The University of Maryland Cinema and Media Studies Program and the National Archives and Records Administration are pleased to present:
Films of State
A conference on the use and study of government films
April 7th-9th, 2021
Featuring presentations, panel discussions, and film screenings. The conference is open to scholars, educators, filmmakers, students, information professionals, film historians, and anyone engaged in research and the re-use of government films. All sessions will be held on Zoom Webinar. Live captioning is available. Check back for further updates.
Please Register Here
Conference Program
Wednesday April 7th, 2021 –
1:00pm – 2:30pm (EDT)
Opening Session
- Welcome and Opening Remarks
- Welcome from John Bertot, Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs, University of Maryland
- Welcome from Luka Arsenjuk, Director Maryland Cinema and Media Studies Program
- Welcome from David S. Ferriero, Archivist of the United States
- Overview of NARA Moving Image Holdings
- Introduction by Dan Rooney, Director Special Media Division
- Presentation by Ellen Mulligan, Chief Moving Image and Sound Branch
- Uncle Sam Presents: 75 Years of Government Films
A compilation of clips from NARA’s holdings, edited by staff from the Motion Picture Preservation Lab
- Keynote by George Stevens, Jr.
- Panel Previews
3:00pm – 4:30pm (EDT)
Panel 1: Government and the Land
- Moderated by Joshua Glick (Hendrix College)
- Steve Graybill (NARA)
Briefing on Park Service Records in NARA Holdings - Jennifer Peterson (Woodbury University)
Conservation and the State: Film and the National Park Service - Oliver Gaycken (University of Maryland, College Park)
The National Archives as Local Archive: Films of the Chesapeake - Martin Johnson (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
The Politics of Distribution: How the Bureau of Mines Used and Reused Motion Pictures - Lauren Pilcher (Georgia College & State University)
A Federal Vision of Black-Owned Land in Rural Georgia: the US Information Service’s Men of the Forest (1952) - Discussion will include Ellen Mulligan (NARA)
7:30pm – 9:00pm (EDT)
Screening the State: A Program of Government Films
A screening of selections from government films reflecting the topics explored by presenters at the Films of State conference.
See the Screening the State Program here.
Thursday April 8th, 2021
10:00am – 11:30am (EDT)
Panel 2: Moving Images and the Military
- Moderated by Haidee Wasson (Concordia University)
- Nick Schwartz (NARA)
Briefing on NARA Military Film Holdings - Alice Lovejoy (University of Minnesota)
Cinema’s Militant Chemistry: On Film and Uranium - Kaia Scott (Independent Scholar)
Vaccine and Antidote: US Military Psychiatric Films in WWII - Florian Hoof (Paderborn University)
Shooting Standards, Standardizing Shooting: Film, Knowledge, and the Advent of Industrialized Warfare - Discussion will include Dan Rooney (NARA)
1:00pm – 2:30pm (EDT)
Panel 3: Using Government Film
- Moderated by Heidi Holmstrom and Audrey Amidon (NARA)
- Sarah Eilers (National Library of Medicine)
Do You Have That Lobotomy Film? Moving Images at the National Library of Medicine - Ina Archer (National Museum of African American History and Culture)
A Fair and Equal Chance: A Peoples Playhouse Presented by the American Negro Theatre - Lindsay Zarwell (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)
Restoring Individuality - Ingo Zechner (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital History), Lindsay Zarwell (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum), and Criss Austin (NARA)
Unfolding the Visual History of the Holocaust through American Liberation Footage - Karma Foley (Smithsonian Channel)
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Government Films’ Second Life on the Small Screen - Stephanie Greenhut (NARA)
Film for Education: DocsTeach and National History Day
3:30pm – 5:00pm (EDT)
Panel 4: Infrastructure of Public Diplomacy
- Moderated by Martin Johnson (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
- Nick Cull (University of Southern California)
USIA film and the Alliance for Progress - Hongwei Thorn Chen (Tulane University)
Projecting China in the 1940s Philanthropic Media Network: The University of Nanking, the Harmon Foundation, and the Question of Cultural Education - Hadi Gharabaghi (Drew University)
Akhbār-i Īrān [Iran News Series] (USIS/Iran, 1954-1962) - Bret Vukoder (University of Delaware)
Solidarity through Satellite: The USIA’s Global Broadcast of ‘Let Poland Be Poland - Discussion will include Carol Swain (NARA)
7:30pm – 9:00pm (EDT)
Panel 5: Ideas of Public Diplomacy
- Moderated by Mark Williams (Dartmouth College)
- Han Sang Kim (Ajou University)
Competing with Local Rival Newsreels: USIS-Korea’s Newsreel Series from Liberty News to Screen Report - Juana Suarez (New York University)
USIA Films in Latin America: Charting the Territory - Aboubakar Sanogo (Carleton University)
Moving Images at the United States National Archives: A View from Africa - Yuka Tsuchiya (Kyoto University)
Japanese Locally Produced USIS Films: From the Allied Occupation to Post-Occupation Era - Discussion will include Carol Swain (NARA)
Friday April 9th, 2021
10:00am – 11:30am (EDT)
Panel 6: Government and Its People
- Moderated by Oliver Gaycken (University of Maryland)
- Noah Tsika (Queens College, CUNY)
US Diplomatic Corps and the Nigerian Film Industry - Tanya Goldman (New York University)
A Motion Picture Program of Service for All Communities: The U.S. Treasury, War Bond Drives, and Nontheatrical Networks on the WWII Homefront - Stephen Charbonneau (Florida Atlantic University)
Splitting the Screen: Urban Rebellion, Participatory Documentary, and The Hartford Project (1969) - Catherine Harrington (Independent Scholar)
Correcting Corrections: Instructional Films for Corrections Officers Post-Attica - Discussion will include Alexandra Geitz (NARA)
1:00pm – 2:30pm (EDT)
Panel 7: The Use of Textual Records for Film Research
- Moderated by Brian Real (Southern Connecticut State University)
- Nathaniel Brennan (New York University)
Paper Trails, Vesting Orders, and Institutional Histories: Some Reflections on the Federal Government’s Wartime Captured Film Collection - Buckey Grimm (Independent Scholar)
The Signal Corps School of Photography at Columbia University - Jenny Horne (University of California, Santa Cruz)
Civic Guides, Textual Evidence: The Pamphlet-Films of American Civic Cinema - Brian Real (Southern Connecticut State University)
Better on Paper: The USIA’s Multi-Screen Epic for Expo 67 - Discussion will include Cate Brennan (NARA)
Panels will be recorded and made available online at a later date.
3:00pm – 4:30pm (EDT)
Closing Workshops
- 3:00pm – Using NARA’s Online Catalog for Moving Image Research, presented by Ashley Behringer (NARA)
- 3:30pm – The Moving Image and Sound Branch Research Room: Services, Forms, and Resources in the COVID Period and Beyond, presented by Caitlin Hucik (NARA)
- 4:00pm – Still Picture Research, presented by Sarah Lepianka (NARA)
Contact Dr. Oliver Gaycken with questions: ogaycken@umd.edu
