Film and History NewsChicago A.H.A, Convention: A Report

14."Medios masivos de comunicación: cine." in Literatura y arte nuevo en Cuba, Mario Benedetti and others (Barcelona, 1971), 50. 15.See Gary Crowdua, "The Spring 1972 Cuban Film Festival Bus," Film Society Review. VII, 7-9 (March-May, 1972). On the morning of July 27, 1974, a bomb caused extensive damage to the doors of the First Unitarian Church, 2936 W. 8th St., Los Angeles. A speaker for the church at that evening's showing of Lucia attributed the bombing to "gusanos" (counter-Revolutionary worms). 16.Lucia was unanimously voted the Gold Medal at the 1969 Moscow Film Festival. See Enrique Pineda gamet. "Consagración en Moscu," Cuba internacional (Oct.. 1969), 20-21. See also Michael T. Isenberg, "A Relationship of Constrained Anxiety: Historians and Film," The History Teacher, VI, 4 (August, 1973) for a ground-breaking discussion of aesthetics and cultural history. 17.Guglielmo Volonterio, "Interview with Humberto Solas," Atlas, XIX, 4 (April 1970), 64. 18.Closing speech at the 5th National Plenum of the Federation of Cuban Women. See Granma (English edition, Havana), 18 December 1966, 2. 19.Reuters News Service, Christian Science Monitor, 19 July 1974, 5A. 20.Bohemia ( 1 8 October, 1968), 103. 2 1 . Femando Solanas, a radical Argentine filmmaker, collaborated with Octavio Getino to produce The Hour of the Furnaces (La hora de los homos'). 22.Quoted in Margot Keman, "Radical Image: Revolutionary Film," Arts in Society. X, 2 (Summer-Fall, 1973), 243. 23.Cuba (November. 1968), 35. FILM AND HISTORY NEWSCHICAGO A.H.A, CONVENTION: A REPORT The H.F.C. was able to play several roles during the annual meeting of the A.H.A. in Chicago last December. A display on Film & History was maintained in a special room set aside for demonstration and display of innovative teaching techniques. Thanks to the cooperation of thirteen Committee members we were able to staff the display table with "consultants" to advise teachers who were interested in starting with film in their classes. The annual meeting of the Committee was held on December 28th and, after a short report of the year's activities, was turned over to a workshop on the practical problems ofusing film in the history classroom—problems ofbudget, film selection, scheduling student preparation, evaluation, etc., were discussed. The workshop seemed so successful that a similar one has been proposed as a formal session for next year's A.H.A. meeting in Atlanta. The third role played by the H.F.C. was the co-sponsorship ofa panel entitled "The Movies as Social Myth," which was one ofthe best attended sessions. The following reports on this and one other session were contributed by Committee members: At the Historians Film Committee co-sponsored panel, "The Movies as Social Myth," Robert Sklar, University of Michigan, spoke on "Beyond Laughter: The Movie 16 Comedy of the 1930's" and Leo Braudy, Columbia University, discussed "Togetherness and the Wandering Individual: The American Movie in the 1950's." Both presentations were intelligent and informative about their respective film subjects, while both shared the same flaw. Sklar said little about America in the 1930's and how the films of Disney related to their time, and Braudy seemed unnecessarily vague about what he meant by America in the 1 950's beyond some general impression that Americans were "ambivalent and confused." By clearly showing the connections between film and history, both papers would be substantially improved. Over two hundred and fifty people were attracted to this panel, and both speakers responded well to their questions. (Arthur Legacy, Syracuse University) Allen F. Davis, Temple University, introduced the session on "The Photograph and the American Mind" with a call for historians to use photographs as documents, not simply as illustrations. Showing slides from the FSA collection and Life magazine, William Stott, University of Texas at Austin, ably demonstrated how historians should use photographs. He argued that the images of the 1930's show a decade of contradictions and a culture in transition. Margaret Bourke-White and Dorothea Lange used the same theatrical methods as Hollywood (dramatic lighting, unusual angles) believing that "things could be staged yet still felt to be true." At the same time there...