Films Beget Films (review)

Media and History A meeting on March 26th in Wilmington, sponsored by the University of Delaware, discussed the topic "Media and the Teaching of History." A report on the meeting will appear in a future newsletter. *** BOOK REVIEW *** Jay Leyda, Films Beget Films; pp. 176. Hill and Wang; New York, 1971, $1.75. First published 1964. We owe some measure of appreciation to Hill and Wang for reissuing this important work by Jay Leyda in a low-priced paperback. The book is a unique contribution to the study of films and one especially valuable to historians and social scientists. Leyda discusses the compilation film, that is a work assembled from other existing films (hence the title of the book.) Compilation films are distinguished, although narrowly at times, from documentaries and newsreels by their reliance upon archive collections and historical film. Such works are familiar, especially to television audiences, for much of what passes as history on television is compilation film. Series such as Victory at Sea or Twentieth Century are outstanding examples of the genre. What is vital, however, in compilation films is the skill and attitude of the compiler or producer of the film, for compilations are not merely collections of footage, but statements in film. As Leyda argues, the value of any compilation derives from the intellect and purpose of the filmmaker, who not only studies archive collections but maintains a sensitivity to the meaning and relationship of his sources . Unfortunately, Leyda often allows his political bias to obstruct his critical faculties. He frequently condemns films, for not taking the correct, i.e. , leftist, position. Whatever the reader's political inclination, Leyda' s transparent favoritism and party-lining spoils what is otherwise a frequently intelligent essay on film. For the historian, the value of Leyda 's work lies in its analysis and comment upon the work of film research. The efforts of the film compiler and historian are not far apatt, and much can be learned from the dedicated compilers such as Esther Schub, Stuart Legg and George Morrison. While not historians in the formal sense, they have gone through the hardships and study normally associated with historical scholarship. Like manuscripts, films have to be verified, dated, analyzed and finally interpreted. The result, in the case of film researchers, is a compilation, in the case of historians a book or an article. Both offspring can be weak and pointless, or strong with a well-developed thesis. Leyda senses the relationship between film workers and academic historians, although he leaves the subject without any real analysis (pp. 15-17). It seems likely that historians will fill in the missing links, as they more and more turn to film as a worthwhile , indeed necessary, source for the writing of modern history. Martin A. Jackson ]¡hile we await your responses to the questionnaire with regard to what areas need the fullest coverage in our Newsletter, the editors propose the two following departments as permanent features. In Source Notes we will pass along the suggestions of our readers for easy and inexpensive sources of films. The Film Reviews we hope will help you decide which films to use with your classes and perhaps give you some hints on how to use a particular film to its best advantage in the classroom. *** SOURCE NOTES *** The most convenient and least expensive source of films for classroom use is your local public library. Not every library has a film collection but many do and their numbers are growing as are the size of the collections. Many libraries supplement the films that they own with membership in a film library circuit, which provides them with a selection of a dozen or more titles for a month or more at a time to give the local borrower as wide as possible a selection in the course of a year. Some film library circuits have "pool collections " with copies of the most popular films kept at a central location year round. These can be borrowed by patrons of any of the local branches as long às sufficient notice is given. A few libraries will even lend projecting equipment and screen. While it is true that only one in...