By stressing film as art, we necessarily ignore certain aspects of the medium. Industrial documentaries, instructional film making, the social history of cinema or its impact as a mass medium--all these are important dimensions of cinema, and each would require a separate book for adequate treatment. (Bordwell and Thompson, ix)

In The Liveliest Art, Arthur Knight examines the early history of the sponsored film in England. (212) Christian Metz states in Film Language:

In the realm of cinema, all non narrative genres--the documentary, the technical film, etc.--have become marginal provinces, border regions so to speak, while the feature-length film of novelistic fiction, which is simply called a "film,"--the usage is significant**--has traced more and more clearly the king's highway of filmic expression.

**As in statements like "The short was terrible, but the film was great" or "What are they showing tonight, a series of shorts or a film?" (Metz, 94)

Curious points are raised in what is said about educational/industrial film by these authors. For instance, Bordwell and Thompson make the statement "By stressing film as art, we necessarily ignore certain aspects of the medium." It can be implied that educational/industrial film does not exemplify art in the same way as Hollywood films. Educational/industrial films are formed by a series of shots, taken at different angles, lit by the same lights as Hollywood films, and at times, tell a story. Is there not, then a possibility that these films are capable of art? As an example, one of the Centron films made was a documentary called Leo Beuerman, which was nominated for an Oscar in 1970.

Metz states that "...all non narrative (sic) genres...the technical film...have become marginal provinces...while the feature-length film of novelistic fiction...has traced more and more clearly the king's highway of filmic expression...." Metz' observation suggests that the popular appeal of the feature-length film contributed to the negative image of educational/industrial film, which has filtered into the scholarly community.

What has been done

Through an examination of what has been done in the scholarly community, the marginalization becomes clear. A search in the Dissertation Abstracts of educational/industrial film has revealed several dissertations on the subject; however, the majority of these dissertations address the efficacy of educational/industrial film on target populations.

One scholar who has published in the area is Gerry Veeder. Dr. Veeder has published several articles on industrial film, primarily focusing on "in-house" industrial filmmaking facilities. These are facilities that are contained within the corporation, rather than independent production houses. Two of her works are "The History of Film at the Caterpillar Tractor Company", published in 1978 and "The Red Cross Bureau of Pictures, 1917-1921: World I, the Russian REvolution and the Sultan of Turkey's Harem", published in 1990. Her extensive research in these areas is one of the few scholarly endeavors.

Dr. Daniel Perkins, in 1982, published an article entitled "The Sponsored Film: a new dimension in American film research?", issuing a call for research in the area of the sponsored film. In his work, Perkins addresses the lack of scholarship and possible reasons for it. He addresses accessibility to films, lack of relevance to established methodologies, the perceived "inexpensiveness" of sponsored film, size of film audience, influence on the audience and intent or purpose of the film as compared to Hollywood film.

In 1992, Anthony Slide published a book, Beyond Video, with a comprehensive history of the industry to the present. It is an anomaly. Others who have done substantive work are Rick Prelinger and Ken Smith. Rick Prelinger, founder of Ephemeral Films, which houses 35,000 films in New York City, has done work for many years in the educational/industrial film field. He has published an interactive multimedia series called Our Secret Century: Archival Films from the Darker Side of the American Dream. Contained within the CDs are several industrial films, with psycho/social commentary and credits of the crew that filmed each film. He has also published Footage 91: North American Film and Video Sources.

Ken Smith published Mental Hygiene: Classroom Films 1945-70 last year and curated a series of educational films at the American Museum of the Moving Image during January and February of this year. We will see a clip from The Snob, one of the films shown in this series, made by Centron, at the end of my presentation.

Other publications fall into the category of "how to" manuals for production, distribution and exhibition of educational/industrial films. Many of these date from the 1950s through the 190s. This is not an exhaustive list of works published in the area, but simply an indicator of the lack of research.

Why it hasn't been done

The reasons for the lack of research may be seen as both theoretical and practical. As previously mentioned, educational/industrial film subject matter is viewed as boring and aesthetically unappealing. Ken Smith, in Mental Health, states one of the reasons for lack of research. "...[M]ost film lovers and preservationists have judged classroom films by the same criteria as feature-length documentaries or Hollywood theatrical releases. By these standards mental hygiene films are boring and inconsequential." (Smith, 30)

Because of the competitive nature of the business world, it is sometimes difficult to obtain statistics on production and profit; however, secondary sources are available to provide information for a comparison of one company to the industry. (Nowlin, 4)

The unavailability of films has been suggested as a reason for the lack of scholarship. Although the films are disappearing, many corporations have kept films in the archives. In addition, the American Archives of Factual Film at the Iowa State University Library houses thousands of films, scripts and correspondence. It was begun by Ott Coellin, the founder of the trade magazine, Business Screen. The counterpart to Business Screen in the educational field is Educational Screen which tracked statistics on educational film. Catalogs of films from educational depositories and from corporations are a valuable source of information, delineating the types of films that were made. The Library of Congress and the National Archives and Records Service in Washington, DC also house thousands of films. Statistics were kept by Eastman Kodak and issued as the Hope Reports, summaries of which were published in the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) Journal. The city in which we are holding this conference was named "the non-theatrical film capital of the world" by Slide because of the large filmmaking industry located here. (Slide, 19)

Why we should study

The educational/industrial film industry bears similarities to the Hollywood industry in areas such as film festivals, large audiences, large revenues and professional crews. Because of these similarities, the industry can be examined in scholarly endeavors.

The Council on International Nontheatrical Events (CINE) held festivals every year to determine which outstanding films would be shown abroad to compete in international film festivals. The awards from CINE were called "Golden Eagles." The Educational Film Library Association founded its own festival, the American Film Festival for outstanding educational films. (Slide, 108)

Like Hollywood films, educational/industrial films influence large numbers of people. They utilize the same crew and production values that feature films do: director, cinematographer, gaffers, grips, set designers and sound engineers. This is exemplified by the credits that Prelinger attaches to the films shown on his CDs. The industry provided training for film professionals that sometimes went on to enter the field of Hollywood films. Robert Altman, an independent film director, received his training at an educational/industrial film production company, the Calvin Communication Company in Kansas City.

In his article, Perkins argues for research in the field of industrial film for the following reasons: the scope of the audience, the number of films made and the theoretical considerations of the educational/industrial film in its own right. (Perkins, 134) During the period of prolific educational/industrial film production, there were thousands of films made. Perkins states that at the height of production, there were 15,000 sponsored films, on an average, produced annually. (Perkins, 133) The audience, composed of millions of people who viewed them, rivaled the audiences of Hollywood films. The films were shown in schools, industries, churches, social organizations and on occasion, in theatrical places. They reached a wide audience and had a substantial influence on the populace.

Educational/industrial films deserve to be studied in their own right as a body of film. The methodology used to study Hollywood film may be applied to some educational/industrial film; however, new methodologies may be created to study those films which do not fit the narrative model. For example, some educational/industrial films, presented as educational tools may be categorized as propaganda films, also. This is particularly true of films made during the war, of classroom films and certainly of some sponsored film. The necessity of film scholarship is becoming urgent, because like their Hollywood counterparts, the films are beginning to deteriorate and professionals who have worked in the field are quite elderly. In order to preserve the films, it is necessary to act in a timely manner to preserve and document a field that has been marginalized.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the educational/industrial film has been marginzalized by past and current film theorists, historians and critics. Very few scholars have examined the field. Reasons for the absence of attention by the scholarly community are varied, encompassing a perception that the area is boring and that sources of information are scarce. The rationale for studying educational/industrial film is that the film industry has a large revenue base, influences large audiences, employs film professionals and holds film festivals and is certainly worthy of an in depth examination.

Derrida points out that only by studying the borders can one see the center. By studying the border of educational/industrial film, the body of film scholarship is informed. I suggest that it is time to end the marginalization of educational/industrial film.

Clip set-up

The Snob was made in 1958 by Centron Corp. for McGraw-Hill Book Company with a running time of 14 minutes. We will see a six minute excerpt. The film revolves around Sarah, the snob, who studies all the time, ignores her classmates and feels she is better than they are. Her next door neighbor, Ron, pressured by his mother, invites Sarah to one of his parties. He tells his mother that she was fun in grade school, but she's changed. We pick up the film as Sarah is having a "heart-to-heart" chat with her father.

Burder, John. The Work of the Industrial Film Maker. New York: Hastings House, 1973.