From 1935 to 1967, Time Inc.’s award-winning newsreel series The March of Time chronicled the global events of the day. Shown in movie theaters nationwide until 1951 and later on television, the 20-minute programs took on all manner of subjects—politics, society, sports, race, war, show biz—with a dramatic flair verging on hyperbole. Audiences were mesmerized, though they didn’t always know what to make of what they saw—alongside real news recordings were plenty of dramatizations and reenactments with professional actors.

In One Day of War—Russia 1943, an American narrator tells us that 160 Russian cameramen from across the Soviet Union have chronicled a single fighting day during World War II. The entire war effort makes its appearance in 20 minutes: troops marching, airplanes crashing, gunboats patrolling, women running fishing boats, factories spitting out munitions, a pianist entertaining the troops, Stalin speaking. It’s an extraordinary spectacle. ST