Film & History News

their reading in conjunction with the films. When "The Underside of U.S. History" was the theme, the readings included a number ofofficial reports including those of the Kerner Land Wolfenden Commissions, and the Townsend study on old age homes. Had the students read these reports, they would have understood that the changing image of Blacks and women in motion pictures does not in many ways reflect the reality of U.S. society. And so they missed what should have been a major conclusion oftheir study—until they were lectured on the point. This situation is hopefully being remedied this semester through a series of short papers required soon after the films are seen. While there are several "pop quizzes" to determine whether or not the students are only "looking at" as opposed to "seeing" the motion pictures, there are no formal examinations. Two longer papers are assigned. For the final discussion question (presented early in the course), they are encouraged to be "creative." It can be answered with any serious endeavor from a footnoted term paper to a film or a play. Although students habitually complain about the relationship between college and their "stifled creativity," all but a handful, to date, have chosen to "produce" term papers as opposed to "creative works." Finally, the films are rented through normal distribution agencies and occasionally provided free-of-charge by contacts in Hollywood. Funds have come from a variety of sources: the History Department's supply fund, the Cultural Arts Board and the college president's Innovative Teaching Fund. FILM & HISTORY NEWS A.F.I. PLANS AMERI CAN HISTORY COMPILATION The American Film Institute is in the initial stages ofpreparing a compilation film of American History as represented in commercial movies from their beginnings to the present day. The project is being developed in conjunction with the Bicentennial celebration in 1976. HARVARD COLLOQUIUM ON FILM AS EVIDENCE The Department of History of Harvard University is sponsoring a Colloquium on Film as a Resource for Historians. The Colloquium will be held at Harvard on six successive Monday evenings beginning October 28, 1974. Participants will consider what evidence the historical researcher can obtain from film that he cannot find in traditional sources. Further information may be had by writing to: Film Colloquium, Harvard University, Department of History, Robinson L-3 1 , Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 SERIES OF SCREENINGS TO BEGIN IN SEPTEMBER 49 On September 19th the Historians Film Committee will begin a series ofmonthly film screenings at the City University ofNew York. The first film shown will be Black Man's Land (1973) on colonialism in Kenya and Jomo Kenyatta. This film was well received in England and has only recently become available in the United States. The screening will be held at the C.U.N.Y. Graduate Center, 33 W 42nd St., New York City, and will begin in the auditorium at 7:30 P.M. A.H.A. PAMPHLET: TEACHING HISTORY WITH FILM The Histonans Film Committee is pleased to announce that the American Historical Association has published a pamphlet on Teaching History With Film, The pamphlet was prepared by the editors of Film & History for the Association, and it becomes the second in their series "Discussions on Teaching." Copies are available for $1 through the A.H.A., 400 A St. S.E., Washington, D.C. FILM REVIEWS Salt of the Earth, 1954, 94 minutes. The power of a first rate fictionalized documentary lies in its ability to take the viewer "inside" the events, exploring repercussions in the lives of participants of an historical drama, reaching for universals in human conduct which go far beyond the immediate historical situation under treatment. In the Antioch Review, (Vol. 32, No. 3), Joan Mellon remarked that when fictionalized documentaries are most successful they, "render the relationship of personal experience to the social order so subtly that the work reproduces at once a milieu and the individuals whose values typify it." A relatively unknown film ofthe early 1950's, Salt ofthe Earth, advances boldly toward this goal. The film, which was directed by Herbert Biberman from a screenplay by Michael Wilson, concerns a strike, which took place in a New Mexico mining town...