Ballet Shoes (1956)

London. M/S of three small girls in tutus, performing a simple ballet routine. At the finish they take off their ballet shoes; C/U as one girl examines the worn toe of her shoe. In the shoemaking factory of Anello and Davide, we see various stages of the ballet shoemaking process; a man cuts out numerous leather soles on a machine; another man cuts out the uppers from some satin by hand. Various shots in a machine room where several women are sewing leather into shape on sewing machines. A row of men work at a bench, putting several layers of fabric and hardening liquid over the end of the shoe to make the block toes. C/U of one of the men tweaking the fabric over the toe of the shoe to create the folds that are held in place by the leather sole. Another man at a special machine sews the sole on. Various shots of a man turning nearly finished shoes right side out; he hammers the leather sole into position. A man at a sewing machine stitches a ribbon which encases the shoe cord around the ed