Failure importing video from the Desktop in iMovie 2009?

When I attempt to import a folder of .MOV videos from the desktop into an existing project in iMovie 2009, it appears to go through the loading and importing steps, but the entire process and loading bar only occur for a matter of seconds, and no video appears to be imported.

I have tried importing the video as a new event, and the process happens the same way, this time creating a new event folder in the Event Library, but with nothing in it.

I have tried selecting only one video, also to no avail.

I have also tried to import videos formatted in .AVI, this failed.

Anyone had this issue, or know a fix/workaround? At this point I don't know how to import video from the hard drive into a new project at all. Dragging the files from desktop to event frame within iMovie does not work either.