A few months ago, I spent more time than usual with a film reference request. The film copy that came down for Clear Skies, Clean Air (1971) was 35/32mm, which meant that I had to make a print before I could run it on the film scanner. I listened to the soundtrack several times while … Continue reading In Search of…Leonard Nimoy
On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later another bomb was detonated over Nagasaki. Whether the United States needed to use the bomb to ensure a Japanese surrender is a point that is debated to this day. It is not controversial to acknowledge that the actual results of … Continue reading Witness to Destruction: Photographs and Sound Recordings Documenting the Hiroshima Bombing
In most cases, film slates provide basic information about the scene that follows. In our military holdings, the slates tell us the unit, who the cameraman is, and the film's subject. Sometimes the camera model is identified and the location and date are included. They usually look like this, an example taken from reel 8 of the unedited … Continue reading When Slates Attack: A Shark Week Surprise
“All films are created equal. I don’t think there is such a thing as a small film. We’re not pulling any punches here. Scene for scene, everything is being done to the best of our abilities. Each scene as we make it is the best scene I’ve ever made—in my imagination.” –John Huston, on Independence In … Continue reading John Huston’s “Birthday Present” to America
Last week, Heidi transferred several reels of film documenting "overseas activity" in the summer of 1941. Nestled among shots of city streets and training exercises were playful scenes depicting a facial hair contest at Fort Stotsenburg in the Philippines. If a beard contest doesn't scream "put me on the Internet" I don't know what does, so … Continue reading The Great Beard Contest of 1941
“The question always comes when you live in a community that’s oppressed and people are living like we have to live in the black community, how do you get a handle on all these problems? And you solve them by trying to create in the citizens an awareness of a need for dramatic and drastic … Continue reading The People and the Police: Washington D.C.’s Police-Community Relations Program, 1968
After the Allied victory was declared against Nazi Germany on May 8, 1945 (a date known to history as V-E Day), US military officials presented troops with Two Down, One to Go (Local Identifier: 111-EF-1), a film that serves as both Q+A session and pep talk to prepare them to shift their attention to Japan. https://youtu.be/do1-nBjYjdY … Continue reading Two Down, One to Go: Preparing Soldiers for More War
One hundred years ago, in the midst of the First World War, the RMS Lusitania left New York for Liverpool, England with nearly 2000 passengers and crew members aboard. In the film below, passengers arrive in a flurry of a cabs and board the ship. Less than a week later, most of them were dead, … Continue reading Impending Disaster: Footage of the Lusitania’s Departure from New York
You might be surprised to learn that there was a moment in time when Ford Motor Company had one of the largest film studios outside of Hollywood. In April of 1914, when his company was barely a decade old, Henry Ford established the Ford Motion Picture Department. Along with motor vehicles, Ford began releasing films … Continue reading Henry Ford’s Mirror of America
Seventy years ago, Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal captured what is perhaps the most iconic image of the Second World War. Taken just days into the more than month-long Battle of Iwo Jima, the Pulitzer Prize winning photograph documented the raising of the flag on Mount Suribachi. The photo was later used as the model … Continue reading Raising the Flag Over Iwo Jima
