About the Film
The Cradle Is Rocking was directed by Frank DeCola who died in the early 1970s, shortly after this film was made. Frank was a talented filmmaker and composer and was enlisted in a program run by George Stevens Jr. during the Kennedy years. That program sponsored young filmmakers to make films for the United States Information Agency, for showing abroad in USIA libraries.
Folkstreams founder Tom Davenport was the cinematographer and shot the film in 35mm black and white negative. Nigel Nobel took sound, and Anthony Loeb was the producer.
We have been able to locate only two prints of this remarkable film. One is a 16mm reduction print, that belonged to Tom Davenport and is in very poor condition. The other, which is video streamed here, is a 35mm print in very good condition. It was in the possession of Frank's nephew Phil DeCola. They have both been donated to the Folkstreams archive of the Southern Folklife Collection in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
With a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation, we have made preservation copies of this film in 35mm. These prints are stored the Southern Folklife Collection at the University of North Carolina.
