We hope this forum will encourage discussion on any issues related to media and history. The forum also encourages you to react, as historians and filmmakers, to television programmes and films of all kinds, as well as to relevant books and articles.
You can also let us know about any events or publications which may interest our Association, and we will try to mention them on the website.
Please send your comments and critiques to Jerome Kuehl at jerome@kuehl.tv.
Soap Opera and History
Im am a french/mexican student in the Social Communications Masters programme at the University of Guadalajara. I finnished my thesis work on the creation of historical discourses on the TV format of mexican Soap Operas. Taking the case of historical soaps. During the period of formation of my theorical and methodological frames I had a lot of troubles finding similar works to analyse. Finnaly I came with an articulation between Hayden White theory on historical writing and some latinamerican aproaches to the soap opera (telenovela) phenomenon.
After finnishing the masters programme I was trying to search a doctoral programme which enable me to continue my interests on the articulation between history and media (new media included). This search had become unsuccsesfull without the help of someone familiar with this subjects. I wondered if someone of the members know any programme within which I could develope my theorical and empirical interests. In this sense I would like to ask you If you have the knowledge of any communications programme that can fulfill my interest. Reactions can be sent to: adriencharlois @ hotmail.com
NATIONAL ARCHIVES -- A DYING INSTITUTION?
Posted on behalf of Carren Kaston
Dear Friends,
Last Thursday, March 8, 2007, a friend of mine posted to the listserv an article I had written on the crisis at the National Archives. I am writing now to request that if anyone is tempted to forward the article to another listserv, they please substitute instead the version of the article that I have attached here. It was important to change the wording of the article in a couple of places, and this new version has done that.
I would very much appreciate your assistance if you are planning to forward the article. And I would be thrilled if some of you elected to send letters or emails in response to the article!
I have been told that I should try to send the article to the listserv of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) as well. Does anyone know whether posting to the SAA listserv is open to the public, or whether only a member can post?
I also want to let people know that there will be a Congressional oversight hearing for the National Archives this Wednesday, March 14, 2007, at 10 am, in the Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2220 (second floor). Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY) will chair this annual occurring hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government. If you have written material that you would like Rep. Serrano to review before the hearing, you can contact Bob Bonner, the staffer handling this "account." The phone is 202/225-7245. The fax is 202/226-6692. I hope that some AMIA members may be interested in attending.
Sincerely,
Carren Kaston
The National Archives - A Dying Institution?
2/25/2007
by Carren Kaston
Researchers in the Washington, DC, area are blessed to have at their disposal the two flagship facilities of the National Archives and Records Administration system - NARA I in downtown DC and NARA II in College Park, MD. The mandate of the institution is first, to preserve and maintain records in many formats, including films and photographs, created by or for the federal government, and second, to make these materials available to the public for research. The two Washington-area facilities have been a mecca for researchers and scholars from all over the country - and the world - because their holdings are the largest, most comprehensive in the NARA system. Many in the film and television community depend upon materials uniquely located at these two facilities.
On October 2, 2006, however, the National Archives drastically reduced the times when the public has access to these materials. The cutback in hours is exacerbated by severe equipment failures, especially in the Motion Picture Research Room in NARA II, and the decision not to replace retiring archivists. These conditions significantly limit our ability to access records - to the point that the Archives could be in danger of becoming mainly a warehouse for records.
For many years, the Archives was open a full day on Saturday, and in the evenings on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday every week. That level of access -
amounting to 60 hours a week - was on a par with the access offered by the Library of Congress, Washington's other major research facility, which has been and continues to be open three evenings a week and on Saturdays. But the Archives has now eliminated nearly all evening and Saturday hours. Through these cutbacks, the institution saves not quite $1 million at NARA I and II together, in a total NARA 2007 budget appropriation of nearly $340 million.
The institution says that it based its decision to cut hours on tallies showing that 77 percent of NARA I and II researchers used the facilities during weekday daytime hours. Even if these figures are correct (and there is some question about the methodology NARA used in the tabulations), that means that 23 percent - nearly 1 in 4 - of those who used the Archives did so during the hours that have been cut. That is no small number. Most affected are those who work elsewhere during the day and depended upon NARA for evening and weekend access, those who maximized their income and hours by working a longer day at NARA, and those who have rush jobs to complete and, now, fewer hours in which to finish. Also impacted are visitors to the Archives from elsewhere, who need to make the most of their brief time in the nation's capital. The budget requested for 2008 does not currently provide for restoration of the lost hours.
Two other main areas in which researchers' access to NARA records is jeopardized are severe equipment failures and archivist replacement policies. Equipment failures are especially critical in the Motion Picture Research Room at NARA II. The collection holds 13,000 3/4" videotapes (reference access copies), in fragile condition, which need to be copied to newer formats to make them reliably usable. The Motion Picture Division estimates that at current levels of funding and current cost of tape transfer, the job would probably take ten years. Of even more pressing concern is the fact that the 3/4" decks and flatbeds used to view tapes and films are wearing out. When a machine goes down, it takes "weeks" to repair it, often resulting in substantial waits for working equipment. The cutback in NARA hours has exacerbated the wait time, since a shorter day means that more researchers arrive between 9 and 5 to use the equipment.
In the past couple of months, NARA II's Modern Military Branch (focused largely on military matters from WW II forward) has dropped from six archivists to two, due to buy-outs and early retirement, ostensibly another cost-saving measure. But the archivists are not being replaced. When the last two retire or leave, no specialists will be left to consult on modern military matters, only generalists, without institutional memory or period- specific knowledge. The same is true in other archival areas, gravely jeopardizing the ability to do in-depth research. The institution is well on its way to becoming an archive without archivists.
Public access at NARA is also threatened by a recent two thirds reduction in the number of technicians who "pull" materials, such as government correspondence and documents, in the Textual Records Research Room. Wait times of several hours can occur, when the standard used to be one hour, and the number of incorrect pulls has proliferated. Furthermore, little or no training is provided to replacement technicians, when they are hired. In addition, a newly instituted draconian policy forbids researchers from seeing, under any circumstances, original documents that have been microfilmed, even if parts of the microfilm were done so poorly that they cannot be deciphered. In the past, these decisions were made on a case-by- case basis, and if the microfilm quality was extremely poor it was usually possible to gain access to the original. Now researchers are compelled to pay outside vendors to photograph or scan material that is indistinct on microfilm, even if all that the researcher wants is to get a better look at what is there, not necessarily buy it.
One way in which NARA deflects public protest about the loss of archival access is by focusing attention on its digitizing and electronic programs. A November 11, 2006, Washington Post article on the cutbacks whitewashed the situation, letting NARA answer the complaints by tooting its horn about a pilot project with Google in which "the company converted 100 of the Archives' films to digital form. . . . A few weeks after it was available on the Internet, it had been downloaded 200,000 times." But such grandstanding and selective digitizing do nothing to help keep the National Archives a functioning archives. NARA can skim off for Internet viewing items that have mass appeal. However, it will never be able to digitize everything it has, the material that research exists to find and that the institution has been mandated to make accessible - the millions upon millions of items that comprise the essential history of our government dating back to1775, including the rare, confidential, recently de- classified, and constantly arriving new materials - everything that makes an archive an archive.
In another example of selective digitizing used to deflect attention away from loss of access, NARA boasted in the January 17, 2007, Washington Post that it had partnered with Footnote Inc. to have millions of its documents digitized and made available for free at NARA facilities. But on what equipment will the public be able to see these digitized documents? The Archives' computer connections are so outmoded and slow that researchers already face interminable waits.
Finally, a review of NARA's proposed 2008 budget reveals that 15 percent of the total is devoted to preserving electronic records of the Bush Administration - although they will not be available to the public for many years.
If you believe that a restoration of hours and a different use of appropriations would better serve the public and should be a priority for NARA, please write or e-mail now, while there is still time to make a difference:
Dr. Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States, National Archives and Records Administration, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20408; allen.weinstein@nara.gov.
Dr. Michael Kurtz, Assistant Archivist for Records Services, National Archives and Records Administration, Office of Records Services, 8601 Adelphi Road, Suite 3400, College Park, MD 20740-6001; michael.kurtz@nara.gov.
Congressman Steny Hoyer - The Honorable Steny H. Hoyer, United States House of Representatives, 1705 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515-2005. E-mail from website only:
http://www.hoyer.house.gov/contact/. Since the Archives at College Park is named after him, for his efforts in getting it built, he would presumably take a particular interest in reported problems.
Finally, the Motion Picture Division would be receptive to suggestions from WIFV members either about vendors from whom to procure reconditioned and working-order 3/4" decks and flatbeds at a reasonable price, or about other government agencies, ready to de-accession their equipment, that might be willing to donate it to NARA through some sort of "agency-to-agency surplusing mechanism." Please e-mail your suggestions to me (ckaston@starpower.net) for forwarding.
Carren Kaston, Ph.D., is a writer (including grant proposals and reports), text editor, researcher and coordinator for projects in the arts and humanities, including documentary films, public television, library and museum exhibits, and related publications.
A week or so before IAMHIST Amsterdam, there's a small conference in Leicester on the relationship between British and European film and television. It might be of interest to folk who are coming across for IAMHIST.
Download the PDF flyer with info and photos.
All best,
James
I am doing a story on whether the media in North America (with particular, though not exclusive reference to Canada), is making a net contribution to our education.
In other words, with the advent of 24-hour news, are we better informed than our forbears, or than other countries? Are we more politically aware or simply more entertained - and what might be the exceptions?
I am wondering if any studies have been done, which use quantitative indices to measure just how informed and aware we are, such as how much we know about Muslim culture, given the media spotlight on Islam, for example.
Also, if any elements of the media have succeeded in educating or informing the public about something, has it manifested in any political activity?
If you have any answers or leads as to where I could find them, I would be greatly appreciative.
Thanks, and all the best,
Kyle G Brown
Broadcast Journalist
freelancemedia@gmail.com
A Call to Action on MayDay
Protecting our collections is one of our fundamental responsibilities as audio-visual archivists. The Heritage Health Index, released in 2005 soon after hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma struck the Gulf Coast, reported that few institutions have disaster plans and for those that do, often the plan is out of date. It’s easy to put off emergency response planning as we devote our attentions to tasks with more immediate “payback.”
But on May 1 – this year and every year – you can do something that will make a difference when and if an emergency occurs. That’s the purpose of MayDay – a grassroots effort whose goal is to save our archives. Although this was originally a Society of American Archivist idea, the AMIA Disaster Prevention and Recovery Sub-Committee will be working closely with other archival organizations to monitor the activities.
MayDay is a time when archivists and other cultural heritage professionals take personal and professional responsibility for doing something simple – something that can be accomplished in a day but that can have a significant impact on an individual’s or a repository’s ability to respond. Individuals can do many things on their own: For example, set aside time to read key policy documents once again, just to keep the information fresh. Quickly survey collections areas to ensure that nothing is stored directly on the floor, where it would be especially vulnerable to water damage. Note the location of fire exits and fire extinguishers. Encourage your repository to participate in MayDay.
Repositories may engage in activities involving all staff: For example, conduct an evacuation drill to acquaint staff members with the evacuation plan and to test its effectiveness. Or update the contact information in your existing emergency preparedness plan and create a wallet-size emergency contact roster to facilitate communication and rapid response. The list below includes a number of simple MayDay activities that can help you respond to an emergency when and if it occurs. You should adapt them to those hazards that you’re most likely to face: a repository in San Francisco might plan an earthquake drill, while another in Georgia might plan for a hurricane. The most important thing is to do something on MayDay that will help save your archives.
If you come up with other activities, we would love to know about them. Please send information about your activity directly to Lance Watsky, Co-Chair, AMIA Disaster Prevention and Recovery Sub-Committee at lwatsky@sos.state.ga.us so that your idea may be shared with colleagues that work with audio-visual materials. We’d also like to track who has participated in MayDay activities and what you did. If you or your repository conducts any MayDay exercises, that involve audio-visual materials as part of the exercies, then please send a note to the same address.
Suggested Ideas for MayDay Activities
Join the AMIA Disaster Prevention and Recovery Sub-Committee
The AMIA Preservation Committee now has a standing Disaster Prevention and Recovery Sub-Committee comprised of members who have disaster prevention and recovery knowledge and experience headed by Lance Watsky and co-chaired by Michele Kribs from the Oregon Historical Society. This new Disaster Prevention and Recovery Sub-Committee will become AMIA’s Rapid Deployment Force and the hope is to be able to address any disaster that occurs quickly and efficiently. Lance and Michele are currently trying to establish individual contacts for every area of the globe and to act as liaisons between the Sub-Committee and those who may be in need. If you have an interest in providing your expertise, or wish to become a regional point of contact person, please contact Lance at lwatsky@sos.state.ga.us or Michele at MicheleK@OHS.org.
Create or Update Your Contact Lists
One of the most important elements of disaster response is knowing how to contact critical people – emergency responders, staff, and vendors. Make sure your staff members have an up-to-date list that includes as much contact information as possible: work and home phone numbers (including direct lines at work), mobile phone numbers, work and home email addresses, and any other relevant addresses. Staff at many institutions hit by hurricanes in 2005 discovered that they couldn’t use work email or phone numbers because work systems were completely out of commission; those who had an alternative phone number or email address often could connect.
• Create or update a master list for key people to keep at home.
• Create or update a list of staff members that is small enough to be kept in a pocket or a wallet.
• Create or update a list of key vendors.
Review or Establish Basic Emergency Procedures Staff members need to know basic procedures and have essential information where it’s readily available when there’s an emergency. All staff members should have copies of the procedures that they can keep by their phones, at home, and in their cars. The SAA has adapted an outline for basic emergency procedures http://www.archivists.org/mayday/MayDayEmergencyProcedures.rtf that can be used as a template to develop your own.
• Review or develop basic emergency procedures.
• Distribute copies of up-to-date procedures to all staff.
• Make sure all staff members read the procedures.
Conduct a Disaster Drill
Different archives face different threats. Any repository could have a fire. Those on the Gulf and Atlantic coasts are threatened by hurricanes; those in the Midwest, by tornadoes; and those in the West, by earthquakes. These types of disasters often strike with little warning, so it’s critically important that staff members know how to respond immediately. There’s no time to plan when you have to evacuate a burning building! A disaster drill will help remind your staff of the proper procedures, and can also reveal unanticipated problems that can then be corrected. Disaster drills are often difficult to execute because they interrupt public service. If you can’t perform a full-fledged drill, have a “silent drill.” Identify a skeleton staff group who will remain on duty to provide public service while the rest of the staff conduct the exercise.
• Make sure that staff members know where fire alarms and fire extinguishers are located.
• Make sure that all staff can point to at least two emergency exit routes.
Conduct Scenario Exercises
In every emergency, staff members face unexpected circumstances. Scenario exercises offer them a chance to think about how they would respond to situations that would be hard to incorporate into a drill, and the exercises are particularly helpful for those who have specific responsibilities for dealing with disasters. What would you do if someone pulled a gun in the reading room? What would you do if the toilet started to overflow? If a major storm after hours causes significant damage to buildings in the area, do you come to work? You receive a call at night that there’s been a break in; what do you do? Your supervisor is out of town; who do you call?
• Form small groups to discuss how to respond to different kinds of emergencies.
Invite Your Local Firefighters to Visit Your Repository
Firefighters’ first responsibility is to put out fires. But they are also sensitive to the property they are protecting. Fire safety professionals often offer advice on safety procedures and training on how to prevent fires and how to use fire extinguishers.
• Invite your local fire safety professional to visit your repository in order to become familiar with your facility and to consider how to fight any fires effectively.
Survey the Building for Risks
Inspect the condition of your facility, with an eye to identifying possible hazards.
• Check the roof, including drains and gutters.
• Look for trees and plants growing close to the building.
• Check wiring for overloaded circuits, and look for appliances (such as space heaters, coffee pots, and office machines) that may be unauthorized or in poor condition.
• Test the fire detection system and emergency lighting.
• Check to make sure fire extinguishers are charged. •Inspect pipes and ventilation ducts.
• Ensure that access to emergency exits is unobstructed.
Make Sure All Collections Are in Boxes
If you have a fire, your collections are at risk from water or smoke damage. Boxes do more than serve as a storage container; they provide protection. In case of a fire, boxes provide a barrier against smoke. As important, winds generated by a fire won’t pick up loose items to feed the flames. Boxes also protect materials from water due to sprinklers, broken pipes, or leaks. •Look for loose and unboxed materials – and make a plan to get the boxing done.
Make Sure Boxes Are Off the Floor
Any number of causes – a broken pipe, a clogged toilet, fire sprinklers – may result in water in your storage areas. If shelf space is limited, use pallets for clearance.
• Make sure nothing is on the floor where it can be soaked.
Identify the Most Critical, Essential, Important Records In some cases, you may have a chance to move some items to a more secure location. Do you know what you’d take with you? In addition to your holdings, what administrative records (such as computer backup tapes) might you take? •Create a prioritized list of collections.
Inventory Emergency Supplies
Check to make sure that you have what you need in case of an emergency, such as a wellstocked first aid kit, flashlights with glow-in-the-dark tape, and large rolls of plastic sheeting with ropes and clips to tent collections. Check to see that you have materials to begin salvage operations, such as buckets and mops, fans, respirators, extension cords, garbage bags, disinfectant, a camera with flash and film to document damage, and a water vacuum.
• Order supplies to replenish stock.
Review Your Emergency Preparedness Plan
Creating – or even revising – an emergency preparedness plan takes more than a day. But on MayDay you could develop a strategy for updating your existing plan.
• Read your current plan and identify what should be updated.
• Set target deadlines to accomplish key steps.
• Schedule a little time each week to work on your plan.
If Your Repository Doesn’t Have an Emergency Preparedness Plan...
MayDay is a good time to get started. Don’t expect that your plan will be finished on May 1! Use this day to set a timeline to complete your plan before MayDay 2007. Check websites and books to familiarize yourself with what needs to be done. You may want to visit one or more of the following websites for information and ideas about preparing a plan:
• Heritage Preservation (www.heritagepreservation.org) is a great place to start. Heritage Preservation’s Emergency Response and Salvage Wheel provides “Action Steps” (outlining critical stages of disaster response, such as stabilizing the environment and assessing damage) and “Salvage Steps” (practical tips for different types of collections). Heritage Preservation will issue Field Guide to EmergencyResponse in May 2006. Check the website for details.
• The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides “Emergency Response Actions Steps” on its website at www.fema.gov/ehp/ers_wl.shtm.
• The Northeast Document Conservation Center (www.nedcc.org) publishes a series of Emergency Management Technical Leaflets that provide information on disaster planning and recovery, as well as other valuable resources.
YOU CAN HELP “SAVE OUR AUDIO-VISUAL ARCHIVES” BY PARTICIPATING IN MAYDAY 2006!
Thomas Weynants, a member of our Association, has set up a Google group on 'Early Visual Media'
Dear Visual Media Visitors,
Early Visual Media is pleased to announce the new Google Group, 'Early Visual Media'. To register please go to http://groups.google.com
Information site of the group-moderator is at www.visual-media.be. After registration you can post to the group using the following address: visual-media@googlegroups.com
Members are encouraged, both, to mail to the group and create their own website.
The following subjects are of interest to the users of this group: pre-cinema - optical toys - early vintage photography - 19th. Century academic model - nitrate film - early film - conjuring arts - illusions - apparitions & spiritism - dance of death - physique amusante - circus - popular visual art & culture - cabaret, vaudeville, theatre history - street performers - curiosity & wonder devices - extraordinary productions, events and occurrences - etc.
This group will encourage people to share their knowledge on the above and all related subjects with all enthusiasts in this part of history.
Please forward this message to every potential enthusiast in the above & related subjects. To become a member you must accept the membership which is without any obligations.
Thank you very much,
Best greetings,
Thomas Weynants
Thomas@visual-media.be
From Rebecca Vickerstaff, Senior Marketing Executive, Taylor & Francis Ltd
Just to let everyone know I have updated the special offer we have for IAMHIST members to New Review of Film and Television Studies. for more info please visit: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/offer/rfts-so.asp
Article From Kate Coe
I have a piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education, if anyone has time for a little light reading. It's about how historians and other academics can adivse on films and what they can expect.
Best,
Kate Coe
The Academic Path To Hollywood
Showing up on the big screen at your local multiplex isn't something most scholars would consider career-enhancing. But what about having an Oscar-winning director ask your views or guiding movie stars through the thickets of historical accuracy? What professor's heart wouldn't beat a little faster at that?
As someone who has worked as a producer for years and written about the intersection between Hollywood and academe, I would like to offer some advice to professors interested in working on television series or feature films.
Read the full article.
The Press Office of the University of Southern California has released the following statement about our Association’s president:
Nicholas Cull has recently accepted a tenured appointment as Professor of Public Diplomacy at USC where he will be directing the newly approved Master’s in Public Diplomacy, He comes to USC from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, where he was a professor of American Studies and Director of the Centre for American Studies. His research and teaching interests are broad and inter-disciplinary, centering on the developing academic discipline of Public Diplomacy, the role of culture, information, news and propaganda in foreign policy. He is author of the forthcoming Selling America: US Information Overseas, a history of the U.S. Information Agency (Cambridge University Press 2005). His first book, Selling War, (Oxford University Press, 1995), was named by Choice Magazine as one of the ten best academic books of that year.
Cull earned both his B.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Leeds. While a graduate student he studied at Princeton University as a Harkness Fellow of the Commonwealth Fund of New York. From 1992 to 1997 he was lecturer in American History at the University of Birmingham.
He is the co-editor of Propaganda and Mass Persuasion: A Historical Encyclopedia, 1500-present (2003) which was one of Book List magazine’s reference books of the year, and co-editor of Alambrista and the U.S.-Mexico Border: Film, Music, and Stories of Undocumented Immigrants (2004). He is president of the International Association for Media and History, and has worked closely with the British Council's Counterpoint Think Tank.
Filming Imax in New Orleans
Sorry for the group email, but so many of you have kindly inquired after us, yet events have kept us from replying one by one. If you've already received this, well, add my email-housekeeping to the list of other system failures.
First the headlines: we are safe and just arrived from Louisiana at our Los Angeles apartment (310-397-7879) for an indefinite stay.
As many of you know, last April I wrote and co-directed an Imax film (with Greg MacGillivray, who did "Everest") called "Hurricane Warning," a cautionary what-if tale in part about "the big one" hitting New Orleans. I was in L.A. overseeing its edit when I flew back to New Orleans to board up for Katrina.
After securing our house there, Michelle [Michelle Benoit is Glen Pitre’s wife] and I went down the bayou to batten down the country house before leaving, but wound up stuck spending the storm on the bayou. I'll save the war stories --- our evacuation prevented by road closures, the dry sweats of hurricane night, the aftermath with the door blocked shut by debris --- to share over a good bottle of wine. But suffice to say, Katrina rewrote the ending of our movie.
The day after the storm, I drove 15 miles to a working phone and called Greg, back in California, who was prepping to leave for Switzerland on another picture. I wish Greg MacGillivray and his staff had been in charge of FEMA, because three and a half days after a cold start I had on the ground in Louisiana a Space-Cam (accompanied by its inventor) rigged to shoot 70mm, a helicopter pirated from the set of Miami Vice (it was painted "Miami-Dade Police" which really helped our access) and a truck driven in from L.A. with a second Imax camera, a half-ton of film stock, and 42 containers of gasoline (which had become scarce back in Louisiana).
Our flotilla of camera boats was manned by the same local fire department whose trucks had made the rain when we were STAGING hurricane scenes back in April.
I admit there was a moment when it all seemed frivolous, making a movie in the face of such disaster, but in my heart I knew that the need here to help rebuild would long outlive the headlines, and maybe in nine months or a year, our movie --- whatever it gets retitled --- will help people remember. I also know that in the rush to rebuild homes and businesses, everyone needs to be reminded that it's the ongoing loss of coastal wetlands that made New Orleans increasingly vulnerable. We have to treat the disease, not just the symptoms.
I shot nine days in New Orleans and the surrounding parishes: the flooded streets of Lakeview and the 9th Ward, the debris fields of lower Plaquemines, the French Quarter eerily empty except for troops and journalists, I-10 a landscape of apocalypse reminiscent of the first Mad Max movie; shelters, rescues, escape holes, ad-hoc clinics, broken levees being repaired to keep water out, intact ones being bull-dozed to let it drain.
But even as I tried to focus in and get the shots, negotiate the checkpoints, and keep my crew safe, I couldn't ever divorce myself from the fact of where I was. Our boats were passing houses of friends and family, businesses where I'd traded, the library where I check out books, homes and restaurants were I'd recently dined and drank and laughed. I'm starting to cry as I write this; crying for perhaps the two hundredth time since Katrina struck. I was often crying even while the film was rolling, a 1000' Imax magazine spun out in 3 minutes flat.
Believe it or not, you can get used to seeing dead bodies by the roadside, caskets floating up out of waterlogged tombs, and starving packs of family pets. It may sound silly, but what kept picking the scab off my emotional wounds were the dramas you didn't see, but extrapolated.
A kid's plastic firetruck floating in the floodwaters made me think of my late grandfather, who at age 85 would still weep from the trauma of a horrific storm he survived at age 14; now Katrina owns the souls of a generation of kids.
A broken down postal vehicle on an interstate ramp, its back jammed with boxes of fast food condiments, painted a whole story of anonymous someones so desperate to leave the city they hot-wired a federal truck, so fearful of starvation they were willing to survive on taco sauce: mild, medium, and spicy.
Over and over I thought of how much has been lost, the people scattered, the very special place that will never be the same again. And then I'd cry.
So even as I know I'll never be the same, I'm also right back where I was in late August, in Los Angeles overseeing the edit. Michelle is here teaching herself how to teach online. She had just been appointed Artist in Residence at the University of New Orleans, holding only one week of classes in Screenwriting, Film Directing, and Acting for the Camera before Katrina scattered her grad students around the country.
For the many of you who have had dinner at or stayed in our two Louisiana homes, both are damaged but very reparable. The New Orleans house on rue Marigny, being in one of the oldest parts of the city, stayed dry, but did have a couple of hackberry trees fall on it. In the country, the breezeway was ripped away by the wind, there was water damage in the double parlor, missing shingles and fallen trees, but again all fixable. Evacuee friends are crowding into the bayou house now, waiting till they can get back to their own homes in the city. If you pass by, drop them off something good to eat. All in all, compared to what so many have lost, Michelle and I fared just fine.
Many of you want to know what you can do. Two things I'll suggest:
First, give money to the Red Cross till it hurts. Bureaucratic though they may be, they seemed to be by far the most together of the many governmental, NGO, and ad hoc groups we ran into. If that feels too generic, try the New Orleans Musicians Clinic, temporarily relocated to Lafayette --- try BBultman@aol.com for updated details. They were doing great works (especially re health care) in places like the 9th Ward long before Katrina put the place on the world's radar.
Second, write your congressman and both your senators --- today --- and demand an independent commission to investigate the Katrina response. In an atmosphere where whistle-blowers are punished, and with congress, the president, and even the Supreme Court all of the same party, we just can't trust a congressional inquiry to ask the hard questions. Frankly, I don't give a shit about who gets the blame. There's plenty enough for everybody. What's important is fixing the response system. It's so important. With terrorists, earthquakes, rogue asteroids, bird flu, whatever, running loose out there, your city could be next.
If you're still reading this, excuse my rambling and rant. We love hearing from you (those in L.A., we'd love to see you) but forgive Michelle and I if we're slow to reply.
Glen Pitre
Le Cinéma, une source de l’Histoire – Lionel Lacour
The author of this contribution "Le Cinéma, une source de l’Histoire" is Lionel Lacour, of the Institut Lumière in Lyon. (llacour|@club-internet.fr)
As with all pieces published in this forum, Lionel will welcome comments, either in English or in French.
Download Le Cinéma, une source de l’Histoire (Word document, 50K)
IT MAY BE HISTORY BUT IS IT TRUE?
Diversity within its membership has always been one of IAMHIST’s strengths and as the first President to come from a television, rather than an academic background – and I accept that they are not necessarily incompatible – I have always been particularly keen on debate within the organisation. I have enjoyed exchanging views on television history programmes over the past five years, but have found that we often seem to be re-examining the same old issues without confronting the new ones. Discussing the virtues of World at War, or the use of archive footage within The Great War is certainly worthwhile, but the new style of history programming raises different questions which we haven’t addressed.
With this in mind, I proposed a short conference in which we would look at the new trends in history on television and with the help of the Imperial War Museum and the British Universities Film Council organised ‘It May be History but is it True?’, which was held at the IWM on 15th October. I chose a title which I hoped would raise hackles, and therefore interest, and I was not disappointed. The audience consisted of historians, students, archivists and television people, who may have been to conferences on a similar theme, but probably not at the same time. The programme focussed on some of the styles and devices currently popular with television history producers, whose programmes now gather large enough audiences to persuade the schedulers to grant them primetime slots. There were sessions on presenter historians; on so-called living history, which uses some of the techniques of reality TV; on computer generated imagery; on dramatic reconstruction, as well as a session about television history and education and a panel discussion on possible future trends, as well as a chance for questions at the end.
There was not enough time for debate and I wish the conference could have continued for another day to allow for a more satisfactory discussion. Some of the delegates obviously felt unhappy about the current state of television history, but when asked whether or not it was better now than five years ago, two thirds of the audience felt that there had been an improvement. Judgement on the last eighteen months was less conclusive. I was delighted to see so many young people in the audience and hope that they may follow the example of at least two of our speakers, Helen Weinstein and Steve Humphries, who have no problem in crossing the cultural divide and are able to be both academics and television producers. As I said at the beginning of my introduction, the two things are not incompatible.
I enjoyed the day, and I have heard from many other people who felt that the conference had been worthwhile. I still think collaboration between historians and programme makers is possible and indeed essential, but I was disappointed that some important questions remained unanswered, or even asked. As the boundaries between documentary and drama become more blurred, audiences must find it increasingly difficult to distinguish between the two. And what is the difference anyway ? Will future programme makers mistake recreated archive for the real thing and use it as such ? Or will they recognise that it is not genuine and choose to use it nevertheless ? Probably ! This all underlines the importance of labelling.
There is one consequence of the new style history which I find particularly worrying. Less archive film is now used in programmes because the fashion is for reconstruction, or computer generated images. Film libraries all over the world are under enormous financial pressure anyway, and this must make the situation even worse. There could be a danger that the archive might not be looked after or preserved at all. And that should be of concern to everyone in IAMHIST.
Christine Whittaker
10.11.04.
Download the report by Michael Nelson: IT MAY BE HISTORY BUT IS IT TRUE?
Ray Fielding sends along the following:
(posted January 22, 2005)
I've found a very interesting internet site dealing with the March of Time. It is apparently intended for educational purposes and was created by people at the University of Virginia, presumably with the support of a quite handsome grant. The site is filled with data and well-presented information on a variety of subjects, much of it based upon my book, of course, but with a lot of other stuff, too. It also incorporates several extended excerpts from the March of Time films and radio shows.
Go to:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA04/wood/mot/html/home_flash.htm
Jerry Kuehl passes along the following:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has just submitted excellent written testimony to the Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport, the entity that is conducting BBC's current Charter Review. The revised BBC Charter will lay out the parameters of BBC's existence and activities for the next ten years. The BBC has asked its Governors to grant it a Charter provision allowing it to construct and operate the Archive, and the Governors, in turn, have asked the Committee for this.
I'm posting EFF's testimony (http://www.okfn.org/fcd/wiki/EffTestimony) because it is a lucid statement of the ideas on archives and archival access that many "pro-access" organizations and people have come to hold in common. For those interested in this very active issue, it is a great
summation.
Rick Prelinger
Prelinger Archives
http://www.prelinger.com
P.O. Box 590622, San Francisco, Calif. 94159-0622 USA
footage@panix.com
Online film collection at Internet Archive:
http://www.archive.org/movies/prelinger.php
From Jerry Kuehl:
The History Today prize, created by the London based magazine (www.historytoday.com) is obviously not the only award which honors the best historical film, television program, or multi media presentation of the year, but it does seem to be the only one which offers the winner a handsome £1000, and not just a statue of Clio or a dusty certificate.
This year's award was won by Leslie Woodhead, for his TV program 'Star War Dreams' which in the words of the judges was an 'elegant, sometimes frightening, but often witty' account of the Strategic Defense Initiative begun by Ronald Reagen and which continues under George Bush.
The program was made for Antelope films and its executive producer was Mike Csáky. It was first transmitted in the 'Storyville' series by BBC 4, an upmarket digital channel. Interviews included Frances Fitzgerald, Robert McNamara, Richard Perle, Ted Postol and Edward Teller, This is the fourth year the prize has been awarded. Previous winners included Catrine Clay for 'The Germans we Kept", Jonathan Lewis for 'Hell in the Pacific', and Adam Curtis for 'The Century of the Self'.
Dear Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television...
Background: the most recent issue of the Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television (October 2003) included some comments by television producer and IAMHIST member Jerome Kuehl on historical inaccuracies in doucmentary film. Filmmaker Mick Conefrey responds:
Dear Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television
I was flattered and humbled to be cited by the Office Cat for my film "The Race for Everest", broadcast by BBC2 in May. Recognition at last! Whilst other, lesser, directors assume a certain level of sophistication on the part of viewers, believing that they can understand sequences where the pictures don't simply illustrate the commentary point by point, I've always been of the belief that convenience is king and the audience are fools. And hence the kitty has always been very useful. With regard to that mountain, of course we did find photographs, maps and various archival materials relating to the work of the British Survey of India, but naturally we didn't use them when we were talking about George Everest and his merry gang of pundits. That would have been far too literal. Instead we used some film shot in the early 1920's.
As our furry friend pointed out, its so clever to gull the audience by using completely inappropriate material. A shot of someone with a surveying device - ah that must be George himself! Some mountaineers having a cuppa - they must be his surveyors! Okay, I have to confess that it wasn't quite so inappropriate: in the same sequence there was a reference to the first expeditions to Everest taking place 70 years after the mountain was measured, but I'm sure that no-one would have noticed it and certainly they wouldn't have assumed that this was the subject of the archival film that had been watching over the last 20 seconds, because after all, the second line of commentary did mention the 1850's. As if viewers could add up! And understand things out of sequence! Someone did point out to me that there was a shot of George Mallory lurking in the background when we were talking about the Survey of India, but I just assured them that he used a lot of oil of Olay and really had spent a lot of time in Himalayas. So thanks again, I'm currently working on a proposal for a series on the history of pedantry and I'm sure that best person to turn to for advice will once again be the old pussy in the corner, see you soon,
(PS its Mick not Mike, you old dog) Conefrey
HBO DOCUMENTARY PRODUCER SEEKS FOOTAGE OF GRETEL BERGMANN
From: George Roy, Producer, Black Canyon productions
I am producing a Documentary for HBO in the United States on German-Jewish high jumper, Gretel Bergmann, who was prevented from competing in the 1936 Olympics. I am looking for film material that's housed in Germany on anything that may pertain to the film.
Items of interest include anything having to do with Gretel Bergmann competing in Germany, Jewish athletes in the late 20's and early thirties competing for their own sports clubs, anything having to do with German propaganda and sport especially reagarding the 1936 Olympic games... Also the training camp at Ettlingen in which Jewish athletes were gathered to take part in a so-called Olympic camp... Also especially interested in any color film of German or Jewish athletes in Germany in the early 30's.
If you can help or direct me to another German archive that could do so please let me know...
Thank-You,
George Roy,
Producer, Black Canyon Productions, NYC
Email:GeorgeRoy@clearchannel.com
IAMHIST member Jerry Kuehl submits the following:
This presentation was made to the 2003 Cambridge History Festival on September 7, as part of the 'History on the Box' session, which examined in the words of the brochure 'how good a servant is television to the accurate study and wider appreciation of history." The audience heard from Greg Neal, editor of the BBC History Magazine, William Sergeant, who was responsible for the animation of the BBC series Dinosaurs and Richard Melman. I have slightly altered the text to make it more intelligible to those unable to see the clips though both The Cold War and The World At War are available both as VHS and DVDs...
(Download full article – Word document - 30 KB)
The respected American film researcher Kenn Rabin, of Fulcrum Services, in St. Anselmo, California responds:
"While I understand completely why you advocate for publishing film sources (logs of the shows) on a website, etc. when you say that producers are afraid others will steal their ideas, I think it's a deeper problem than that. Over here at least, I see the death of original documentary coming, as producer after producer declines to do any original research and simply steals the research of the filmmakers who came before them. I can't tell you how many calls PER WEEK I get from filmmakers who want to steal not only the film research of other films I've worked on, rather than doing their own archival research, but wants to steal whole sequences from such films as "Vietnam A TV History" or "Eyes on the Prize." While I'm happy to help steer a filmmaker to a certain number of original archival sources when they ask me where a particular shot comes from, I try to encourage them to pull those reels from the archives and see what else is on them. All too often, however – all the time – I see the same shots, the same succession of shots – used again and again. Sometimes they even look as if they are simply lifted from a commercial VHS of, say, "Eyes on the Prize" and plunked in. Publishing a shot by shot source list for every documentary, while I understand it from a footnoting point of view, will encourage this lazy practice among underbudgeted and uncreative filmmakers tenfold. I would rather see some contact information where an interested viewer could be in touch with someone who could look up and answer their question about a particular source or even discuss this with a filmmaker, than to simply see this valuable information (which is, in fact, proprietary information that came at great expense) simply laid out there for others to have."
– Kenn
Michael Tapper, editor of Film International, is seeking a book editor and guest editors for the journal.
If interested, contact:
Michael Tapper, editor-in-chief Film International (member of SCMS)
Lilla Fiskaregatan 10
SE-222 22 Lund
Sweden
tel/fax: +46-46-137914
www.filmint.nu
Stephen Badsey submits the following
(posted September 3, 2003)
WORLD WAR I IN COLOUR
Episode 1 TX UK Channel 5
9.00 p.m. Wednesday 23 July 2003
David Ellwood submits the following
(posted May 1, 2003)
Dear Friends,
You may already know that in 2000 Sharon Ritenour Stevens, Associate Editor of The Papers of George Catlett Marshall documentary addition at the George C. Marshall Foundation in Lexington, Virginia, created A Guide to George C. Marshall Motion Pictures. The Guide, part of the Web site of the Marshall Foundation, is available at www.marshallfilms.org.
This is to announce that a corollary project, The Marshall Plan Filmography, by Linda R. Christenson, has just been completed, and is now to be found on the same Web site. The Filmography lists, describes, and gives the locations of extant copies of films created and/or distributed from 1948-1954 by the European Recovery Program (the Marshall Plan). The copies listed are in the U.S. National Archives, the Library of Congress, and in archives in thirteen of the seventeen participating Marshall Plan countries. Information on the 795 individual films and seven series is word-searchable.
A preface describes the history of the Marshall Plan film program and the potential interest of the Filmography not only to historians of the era, but also to historians of film, who will recognize the names of many well-known European and American filmmakers involved in the creation of the original films.
The Filmography also includes detailed instructions on its use, a list of the few Marshall Plan films of which copies have not yet been located, contact information for the various archives, acknowledgments, and a list of source materials.
We hope that you will find this new information useful. Questions regarding the Guide to George C. Marshall Motion Pictures should be directed to Sharon Ritenour Stevens at stevenssr@mail.vmi.edu and comments or queries about the Marshall Plan Filmography should be sent to Linda R. Christenson at eclc@earthlink.net or by fax at 703-532-5653.
(Note: The Marshall Plan Filmography is ©2002 by Linda R. Christenson)
Also: I seem to have stumbled across something of a historiographical black hole. Here is a quote from the NY Times of the day after FDR's 1936 electoral victory:
"Each country in its exaggerated nationalism pictured the triumphant President as one of its heroes." Somehow the President's personality has crossed the ocean, leaped all Europe's barriers of language and tradition and made the common man here believe in him. He is liked by millions who are utterly ignorant of the things he has done or the policies he stands for.
The question is how did this come about, how did this mythical figure emerge (I have several other references). Obviously the new newsreel industry must have played a significant role, and I will be looking into this. But I can't find any systematic work by historians of any branch on this question. Can anyone help with references please (I shall also be trying one nor two of the usual fora).
yours,
David Ellwood
ellwood@spbo.unibo.it
The Dark Side of The World at War
(article - July 2002)
An all day event on the making of the 1971 Thames Television series 'The World at War' featured presentations by the executive producer Jeremy Isaacs, the associate producer Jerry Kuehl, researcher Sue McConachy, Michael Darlow, producer of 'Genocide', and Richard Overy, the historian from Kings College London. The conference, held at Queen Mary College, University of London, was organised by John Ramsden. He hopes to make recordings of the sessions available to all those interested in how this series was made.
Download Jerry Kuehl's presentation of The Dark Side of the World at War
(PDF file - 40 kb).
Who was Representative Canrey?
Jerry Kuehl writes (March 2001):
I've come across a French Pathe story of 'Representative Canrey' (his first name isn't indicated on the title card) of Massachusetts singing 'La Madelon'. The card says "Washington/ Dans la salle du Congres, le depute Canrey, de Massachusets (sic) chante la 'Madelon'" [i.e. "On the floor of the congress, Representative Canrey of Massachusets (sic) sings 'La Madelon'"]
The gathering is extremely jovial. 'Canrey' is bilingual; at any rate his Canadien Francais accent seems impeccable. He is accompanied by an orchestra which is mostly out of frame to the left. A crowd including children, is packed into the space adjacent to the speakers chair; 'Canrey' sings from below the chair.
The problem is there does not appear to have been a 'Representative Canrey'. Joseph Edward Casey was elected to the House in 1934 and served three terms. Casey was born in Boston and was a private in the 1st World War. Prior to his election he was a lawyer. The film was taken some time in the early thirties.
The 'Congress' in question is almost certainly the Old Chamber of the House of Representatives, where, I understand private parties might have been held. The Old Chamber was replaced in the 1850s by the present day hall, where sessions now take place.
Can anyone throw light on this episode, or on Representative Canrey/Casey? It was obviously quite a party.
Reply to Jerry Kuehl at info-contact @ iamhist.org
Mystery Solved – Pat Smart answers Jerry Kuehl's question:
Dear Jerome,
I've just come across your Jan. 12, 2001 query on the internet about the U.S. Representative who was singing "La Madelon" and I have the answer for you. He was William Patrick Connery Jr. (1888-1937), a Massachusetts Democratic member of the House of Representatives from 1923 to 1937. He served in the One Hundred and First Regiment of the United States Infantry in France in 1917 and 1918. Rep. Connery married the daughter of Ovide Douaire de Bondy, member of a distinguished Quebec City family who emigrated to the U.S., probably in the 1890s, and may well have changed his name to simply Bondy. I think the daughter's name was Antoinette. So he would have learned his "Canadian" French from her. (He) spent time in Quebec visiting her relatives and singing his World War I songs to them. One of them - a young cousin named Claire Montreuil who was about 10 or 11 years old at the time, had a crush on him and he liked her and corresponded with her a bit. She talks about him (Billy Connery) in her autobiography "Dans un gant de fer", a classic of Quebec literature published in 1965. I'm finishing up work on a critical edition of "Dans un gant de fer" and came across the biography of Representative Connery today on the internet, in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Claire Montreuil's pen name is Claire Martin and she is a very well known Quebec author who is still alive - she will be 90 next year and is still publishing novels.
As for using my e-mail, feel free to do so. It is interesting that someone would answer a query almost 3 years after it was posted!
– Pat Smart
Patricia Smart, F.R.S.C.
e-mail: pat_smart@carleton.ca
Chancellor's Professor of French,
Carleton University
1125 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, Ont. K1S 5B6
Tel: (o) 613-520-2600 Ext. 2182
(h) 613-232-3063
Fax: 613-520-2149
