The Historians Film Committee

HISTORIANS FILM COMMITTEE Co-edited by: Martin A. Jackson John E. O'Connor NEWSLETTER Vol. I, number 1 March, 1971 THE HISTORIANS FILM COMMITTEE The Historians Film Committee exists to further the use of film sources in teaching and research, to disseminate information about film and film use to historians and other social scientists, to work for an effective system of film preservation so that scholars may have ready access to film archives, and to organize periodic conferences and seminars dealing with film. A journal of film and the social sciences will be established at the earliest practicable date in order to facilitate the exchange of information among scholars and others concerned with film. Efforts will be made to contact interested scholars in other social science organizations with a view toward creating a common association of film researchers. Similarly, contacts will be maintained with foreign scholars concerned with film use. Statement of purpose adopted at the initial meeting of the Historians Film Committee, December 29, 1970. Membership We welcome members in the Historians Film Committee, and we'll be grateful if you would tell your colleagues about the group. An announcement of the Committee's formation is enclosed and is suitable, we hope, for posting in department offices and on bulletin boards. Feel free to duplicate or to embellish. Questionnaire You'll find a questionnaire enclosed. The purpose is to gather information about film use among historians, so that the Film Committee can serve effectively. Your filling out the form and returning it soon will be vastly appreciated. 2 FINANCE The Committee is presently being operated on the familiar shoestring . We want to have bigger, and more, newsletters (with pictures), to organize conferences and to continue our efforts at linking together historians interested in film use. But we need money. You've been sent a membership form along with this newsletter, and we're asking a two dollar membership fee to defray expenses . A further contribution would, of course, be appreciated but the two dollars will be the minimum required for membership in the Committee. It will entitle you to the newsletter (hopefully four each year) and to be informed of future meetings and activities. If finances permit and members cooperate, we hope to publish an extended collection of film reviews. Convention 1971 Planning will begin shortly for the next AHA convention, to be held in New York City. If you have suggestions for panel discussions about film, or would like to see the Committee undertake some specific function at the convention, please submit your ideas to the editors. We're hoping to have representatives of the Committee at the other scholarly conventions as well, including the forthcoming OAH meeting in New Orleans. Foreign Friends The Committee has been getting a steady stream of mail for the past few months, and a good deal from overseas. Thus far we've been in contact with historians and film people from England, France, Germany, Holland, and Denmark. We'll continue this overseas communication , for a considerable amount of vital work is currently being done in Europe, and we can learn much from our colleagues abroad. *** A. H. A. CONVENTION REPORT *** The 1970 Convention of the American Historical Association devoted three official sessions to films and history. The scholars who attended the Boston meeting showed much interest in the programs . Session #35 was entitled Films and History. The film, Confrontation : Paris, 1968, produced by two historians, Seymour Drescher of the University of Pittsburgh and Eugene McCreary of Carnegie-Mellon University, was screened and discussed. Drescher and McCreary stressed the limitations of their budget and the problems of production. They were interested in producing the film as a historical document to describe with the most dramatic material available the step by step evolution of violent confrontation. Much of their footage was provided by French students and required extensive editing and organizing into chronological sequence. Some of their material ...