Office of War Information

A U.S. military and diplomatic mission film documenting the journey from Gangtok, India, to Lhasa, Tibet during World War II. The party crosses the Natu La and Kechu La passes, stops at the British trail station at Gyantse, reviews Tibetan troops, and is ferried across the Brahmaputra River. Rare footage of Tibetan natives, terrain, the New Year religious festival, the Dalai Lama's palaces, and monasteries. The film entered the public domain as a U.S. government work.

Documentary

The U.S. government's own film about the internment of Japanese Americans, produced by the Office of War Information with the War Relocation Authority. WRA director Milton Eisenhower, the president's brother, appears on camera to explain that more than 100,000 people — most of them American citizens — have been moved from the West Coast to inland camps, and the narration frames it as a humane wartime necessity. What it does not mention is that no charges or trials were involved. It stands as a primary document of wartime propaganda aimed at Americans themselves. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.

War · Documentary · Short

William Wyler, serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces, filmed the crew of the B-17 bomber Memphis Belle on its 25th and final mission over Europe, the milestone that would send the crew home. Shot with hand-held 16mm cameras mounted inside the plane, the documentary puts the viewer inside a real bombing raid, with flak so thick the crew said you could walk on it. Wyler combined footage from several missions to tell the story of one plane and its ten crewmen, ordinary Americans doing a job that might not let them come back. One of Wyler's cameramen was killed during filming. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.

War · Documentary

The official Anglo-American film of the European campaign, co-directed by Garson Kanin and Carol Reed from footage shot by hundreds of combat cameramen on both sides of the Atlantic. Its unusual device is the narration: instead of one authoritative voice, the film is told in the voices of ordinary soldiers, nurses, and liberated civilians, written by playwrights including Paddy Chayefsky. Eisenhower introduces it. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. As a co-production of the U.S. Office of War Information and the British Ministry of Information, it is in the public domain.

War · Documentary

A short documentary about the U.S. Marine assault on the Japanese-held island of Tarawa in November 1943, directed by Louis Hayward, who served in the Marine Corps. Shot in full color with no actors, it shows the landing, the fight across the beach, the casualties, and the burial of the dead at sea. The footage was so graphic that Hollywood distributors refused to release it, and only President Roosevelt's personal approval sent it to theaters. The film was meant to show Americans at home that the war was not a parade of easy victories. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.

War · Documentary