AHA Convention

HISTORIANS FILM COMMITTEE NEWSLETTER Edited by: Martin A. Jackson John E. O'Connor Vol . I , number 4 December, 1971 JOE HILL by Michael Wreszin It has been suggested that in the summer of 1969 most of the youthful citizens of the great Woodstock Nation didn't know who Joe Hill was when Joan Baez sang the song of the legendary figure of the Wobbly crusade. Perhaps it was Bo Widerberg's intention, as the director of the movie, Joe Hill, to acquaint America's current guitar army with the historical sources of their own contemporary romanticism. On that level the movie is a success and has both entertainment and historical value. Joe Hill, insofar as anyone knows much about him, was a legend from the start. He was surely not as important a figure or as authentic a hero in the I.W.W.'s brief but dramatic history as Big Bill Heywood or Frank Little. Nor did he die the martyr's death of Little and Wesley Everest, both victims of lynching, the latter in his army uniform on Armistice Day. Hill came to a rather ignominious death at the hands of a firing squad in Utah after his conviction for a grocery store hold-up killing. Given his radical connections and the tense atmosphere of industrial warfare that prevailed at the time, it is undoubtedly true that his trial was less than fair and the prosecution's weak circumstantial evidence hardly justified conviction and death. However, some scholars not unsympathetic to the I.W.W. have concluded continued on page 5 AHA Convention The 1971 AHA Convention reflects the growing interest in film among American historians with a cluster of panel discussions and meetings which should concern all our members. In addition to the annual business meeting of the Committee, there will be a fullfledged film festival utilizing films from the Museum of Modern Art. In short it appears to be a busy convention for those who deal with film. We are listing on the following page the titles and meeting times of the relevant sessions for the convenience of our members. Tuesday, December 28: 9:30 - 11:30 a.m., Mercury Ballroom "Media in University Teaching: Their Uses and Possible Abuses" 2:30 - 4:30 p.m., Sutton Ballroom North "Historians' Work in Sound and Film" 6:00 - through the evening, Mercury Ballroom "The Film and the Depression" See the AHA Convention Program page 108, for a list of the films to be shown. Wednesday, December 29: 9:30 - 11:30 a.m., Mercury Ballroom "Television, Documentary , and Newsreel Films: Their Relation to the Historian" This session is being jointly sponsored by the Historians Film Committee. 2:30 - 4:30 p.m., Sutton Ballroom North "The Film as Social and Intellectual History" 6:00 - through the evening, Mercury Ballroom "Film as an Instrument of Social Control: The Propaganda Film" See the AHA Convention Program page 108, for a list of the films to be shown. 6:30 - 8:30 p.m., Madison Suite Historians Film Committee Annual Business Meeting * * Thursday, December 30: 1:15 - 3:15 p.m., Regent Room "Mass Media and the 'Making' of History" Please make every effort to attend our business meeting on Wednesday evening. We were assigned an unfortunate slot on the program, in the intermission of the AHA Business Meeting and during the Film Festival, both of which will attract our members. We promise not to let the meeting run on unreasonably. FILM NEWS Documentary Symposium The University Film Study Center at Cambridge, Mass. is planning a symposium on "The American Documentary," provisionally scheduled for February at Brandeis University. Invited guests include John Grierson,Leo Hurwitz,Jay Leyda and the Maysles brothers. For information write: UFSC Box 275 Cambridge,Mass . ...