Film & History News

FILM & HISTORY NEWS FILMS OF PERSUASION AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR Remember our program at the AHA later this month. The films shown are now or soon will be available for rental from the Museum of Modem Art Circulating Film Program (to write for catalog see advertisement in this issue).See you in New York. SALISBURY CONFERENCE: LITERATURE HISTORY AND FILM Papers and panel proposals are now being considered for this special conference to be held at Salisbury State College in Maryland late next Spring. The Historians Film Committee is cosponsoring the event and will publish selected papers from the conference in Film & History. See call for participation on following page. A-V ARCHIVES AT THE U. S. ARMY HISTORY INSTITUTE The US Army Military History Institute (Carlisle Barracks, PA 17013) contains a rapidly expanding collection of audio-visual ma serial covering a wide range of military history from the wars ofthe ancient Greeks to the present. Among the more than 25,000 items there are available: hundreds of excellent lantern slides on the American Civil War; Franco Prussian War of 1 870-71 ; the Spanish-American War and World War I; 500 motion pictures on the two World Wars and the Korean War; and more. THE SOUTH AND FI LM: A CALL FOR PAPERS The Southern Quarterly, a journal devoted to the arts in the South, announces a special issue for Winter 1980-81, "The South and Film." Warren French, guest editor, invites essays on significant themes in Southern films, genre pictures with Southern settings, the relationship between Southern literature and the cinema, efforts to make films in the South, and detailed analyses ofimportant films with Southern settings. Proposals that include an abstract, a statement ofthe approximate length, and a description of any illustrations to be used should be mailed by 1 March 1980. Early submissions are encouraged. Manuscripts, which must be received by 15 June 1980, should range from 3,000 to 6,000 words and should be prepared according to the MLA Handbook. Please mail inquiries and proposals directly to Warren French, Box 266, Cornish Flat, NH 03746. Thanks to Kathy Swiger at the A.H.A. NEW BOOKS Abel Gance. By Steven Philip Kramer and James Michael Welsh (Boston: Twayne, 1978), 200-pp. Selected bibliography, filmography and index. $12.95. This book traces the career ofAbel Gance, one of the founders ofthe French cinema, from La Victoire de Samothrace, a major play written in 1912-13, through Cyrano et d'Artagnan. his last film produced in 1963. The book concentrates attention on six ofhis major films, but is woven through with extensive quotations and insights drawn 59 ...