Visibox Curious Alice Pack is a collection of high-definition video clips designed to enhance visual experiences in audiovisual projects, live performances, and art projects. This collection contains 24 clips cut from Curious Alice, a 1971 anti-drug film produced for the National Institute of Mental Health.
The film is an animated retelling of Alice in Wonderland in which Alice tours a land where everyone has chosen to use drugs. It was aimed at eight to ten year olds, and it got pulled from circulation after educators concluded it made drug use look considerably more appealing than it made sobriety look. What it left behind is twelve minutes of lurid, hand-painted, genuinely psychedelic animation.
Use these clips as visual accompaniment to music, as VJ material, or as background visuals in a variety of settings. They’re built to set a mood and take a backseat to the main event while still giving people something to look at.
Technical Details
The clips are 1080P h.264-encoded MP4 files without audio, in the film’s original 4:3 aspect ratio (1440x1080). Curious Alice survives only as a low-resolution archival digitization, and this edition is cut from an upscaled enhancement of that transfer. Credits are below.
These are scene cuts, not looping clips. Each one is a self-contained sequence chosen for a single sustained visual idea, so it holds up on repeat.
Curious Alice was made for the National Institute of Mental Health and is held by the U.S. National Archives, and it’s widely treated as being in the public domain. We’re passing it along on that basis, so this pack does not carry our standard video pack license. As far as we’re aware, you can use, modify, and distribute this material for any purpose, commercial or otherwise, without permission or attribution. The scene selection and editing are ours, and a credit for that work is appreciated but not required.
One caveat, in the interest of being straight with you. The film was written, designed and produced under contract by Design Center, Inc. rather than by federal employees, so the National Archives catalog record carries a general “use may be restricted” notice covering possible copyright. We have found no evidence of a surviving copyright claim, and neither has anyone else who redistributes the film. If your use is a high-stakes one, do your own clearance. The full notice is in the LICENSE.pdf included in the download.
How To Use
If you’re using Visibox, just drag ‘em in! If you’re using VLC, select “Repeat One” from the Play menu. In Quicktime Player, select “Loop” from the View menu. These clips will also work in most VJ environments.
Pro tip: on a 16:9 output, Visibox crops the 4:3 frame edge to edge by default. If you’d rather see the whole frame, set Fit Mode to “Fit (Letterbox)” on the clip, or set it for the whole project under Project > Fit Mode.
About The Film
Curious Alice (1971). Written, designed and produced by Design Center, Inc. Produced for the National Institute of Mental Health. National Archives Identifier 2602586, Record Group 511, Records of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration. Series: Moving Images Relating to Addiction and Mental Health, 1973–1980.
Archival digitization by the U.S. National Archives. Upscaled enhancement by Enhanced Public Domain. Scene selection, editing and encoding by Spaceage, LLC.