Where To Watch Every Film That Was Just Added To The National Film Registry

The latest batch of National Film Registry titles are here, titles selected because they are considered "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The list is full of familiar and not-so-familiar titles, and if you've perused it and found yourself wondering where you could watch all these titles, I am here to help. Be warned: not all of them are readily available, but I've done my best to give you the most accurate info regarding the films. 

Now streaming on Kanopy.

Michael Schultz's 1975 comedy is set in the '60s and follows "a group of high school friends who live on the Near North Side of Chicago enjoy life to the fullest...parties, hanging out, meeting new friends. Then life changes for two of the guys when they meet a pair of career criminals and get falsely arrested in connection with stealing a Cadillac. We follow their lives through the end of high school and the dramatic end to their school."

Watch the full movie above.

"Flowers and Trees" is a Silly Symphonies cartoon produced by Walt Disney and directed by Burt Gillett released in 1932. The film has the distinction of being the first Academy Award-winner for Best Cartoon Short Subject. The short follows animated flowers and trees dancing around, because that's really all you needed to entertain people back in the 1930s. There's also a message in here about a hollow tree being burned to death, which is admittedly kind of bleak. 

Now streaming on The Criterion Channel

According to Kino Now, the film is "the work of self-taught filmmakers James and Eloyce Gist, African-American evangelists who employed cinema as a tool for their traveling ministry. Their surreal visual allegories were screened in churches and meeting halls, accompanied by a sermon and the passing of a collection plate. Rather than having a linear story, the film is instead a catalog of iniquity, a car-by-car dramatization of the sins of the Jazz Age (including gambling, dancing, alcohol, and the mistreatment of animals), presided over by a horned devil, culminating in a colossal derailment (a model train tossed into a bonfire). Admittedly, the production values are minimal—being shot with hand-held 16mm equipment with natural light, and without audio—but the surreality of it all makes for a compelling viewing experience, and shows that renegade, visionary filmmakers can be found in the most unexpected places." 

Available to rent on Apple TV, Amazon, Vudu.

Robert Altman's take on Raymond Chandler has Elliott Gould playing mumbling, chain-smoking private-eye Philip Marlowe, who gets mixed up in murder case involving one of his friends. The mystery really doesn't matter, though. The joy of the film comes from Altman's counter-culture approach to the material, and Gould's funny, shaggy performance. 

Watch the full movie above. 

Per the Chicago Film Archive, this 1971 documentary was supposed to chronicle the "Black Panther Party's Illinois chapter, with a focus on its charismatic leader, Fred Hampton." But while the film was in production, Hampton was murdered by police. In the wake of this, the film "suddenly became a two-part document of a stillborn revolutionary moment. The first half is an affecting portrait of Hampton; the leader is captured delivering speeches on social revolt and racism before large, rapturous crowds. The second part becomes an audacious piece of investigative journalism, making a compelling case that the police intentionally murdered Hampton, since they feared his oratorical power more than anything."

Not available to rent or stream.

Directed by king of filth John Waters, "Pink Flamingos" follows a woman (Divine) and her awful family as they become "the filthiest people alive." Originally banned in several countries, "Pink Flamingos" went on to become a cult hit. Surprisingly, it doesn't appear to be available anywhere online, at least not legally (hint, hint). However, you can buy a DVD copy of the film should the mood strike you. 

Now streaming on Disney+.

"Return of the Jedi," the third entry in the original "Star Wars" trilogy, is renowned for featuring Ewoks and also a scene Boba Fett falls into a big pit, causing nerds to spend the next 30-some decades debating whether or not he survived (spoiler alert: he did, somehow!). You can stream this one on Disney+, although, of course, the version streaming is one of the "special addition" releases that adds all sorts of new special effects, forever depriving us of the original in the process. 

Watch the full movie above.

This short film (really short; 3 minutes long) from 1902 is literally what the title suggests: a Ringling Brothers parade caught on film. That may not seem like much, but IMDb provides a surprisingly in-depth synopsis: 

Through special arrangements with Ringling Brothers, we have obtained the finest circus parade caught by a moving picture camera. The parade is seen coming down a broad avenue with crowds of people on both sides. The parade is headed by Mr. Ringling, followed by the finest band wagon in the world drawn by twelve magnificent horses. Following one another in rapid succession are open cages of lions, tigers, hyenas, bears, etc., so plainly that you can see them walking to and fro in their cages (something that is very hard to obtain in a moving picture). This is followed by the grand tableau wagons representing the different nations of the world; then come the riders on their prancing steeds which in turn are followed by the ever funny clowns without which no circus is complete. Even the children are not forgotten when the ponies come into view dragging their little tableaux wagons representing Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, etc. The pageant of riders representing the different nations of the world, the mounted band and last but not least, the camels and the great herd of performing elephants, making in all the greatest and grandest circus parade ever seen on a motion picture film. No motion picture exhibition should be without this film to complete the evening's entertainment.

Now streaming on the Roku Channel, Tubi, and Kanopy.

Released in 1972 and starring Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield, "Sounder" has the following synopsis: 

The Morgans, a loving and strong family of Black sharecroppers in Louisiana in 1933, face a serious family crisis when the husband and father, Nathan Lee Morgan, is convicted of a petty crime and sent to a prison camp. After some weeks or months, the wife and mother, Rebecca Morgan, sends the oldest son, who is about 11 years old, to visit his father at the camp. The trip becomes something of an odyssey for the boy. During the journey he stays a little while with a dedicated Black schoolteacher.

Available to rent on Apple TV.

A film famous for characters saying "criss-cross!" over and over again, Alfred Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train" follows a tennis star who teams up with a psychopath for some murder. They each have someone they want to kill, and the theory goes that if they trade murders no one will be able to trace the respective crimes back to them. Criss-cross! 

Now streaming on Kanopy.

In "The Watermelon Woman," Cheryl (played by the film's director, Cheryl Dunye), "a young black lesbian, works a day job in a video store while trying to make a film about a black actress from the 1930s known for playing the stereotypical "mammy" roles relegated to black actresses during that period. This was the first feature film directed by an 'out' black lesbian."

Available to watch on PBS.

This documentary "recounts the murder of Vincent Chin, an automotive engineer mistaken as Japanese who was slain by an assembly line worker who blamed him for the competition by the Japanese auto makers that were threatening his job. It then recounts how that murderer escaped justice in the court system."