Mental Health Films
The films in this presentation, dating mainly from the 1950s, are a striking example of how mental illness—so often sensationalized in Hollywood features—could be handled with considerably more nuance and sensitivity when produced for educational and training purposes. Many of these films were intended for mental health professionals. For example, The Steps of Age (1950) deals with the stresses that some people face upon...
Film, Video
First lessons
Framed around a class election, short demonstrates children's use of violence with each other and how a teacher is able to understand and help them.
Contributor:
Beckwith, Frank - Iowa Mental Health Authority - National Association for Mental Health (U.S.) - International Film Bureau
Contributor:
International Film Bureau - Leacock, Richard - Jacoby, Irving - Mental Health Film Board - Affiliated Film Producers
Date:1954
Film, Video
Farewell to childhood
Short film dramatizing relationship between a teenage girl and her parents. Eventually both come to understand that they both have their own issues and needs.
Contributor:
Roffman, Julian - Beckwith, Frank - Norton, J. W. Roy - Young, David A. - Rennie, Thomas A. C. (Thomas Alexander Cumming) - Lambert, John P. - National Association for Mental Health (U.S.) - North Carolina. State Board of Health - International Film Bureau
Date:1951
Film, Video
The roots of happiness
"Dramatizes the case of a family in which the father respects and loves his wife and children, permitting each to develop as an individual, and contrasts this family with one where discord and hostility prevail"--National union catalog, motion pictures and filmstrips, 1953-1957.
Contributor:
Rodakiewicz, Henwar - Datlowe, Samuel - Brun, Joseph - Chalmers, Thomas - Bernard, Viola W. - Mental Health Film Board (New York, N.Y.) - Puerto Rico. Department of Health - International Film Bureau - Sun Dial Films, Inc
Contributor:
Leacock, Richard - Silvera, Frank - Van Dyke, Willard - Arthur Mayer-Edward Kingsley - Affiliated Film Producers - Seldes, Marian
Date:1954
Article
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is a list of films deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" that are earmarked for preservation by the Library of Congress. These films are not selected as the "best" American films of all time, but rather as works of enduring importance to American culture. They reflect who we are as a people and as a nation. The Librarian of Congress...
Article
Made to Persuade: Advertising and Promotional Films
This presentation brings together a wide variety of films deploying diverse narrative approaches but all with the same goal: to sell a product or, sometimes, a person. Motion pictures have been used for promotional purposes practically since the medium was invented; for example, the oldest title in this collection is Admiral Cigarette (Edison, 1897). As "Made to Persuade" makes abundantly clear, the selling tactics...
