Teaching with Film

Here's an entertaining story (gift link) from the New York Times that ends with a wonderful connection to the Library of Congress! Down the Rabbit Hole in Search of a Few Frames of Irish American History offers a hint of what's to come in the subtitle, too: "The silent film 'The Callahans and the Murphys' was pulled after an uproar over stereotyping. What happened next tantalized one fan of old movies."

Read it to find out answers to the following questions:

Who was Marie Dressler and why had everyone heard of her by the late 1920s?
What did cartoonist Thomas Nast have to do with perpetuating stereotypes of Irish immigrants?
Did the 1927 MGM film, The Callahans and the Murphys, depict Irish life as one long, intoxicated slugfest or was the film simply "good-natured fun?"
What did the Ku Klux Klan have to do with Irish Catholics at this time?
After cutting several negative depictions from the film (slugfests, excessive drinking, fleas, domestic violence, mocking the Catholic sign of the cross), why did MGM finally pull the film from circulation?
How did The Callahans and the Murphys foreshadow the Hollywood Production Code?
How did the National Audio-Visual Preservation Center of the Library of Congress come to the rescue of the article's author?
What happened to any copies of The Callahans and the Murphys?

Be sure to watch the two surviving film clips from the article! The Irish Film Institute also has a 5-minute Excerpt from 'The Callahans and the Murphys' on its website. The lost excerpt was discovered under the name, The Irish Picnic by another film buff. What fun!

A screenshot from the film at The Irish Film Institute:

Art/Music Social Studies/History 3 - 5 6 - 8 9 - 12 Irish Immigrants Film History Silent Films

I came across Oscar Micheaux in some articles and it continues to surprise me how much is right in front of me once a I am introduced to a subject. The Library of Congress is rich with his resources and one of his earliest preserved films, Within Our Gates, is available to view in its entirety on the Library's site. It is also one of the Watch Films on the Library's National Film Registry.

CBS News, in celebration of African American History Month, ran a piece, How Oscar Micheaux paved the way for generations of Black Filmmakers. The opening visuals are from (and credited to) the Library of Congress.

An excellent Micheaux biography appears on the NAACP site as does an examination of the filmmaker the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Film Studies professor Wheeler Winston Dixon who examines the artist's work.

One can listen to Micheaux's books, The Homesteader, and The conquest: the story of a negro pioneer on the Library's archives.

The movie, Body and Soul, with Paul Robeson, can be viewed in its entirety online.

Micheaux figures prominently in the Library's archives, and a search within Chronicling America will yield additional treasures.

6 - 8 9 - 12 13+ Art/Music English/Language Arts Social Studies/History Oscar Micheaux African American filmmaker The Homesteader Within Our Gates Body and Soul

As this Edutopia article, Using Storyboards in the Classroom, points out,

"Storyboards, a fundamental tool for filmmakers, are universally adaptable to any grade and content. With this flexible strategy, teachers can help students organize ideas, break down concepts, and visualize their learning."

The article outlines several simple, but effective, ways to incorporate storyboards into a number of classroom routines - at the beginning, middle, or end of any lesson. It also includes a link to some attractive, free-to-print graphic organizers from Canva.

Film techniques are not just for film studies! Imagine beginning with a visual primary source analysis, then filling in the details or context through research, then telling the story of that event or character through storyboarding.

3 - 5 6 - 8 9 - 12 Storyboarding Teaching Strategies

The Teaching with the Library Primary Sources & Ideas for Educators blog post Archival Footage for Student Documentaries by Suzanne Schulz, a 2023 Library of Congress Junior Fellow, provides a wonderful lesson idea for student documentary creation weaving in footage from the Library’s free archival collections.

I watched with interested a linked film from that blog "Let's See Chicago” a Kodachrome tour of the city in 1940/41 which was a promotional film by the Santa Fe Railway.

The film covers much of Chicago but seems to leave out Chicago’s South side Black population. A challenge to students would be to re-do the film, in its style but add a more accurate view of “seeing Chicago” in 1940 by including a wider swath of its citizens. Viewing historic promotional films are another way for students to understand how people can be left out of history through media.

There are many Farm Security Act photographs taken of the South Side of Chicago in the Library of Congress and students can use still images merged into video to tell a compelling story. I went searching for examples from around 1940 for a starter list of images that might be explored.

What else might students find in the Library to re-mix the film?

Chicago Film Re-mix

Free Friday film series this Spring, with the first one starting this Friday, April 25, 2023 at 4pm, PST.

Details are here. This Friday we learn about hurricane recovery in Puerto Rico lead by youth. It’s an amazing story of hope and resilience. I watched it with my son when he was ten and he was engrossed. Maybe you can make it a family affair!

In upcoming screenings we travel back in time to uncover Chinese heritage in Mississippi and see how a community bank in Chinatown, New York became a target during the 2008 recession.

You’re all welcome and please feel free to share widely.

A few months ago, I shared a "Weekly Update" with resources for using silent film Shakespeare adaptations in the classroom. Today, a version of that original post was shared on the Teaching with the Library of Congress Blog!

After you check out this post, I encourage you to scroll through the others. This blog great resources for using film in the classroom and I have linked two of my favorites below.

Silent Shakespeare

Football Through Film and Other Primary Sources

Multimedia Moment: Exploring Actuality Films in the Classroom

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November has been a whirlwind, but I’m excited to share all of the exciting things I've been up to as a TPS intern! I had great opportunities to get even more involved with the Library in-person by meeting with librarians in the Moving Image Research Center as well as the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room. In the Moving Image Research Center, Alli Hartley-Kong and I watched reels of family films donated to the Library’s collection. These films, while silent, retained their beautiful color and truly captured the essence of this particular mid-century family. Sequences include a three generation fishing trip, a multi-family BBQ, and a beach day! Much Like Edison’s actualities, home movies give the viewers insight into how the world at the time may have looked, felt, and sounded (yes, even with silent films!).

I also had the opportunity to meet Mary Johnson over Zoom with the rest of my internship cohort! I learned so much more about the intricacies of the TPS Network and I’m excited to now be an administrator for the Teaching with Film Group.

Other highlights from this month include attending Library events! Live! at the Library: 125 Years of the Thomas Jefferson Building was a great experience to meet some of the incredible librarians, architects, horticulturalists, and firemen who keep the building beautiful. I also explored areas of the Jefferson Building, like the Librarian of Congress’s Ceromonial Office. Later in the month, I volunteered for the Whiteout: Celebrating Black Teen Love event.I not only met the panel of incredible authors, but also Dr. Carla Hayden!

I have also continued my work on two projects.The first is my Silent Film Resource Guide that I discussed in my last monthly reflection. Thank you to everyone who has provided me with feedback and suggestions as I move forward in its creation. I hope to finish this project within the next couple weeks and would love to hear your feedback upon its completion. I would also like to know if anyone would be interested in piloting this activity!

I have also been working with Regina Holland on the creation of a podcast series for the National Council of History Education’s (NCHE) The Rural Experience in America 2022 Cohort. Creating a podcast series is a lot of work, but equally as fun. Our goal in the creation of this series is “to spotlight cohort teacher’s public history project and provide a tool for teachers interested in creating a public history project.” One of my favorite parts was choosing the theme music, drawing from Library sources. In my search, I explored Citizen DJ and came across the Music Box Project. The Music Box Project was founded in 2010 by “independent folklorist, musicologist and Berklee College of Music alumni,” Dyann Arthur. These audio files are fantastic primary sources because not only do they contain audio of live performances featuring folk artists from across the country, the artists take the time to explain the piece before the performance. Oftentimes, pre-performance moments either provide historical context or a personal anecdote about the impact this music had on the artists. One of my favorite examples is Eleanor Ellis’s rendition of Bull Doze Blues.

Finally, I wanted to share another film primary source with you all. While I am probably not using this in my final edition of the Silent Film Resource Guide, I’ve loved learning more about the film The Little Train Robbery (1905). The Little Train Robbery is an all-child actor parody of the classic film The Great Train Robbery (1903). The story follows a Bandit Queen and her crew of fellow child bandits. She directs her crew to steal some ponies and hold up a local train. Unlike its source material, the “little train” in this robbery is, indeed, a little train. It looks like one of the trains used in amusement parks as a ride for little kids. The passengers are also all young children and the description of the film suggests that the bandits rob the passengers of their sweets and cookies. Alas, the bandits did not get away with their crime. The cops soon arrive and chase the bandits all across the countryside in an epic chase scene. This chase is also a parody of the “chase scene'' genre seen in other films of the era, like Maniac Chase (1904). The cops capture all the bandits, but the Bandit Queen and her right hand man get away and run off into the sunset.

The Little Train Robbery has inspired the child-actor, genre based parodies you see today. From the Our Gang comedies of the 1920s-1930s, to Bugsy Malone (1976) and even The Goonies (1985), audiences love watching kids take on grown up responsibilities. Today, full child-actor casts are more often seen on television with shows on children channels or with shows like Stranger Things.

I would love to hear how you incorporate child point-of-view multimedia content into your classroom! Would The Little Train Robbery be something you would use?

Art/Music English/Language Arts Social Studies/History film teachingwithfilm

Hi,

Here is some information that I just learned about. It is the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival

This sounds like a great opportunity. I encourage you to register to take part in it. They have material you can use with your students and community groups.

Native Filmmaker Initiative

https://www.bigskyfilmfest.org/film_institute2/native_filmmaker_initiative

Video - THE TRAILS BEFORE US: https://vimeo.com/657543732/331efd9edd [vimeo.com]

This is in Navajo with English subtitles.

Welcome to the NFI Film Club registration page for THE TRAILS BEFORE US, a film following 17-year-old Nigel James, a Diné mountain biker as he hosts the first Enduro race in the Navajo Nation. Through revitalizing old sheep and livestock trails on his grandparents’ land, Nigel and a new generation of riders honor the connection to their land, community, and culture.

By registering you are signing up for BSFI's LIVE virtual discussion, which we are still locking in, with Big Sky Film Institute's Director of Education, THE TRAILS BEFORE US film team and Montana Office of Public Instruction Indian Ed Specialist Mike Jetty. In addition to your free screening link, you will be provided curriculum materials to help provide proper context and integrate this powerful film into your classroom teachings.

Registration - Adults are eligibile to register. - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSduodzs0ZZo6nk_Pz71hon-D-QJ7a1qZ5iascmixnWsdcC5OQ/viewform

I communicated with Mike Jetty of MT OPI and he encouraged me to share this and ask people to register.

My best,

Ruth

Mary Johnson Film Native American Library

Julie Schaul

In the diaries kept by my great grandparents from 1889 to 1948, my grandmother Mary Allen (their daughter) took over the writing for a brief time in what would today be called her "gap year." She was only 15 years old when she graduated from high school, which was apparently too young for her parents to consider sending her away on the train to the Iowa State Normal School for teacher training.

Her entry for March 29, 1916, is shown below:

Transcription: Earl [brother] and I went to M-town to see the play, "The Birth of a Nation". Awful large crowd. Pa went to Colo. Nice day.

I know that the controversial film came out in 1915, but I didn't know it was a play. Perhaps in those early days of film, people still equated going to the movie house with going to a play? I don't know the answer.

At any rate, if you teach about the film either in film classes or in American History classes that cover race relations during that time period, there's a helpful Research Guide of Chronicling America articles. Popular Reactions to "Birth of a Nation": Topics in Chronicling America includes a number of articles from 1915 and 1916 after the film came out. In particular, I would point out an article from an African American newspaper in Denver strongly arguing against the film coming to Denver.