Letters

recently has progress been made in cataloging so vital to the historian who seeks to understand and utilize film sources. A major step toward an effective film catalogue has been taken by the American Film Institute , whose monumental reference work on American films is now being issued. The American Film Institute Catalog indexes films produced in the United States and intended for public showing from 1 893 to 1970. At the moment two volumes have appeared, Feature Films 1921-1930. and the remaining seventeen will appear regularly until 1976. The Catalog divides film into three broad listings: feature, short film and newsreel and will, at least promises to, list every American film in these categories. A large staffhas been engaged in the research for several years now and has compiled background data and information from all available sources, including all major film libraries, archives and studios. For the historian and social scientists, the Catalog promises a convenient and complete source of data relating to his period or his individual film. A comprehensive index will enable a researcher to either locate a film (by title, topic, year, director or actor) or to identify a film he has viewed. In addition, there will be listings by content, so that the historian can quickly locate films dealing with, for instance, race relations or attitudes toward labor. The index is computergenerated and should, when complete, provide the most complete source of information about American films available. The savings in time and expense are incalculable and the potential scholarly rewards, in enhanced understanding and use offilm sources, equally vast. Despite some criticisms which have already appeared, and more that will surely follow as the Catalog is published, the American Film Institute has performed a valuable service to the academic community. The Catalog is under the executive editorship ofKenneth W.Munden and will be published by R.R. Bowker. For further information write to: R.R. Bowker, 1 180 Avenue of the Americas, New York N.Y. 10036. LETTERS To the editors: " As the "media-specialist" in my department, and as a user ofbetween twenty-five and forty films in my courses each term, I know most ofthe films that have been thus far reviewed and have concluded that one attains little sense ofany given film's utility in a 50-100 word review. As their educational value (in terms ofinformation, background, mood or propaganda) is our chiefconcern, I feel that it is necessary to relate more than the "gist" ofthe film and to hint at ways in which it might be used. The publication of longer reviews, or for that matter a more flexible format...would have brought the viewer nearer the truth....Such detailed investigations ofthese films are absolutely necessary if this newsletter is to become a respected analytic tool....There is a real need for scholarly analysis here, which this newsletter can and should fulfill.... Gerald Herman Northeastern University 26 This letter was received in November 1 91 1 and since then we have taken steps to meet criticism ofthis kind. Longer, more analytic reviews have been printed and we will continue to publish them in the future. Eds. To the editors: An open letter to Professors of History planning to use films: I write as one rather interested in media and history. There's need, I think, for some clarification before you proceed to work with films. Let me make my points through a series ofquestions: When you talk about films, are you talking about the use offilms or the making of them? Ifthe latter, is the making for research or teaching? Iffor research, will you fight to have the film-form used as one means ofpresenting a master's and doctoral dissertation? Iffor teaching, what are the objectives? To put together only film and/or photographs and music which have been authenticated as genuinely ofthe period under consideration? Should there be no interpolation ofhigh quality synthetically made materials even ifthey add depth and meaning to the film? Is the historian to start with the plot worked out in words, and is he then to ferret out film footage which fleshes out what he has to say? Or can film sometimes be...