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Peter C. Rollins Editor-in-Chief The Editor's Reflections and Reports | Rollins The Editor's Reflections and Reports A harborview ofthe Seattle skyline, AHA 1998. Each edition of Film & History finds the journal at a new stage in growth and this first of two issues on "Oliver Stone as Historian" is no different. Much has been happening for, with, and to the journal and it makes sense to report the good news to our readers. The American Historical Association Connection Film & History, through the Historians Film Committee, is associated with the American Historical Association as an Affiliated Society. In this role, we pay dues to AHA and have certain privileges at the annual meeting as well as special listings in the official documents and directories of the AHA. For the 1997 meeting in New York, we established a table in the registration area of the conference and met a number ofnew friends. Indeed, by Saturday, I had a sore throat from so much talking. It was a true New York experience! The Film & Historypanel for the New York meeting featured Oliver Stone and anyone interested in the details should check the pictorial story on our website. (It was a fine session!) For the 1998 meeting in Seattle , we created a table, but there were problems in location which kept us out of the real flow of the meeting. On Saturday , I stayed at the table all day and met some The Ken Burns panel was harmonious.Toplin, Burns, Carson, and Edgerton. new and energetic friends for the journal, but the traffic was very light. On the other hand, the Saturday sessions related to film were a big success with C-SPAN taping (for delayed broadcast ). A copy ofthe flyer we distributed at the conference is here displayed and will save me space in describing the panels. Our Session with Ken Burns Robert B. Toplin of the University ofNorth CarolinaWilmington was our Chair—as he was last year. He introduced the session on Ken Burns' Jefferson drawing on his book entitled Ken Burns' "Civil War" (Oxford UP). Gary Edgerton, also a member ofour Editorial Board, gave a wonderful presentation on Burns's specific series about Jefferson, but also considered Burns' vision as a filmmaker. Edgerton finds Burns to be a salutary influence on the public's perception ofAmerica's legacy, someone who works within the American tradition rather than against the mainVoI . 28.1-2(1998) | 1 Rollins I The Editor's Reflections and Reports stream culture. Citing the reports of independent filmmakers in a recent issue of The National Forum (Vol 77.4), Edgerton pointed out that our documentary makers these days define themselves as "outsiders" with interest in "marginalized peoples." Catherine Carson gave a fascinating presentation on the problems of recording history on film; using her expertise in material culture, she discussed the history of buildings and artifacts. Many of the existing structures , photographed by Burns and included in his programs, have been modified and changed many times since the days ofJefferson—even when they appear, to the untutored eye, to be "genuine" structures. Ken Burns spoke at length without notes and with considerable eloquence. Burns attended Hampshire College (an experimental college in the early days) in Western Massachusetts where he studied under photographers Jerome Liebling amd Elaine Mayes. Beginning with films at Old Sturbridge Village , he became enamored ofhistorical topics and noted that "the rest is history." Burns sincerely believes that he can tap the perspectives of all historical perspectives on a subject and then come up with his own, distinct story. No one seemed to be willing to challenge this assertion; similar assertions by English filmmakers at the IAMHIST conference in Salisbury, Maryland were not challenged—except by Prof. R.C. Raack (Emeritus, California State U-Hayward). Burns feels that he has a mission to give the American nation a sense ofits history. He wants to reach the young people of this country and to instill both a sense of inquiry and a sense ofpride. Concurring with observations by Gary Edgerton, Burns asserted that he was attempting, in his films, to produce myths which hold us together as a nation. His statements were ingenuous, sincere, and...

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