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?