From: Jeffrey Cameron Kennedy [mailto:
AJeffrey@ntu.edu.sg]
I've just come across a resource I don't think has been mentioned on
MG-ED-DV before - over 900 movies available for free download and
unrestricted use from
http://www.archive.org/movies/index.html. In a
variety of formats, the files are quite large, but many of them are only
10-12 minutes long. A lot of corporate (eg auto, oil company),
government (defence, health) and promotional material. Much of it is
quite old - good material for illustrating shifts in technology, gender
roles, stereotyping, communication, industrial organisation and the
like. A few samples include:
Always Tomorrow (Part I) 1941
Producer: Handy (Jam) Organization
Sponsor: Coca-Cola Company
Dramatized history of the Coca-Cola company and some of the people who
participated in its origin and growth. Made in the style of a feature
film.
Descriptors: Coca-Cola Company; Business: History; Beverage industry
Run time: 10:43
American Harvest (Part I) 1955
Producer: Handy (Jam) Organization
Sponsor: Chevrolet Division, General Motors Corporation
This institutional film was designed to promote Chevrolet's corporate
citizenship rather than any specific model of automobile. While it
forcefully demonstrates how central automobile manufacturing is to the
American economy, it even more strikingly shows the effects of the
automobile upon our landscape. Bombastic narration is accompanied by
excellent images of automobile manufacturing, the extraction and
processing of raw materials from the earth, and mid-1950s consumerism.
Revised from the original 1951 version.
Descriptors: Manufacturing; Automobiles: Economic effects;
Sustainability: 1950s Run time: 13:11
American Thrift (Part I) 1962
Producer: Handy (Jam) Organization
Sponsor: Chevrolet Division, General Motors Corporation Expansive
tribute to the "Woman American," her thrifty purchasing habits, and the
American system of mass production.
Descriptors: Consumerism; Gender roles; Families: 1960s
Run time: 12:32
Are You Popular? 1947
Producer: Coronet Instructional Films
Sponsor: N/A
One of the best examples of post-World War II social guidance films,
with examples of "good" and "bad" girls, proper and improper dating
etiquette, courtesy to parents, and an analysis of what makes some
people popular and others not. A scream and a sobering document of
postwar conformity.
Descriptors: Social guidance; Teenagers; Gender roles
Run time: 9:52
Communication: A Film Lesson in General Science / Development of
Communication 1927
Producer: Unknown
Sponsor: N/A
Venerable educational film showing technologies of communication, circa
1920s.
Descriptors: Communication: General; Communication: Telephone;
Communication: Radio Run time: 13:04
Easier Way, The 1946
Producer: Handy (Jam) Organization
Sponsor: General Motors Corporation, Employee Cooperation Staff Presents
the case for motion study in the workplace and advises supervisors on
how to convince skeptics that it is a good thing.
Descriptors: Time and motion study; Gender roles
Run time: 12:31
Jeff Kennedy
kennedj@lincoln.ac.nz
Visiting Teaching Fellow Ph: +65-790 5785
Mailbox S3-B1A-08 Fax: +65 792 4217
Nanyang Business School
Singapore 639798