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  • Editor’s Foreword

With this issue of The Moving Image, readers will note a new name on the masthead. With the completion of volume six, Jan-Christopher Horak stepped down from the position of editor, having served in this capacity since the journal's inception. The Board of Directors of the Association of Moving Image Archivists regretfully accepted his resignation and requested that the Publications Committee of the Association begin the search for a new editor-in-chief. Rather than suspend publication while conducting the search, the Association sought an interim editor to bridge the gap between permanent editors. I write to you in this capacity. This position has given me a unique opportunity to appreciate the contributions of our founding editor. Chris Horak, with the assistance of our editorial board members and reviewers, established a high standard for research in the emerging field of moving image archiving. He successfully brought together scholarship from a multitude of disciplines, perspectives, and methodological stances, fashioning a contribution to the literature that has been instrumental in shaping the identity of moving image archiving as a distinct profession, and raising the visibility of the field in both the cultural heritage community and the academic arena. The editorial board and staff wish him well in his future endeavors and are pleased that he will continue to contribute to the journal by serving on the editorial board. As interim editor, my primary aim is to honor his legacy by maintaining the journal's reputation as the premier venue for research in the field. At this writing, the search process for a new editor is not yet complete, but we are hopeful that the candidate chosen will begin his or her duties later this year. In the meanwhile, the journal continues to publish significant works of scholarship, [End Page vi] reports from practitioners in the field, and opinion pieces, as well as reviews of recently published books, film and DVD releases, and conferences.

Our current issue offers several new research articles of note, and an array of reviews of books and DVDs, as well as a review of the 2006 Orphans Film Symposium. The first two contributions in our features section explore the motivations behind science and social science films, which were often produced for purposes beyond simply educating the audience. In their article "Something Different in Science Films: The Moody Institute of Science and the Canned Missionary Movement," Marsha Orgeron and Skip Elsheimer analyze the methods and motivations behind the quasi-scientific films of Irwin A. Moon and the Moody Bible Institute. These films, which were distributed to churches, public schools, and the military, aimed to promote divine intervention as a rational explanation for evolutionary development of the species, and they provide remarkable historical context for the current debate surrounding intelligent design.

Our second feature article also focuses on attempts by a filmmaker to meld scientific theory and persuasive rhetoric. Heide Solbrig's "Henry Strauss and the Human Relations Film: Social Science Media and Interactivity in the Workplace" offers a fresh glimpse into industrial films, particularly those aimed at middle management. She traces how filmmaker Strauss combined sociological and psychological theory with an interactive approach to provide supervisors with models for improving labor relations. Made during the postwar era, these "attitude influence" films were an outgrowth of communications research that emphasized small-group approaches to analyzing human relations. Through interactive techniques, the films modeled attitudes for budding supervisors, who [End Page vii] could then practice appropriate behavior using narratives presented in the films and, later, through the social scripts and exercises that accompanied them. Solbrig's work adds to our understanding of how industry attempted to shape relations between workers and managers and also introduce the concept of self-actualization to employees—an agenda that continues to permeate corporate communication today.

In our third feature, "Movies of Local People and a Usable Past: Mill Town Treasures and Transcendent Views, 1936–1942," Stephanie Stewart delves into the livelihood of H. Lee Waters, a studio photographer and filmmaker who traveled through the numerous industrial villages of South Carolina recording the people and places of the region, and provided potent evidence of the vibrancy of the Depression-era Southeast...

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