Archive Watch

the Camino Road (1939)

1939 · Short film · 15 min

Watch now On the Internet Archive

Synopsis

El Camino Real: The Mission Trail” (1939) is a silent color home movie. It is a travelog film documenting a trip along California’s El Camino Real and the Spanish missions lining the route from San Diego to San Francisco. These missions were established in the 19th century. El Camino Real is a 600-mile commemorative route connecting the 21 Spanish missions in California, along with a number of sub-missions, four presidios, and three pueblos. This film does not only highlight the missions along the route but various other tourist attractions such as an Orange Grove, Yosemite National Park, Gay’s Lion Farm, and the Golden Gate Bridge as well. Title page and text that describes content of film, offers historical background (0:07). San Juan Capistrano (dedicated to German Franciscan John of Capistrano): Sign for mission, bush of vibrantly collared Lantana flowers, visitors walk through manicured gardens, architectural details, close-ups more flora and fauna (0:19). Birds nestle in crevices of stone archway (1:39). The inner garden at San Juan Capistrano: Camera pans down from bell tower with cross to luscious green garden below (1:54). Women sit on edge of pond and feed white doves (2:18). San Gabriel Mission: Various shots of mission - birds resting on fountain, women climbing unkempt staircase (2:38). Santa Barbara Mission (dedicated to the youthful martyr Barbara): Festive flags hand from facade of mission to mark time of “Fiesta” commemorating Early Spanish life and customs…

Uploader's description on archive.org

Details

Running time
15 minutes
Collection
Ephemeral Films

Subjects on the Internet Archive

More like this