.