[instructor] Alright. So our second goal is... How and why should we use film in our classrooms? Now, we've talked about this before... probably one of the most abused things we've seen in our classrooms - as Friday rolls around and some show is going up on the television. It has absolutely nothing to do with what your teaching, right? How many of you have seen that? Well, for the rest of you who haven't seen it - you will. This is a very... and when you talk to your mentor teacher, they'll say, "Well, I'm tired... I didn't really prepare and the kids really need something..." And that is, again, another example of the dumbing down culture that has come into the way we think about teaching. I don't buy that. If you're going to show a movie, and you're going to spend two hours - and that's two class periods, unless some of you are on block schedule - you're going to spend two hours out of a week seeing a movie... you better have a really good plan as to why you're watching it, how it fits into your schedule and how students going to be accessed from what they've learned from it. I am of the belief that we should use film in the classroom. And I am of the belief that we should use it sparingly, and wisely and we should only show a few movies and we should use a lot of hooks for movies. So let's talk a little bit about what the research says about why we should use film in the classroom. And there's a large number... and I've read a lot about this... I would say there are at least six or seven good rationales for why we use it First of all - The film message is too important to leave to amateurs - students need teachers to help them understand the message. And boy! That is really, really true! I'm going to take an old, classic movie as an example to give you an idea... And that's: "To Kill a Mockingbird" I'm assuming every one of you have seen the movie, and I'm also assuming most of you read the book. If you haven't seen the movie or read the book, you shouldn't have graduated from college without doing it, because it's considered one of the top 100 books ever written in American Literature. So - there's this great scene, where Atticus has just given his closing arguments to try and get Tom Robinson to be freed. And he stands up to leave, and takes his suitcase and he starts walking down the aisle of the courtroom, and all the African-American people stand up in the balcony and give him a moment of silence - a great deal of respect. It's a very powerful, moving scene. I remember the first time I saw the movie, just literally weeping because it was so powerful. Now.... what's wrong with this scene, and why do you need to interpret it? Anybody have an idea? Whose perspective is constantly seen in this movie and in the book? [male voice off camera] - The "great White man"? [instructor - nodding in agreement] The "great White man" - absolutely, Troy! This is "the great White man" helping poor Black people who can't help themselves. And we have a more modern example of that - and that would be, "The Help" The movie, "The Help", which, I'm assuming, most of your students saw. Again, the focus is on White people who are empowering Black people, because they don't have the power themselves. And I think it's really important that you talk to kids and say, Yes, there are many White people who help to empower people who didn't have the political power... but MANY people who have been oppressed have also taken the situation into their own hands and we don't show that very often in Hollywood. So I think it's really important that we look at films that we know our students are watching, and try to help them, in some degrees, understand how it might have been turned around, and focusing on perhaps the wrong people. That's not to take away from the movie, because it's great. Some topics just require the use of film. You cannot teach World War II... you just can't... without using pieces of Leni Riefenstahl's great, great movie, "Triumph of the Will" which is available completely online [music from the movie begins playing in the background] [instructor struggles briefly with technology] [music from movie clip plays] [instructor] It's about an hour and a half [instructor describing film clip] You see good Aryan men and women doing good Aryan things singing always for the Fatherland [male voice off camera] - What year is this? [instructor] This is Leni Riefenstahl, 1935 So you can go... and you can watch the entire film Now Leni Riefenstahl's interesting enough [chuckles] ... is a very interesting character she died about four years ago. She went to her grave saying she was never a Nazi, even though she was Adolf Hitler's primary photographer. She also did the great movie, "Olympia" which is the Munich Olympic's - when Hitler was in power. And her movies are phenomenally good. Probably the best black and white movie director we've ever had. And so you want to watch parts of "Triumph of the Will" and "Olympia" and I would pick a piece of "Triumph of the Will" to show in your classroom. You've seen them - those are the pictures of people... the Nazis marching down... all that was filmed by Leni Riefenstahl during her hey-day. But if you want to find out more about her, and if the kids are interested... if you've got kids that are really interested in art history... they should look into Leni Riefenstahl ... and it's L-E-N-I... Riefenstahl and those of you that know anything about German - the second vowel is always pronouced so it would be R-I-E-F-E-N-S-T-A-H-L There's a great movie, a documentary... that's long... it's almost three hours long... called... I think it's called .... "The Weird, Wacky Life of Leni Riefenstahl" in which she talks about her relationship with Adolf Hitler, and then she talks about how she goes on to become a photographer of Pygmies. She goes into Africa, she starts photographing the Pygmy population... and at the age of 78 or 80, I believe, she becomes the oldest scuba diver in the world and starts doing underwater photography. So HER life is very interesting... and kids in your history classes might find her to be a very interesting person to do biographies on when you get to World War II people. But.. you can't really teach World War II without seeing some of those. Or, if you go to this particular clip here... this is the scene from, "Birth of a Nation" that glorifies the Klu Klux Klan. These are... the movie itself, "Birth of a Nation" is a bust - it's long, it's boring, it's silent, it's black and white, poor photography... that's because it's almost a hundred years old... but... the scene showing the Klu Klux Klan as the heroes of the story... is not only important, but you can show them the scene and say that it premiered at the White House and Woodrow Wilson proclaimed it probably the best film looking at the Civil War ever made. so you get to see also the racist ideologies of Woodrow Wilson under the Presidency. Film can communicate a moment in time with a power and precision that memoirs and history textbooks often cannot achieve. Take the book (great book by the way), "October Sky" ...terrific book, alright movie... But what is really good about the movie ...and I've highlighted the trailer here... is the opening scene(s) of the movie "October Sky" refers to... what? And, remember, we talked about the 50th anniversary of something that happened in October earlier... the Cuban Missile Crisis but in this case it refers to Sputnik. So, in October of 1957, Sputnik was launched. And at the beginning of the movie "October Sky" you see parents coming out into their front yard so that they can actually see Sputnik as it comes over on October 4th. It begins with the radio bullentins saying the news... there's a fluid montage that tracks the shock, disbelief and fear in this small West Virginia mining town as they see this little, tiny blip come over the sky and they realize that life, as they knew it, is over: The Russians made it to space before we did. And you can see it in all their faces. And I can't describe it as well as the kids could see it. So those are the sort of hooks that I'm talking about. Another great Cold War flick that I love, and there are great little pieces that you can use from it, is the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" It's so campy; kids just absolutely howl when they pieces of it because it's so campy. And it also shows that fear of Americans in the 1950s about the "body snatchers." At that time the "body snatchers" were, of course, the communists. So you can show pieces of those great old films... and of course, my absolute, all-time, favorite Cold War movie is not Dr. Strangelove, which I do love, but is very difficult for kids to understand because it's really old-school, is "The Manchurian Candidate" - and the OLD one with Angela Landsbury and Frank Sinantra - TERRIFIC movie and one I would highly recommend to your kids which shows, again, how even a mother who is an avid communist would so indoctrinate and destroy her son's life. Angela Landsbury's the mother and Frank Sinatra's the kid. It's very, very good. The remake done with Denzel Washington was not very good - it really didn't stay to the point. So those are films that you can't really tell the story as well as you can show them... pieces of the film. This, number 4, is huge: If we ignore the influence popular cinema plays in the lives of our students, we are ignoring their perspectives. We NEED to watch and know what it is they're watching no matter how bad it is. And some of it is really bad. We need to understand it, we need to know why they're watching it - which is why you can have them track what they're watching and they can see the trends in what they're watching and what they're getting out of what they're watching. So I think it's really important for us to not only watch their films and their TV shows but also listen to their music. Hollywood films provide a great new genre that Robert Brent Toplin, in his really good book, "Reel History" calls "faction" ... I love it - "faction" ... movies that spin highly fictional tales that are loosely based around actual events. Factional movies identify some real people, events, or situations from the past but blend these details into invented stories. Or they make the leading characters fictional people who represent a composite of several historical figures. A really good example of that would be, "Rosewood." Have any of you seen Rosewood? None of you have seen Rosewood... wow... okay... Well that's about the 1921 sacking and destruction of the town.. the Black town of Rosewood by the White people based upon the testimony of a White woman that she was raped by a Black transient who comes through town. Now THAT's the true story. Rosewood takes EVERY horrible thing that's ever happened in the American South and imbues it into this town. So what they've done, they've taken characters... they've made that character and many different characters... they've taken a story made into many different stories... it's a great movie to use and to show kids how the real story has been exaggerated. And other examples are: "Mississippi Burning" - which is REALLY historically inaccurate but most kids have seen it; "Hurricane" - great movie; and "Amistad" - most kids have seen Amistad as well. These are movies that you can recommend to students... these are all "R" rated ... so, again, if you recommend these these are "R" rated for violence, and language in Hurricane, you have to be clear that they're "R" rated and you're only recommending them as extra credit to the parents. [Indicating to student] Noah? [Male voice off screen] - I think that these movies are only useful tools if they're used in conjunction with telling them the actual history because I've seen some adults and kids who watch movies like this and don't follow it up with the actual history talk about it like they know history, and they really don't. And I think that... that could be worse. [Instructor] - It can be. And that's why when I ask my students to see extra credit that one of the very first things I ask them when we are talking, verbally, about it is: What do you think was historically accurate in the film, and what was probably not accurate? And why? And what were the cues? What visual cues... verbal cues did you pick up that made you think that it might not have been accurate? And then we talk about that. And often times I don't know, I may not know the film so I have to leave it up to the student to know that. So you always want to tell them when they watch these films outside of the classroom... and rarely are you going to show a film like this in the classroom because it is "R" rated... you always want to say to them: "You want to try to figure out in your head, based upon what you know about this topic, what is factual and what is not... what might be exaggerated?" Because if you start to get them to do that then they're going to apply that, subconsciously, to almost every film they watch. And that's what you want them to do. You really want them to be THINKING about what they're watching rather than just watching it. [Student] Going off that, I've had this idea from my Vietnam unit, when I get to it, being: I saw a professor here using a book, quite American, take a chapter out of that, have the students read from that chapter to get a perspective... it's about a British journalist who's in Vietnam during this crisis in the 50s and he meets this American that's trying to steal his Vietnamese woman but there's a side story with the American where he's kind of working with the OSS, or the early CIA. And the book paints him very neutral... The American is not really "good" and he's not really "bad"... he's just idealistic. A film comes out in the 50s and that, of course, paints the American as the great hero and paints the British guy as the villain. And it's a good way to show that in things... And then there's a modern film and Brendan Fraser is the American and he is SO devious in that... you'd think the Americans were the most evil people in the world. And it's just interesting - you can show these different clips and compare it with the chapter you pull out in the book they can really see the changes in perspective of the U.S. in Vietnam and I really like that I can incorporate that. [Instructor] Brilliant idea, brilliant idea. If you can do that with any film - and since you already know how to do that with this film I would do it with this film... and if you ask Ann, I'm sure she would share exactly how she put all that together. But... that's a brilliant idea. [multiple students off camera] She had us watch... - we watched the whole film ... [inaudible] ... there's clips where there's a big bombing scene... and there's clear differences in the reactions... where Brendan Fraser is saying "Take pictures here! - Try to get that propaganda!" and he's very ... well in the other one he's so confused, "Oh my god, what have I done!" or "what have they done" ... It's great... they can really, definitely see the difference perspectives. [Instructor] And you know, that's great because I've used the chapter and a movie... but adding the SECOND movie, made later when perspectives are different, even makes it a much, much better exercise. [Student] And I don't think either one of those movies are rated "R" [Instructor] So! You guys have a lesson plan coming up in which you have to use film... this might be something for you to think about... creating just some piece like that - where you're using a book, comparing it with a film. One I can highly recommend... a great one to use is October Sky. And the reason for that is in the book "October Sky" - which, by the way I used for the first time in my class last semester here at the university... students loved it, but a lot of them weren't quite sure it was really relevant to a History clas although I think it was... but we all agree and disagree on certain things... But one of the great things about the book is the book portrays the mother in the small mining town as a very strong-willed woman who is not going to allow her child to go into the mines - she has something bigger and better for her child. In the movie the mother is sort of whining, sort of quiet... lets the husband allow her son to go into the mines but it's disasterous and he comes out and in her whining, whinging way continues to support him throughout the movie. So... why? Why did the directors do that? Why did the directors take from the real story and put him in the mines where he had never been in the mines because his mother had protected him from it? Those are great ways that you can do that... is to show how directors take liberties with movies and have the kids think about that. So that would be a really good exercise if somebody else were to do that. Students can learn the factual events of the story within historical context - and then discuss the director's and screen writer's point of view. They can ask what was to be gained by changing the story. And I think that's really important: What do you gain by changing the story? Why does sending him into the mine make a better story? Well... because he's got to go into the mine. It's awful. It's horrible. But he already knew it was awful and horrible which is why he never wanted to go in to begin with.... so why do you change the story? Those are great discussions to have. Okay. So then how do we do it? We know WHY we should do it... HOW do we do it? O'Connor and the whole site is sited down here... John E O'Connor, Martin Jackson, "American History / American Film: Interpreting the Hollywood Image" So they offer, I think, some good techniques. They say film is best analyzed using the techniques of traditional historical analysis. So - they say go ahead and use the same historical analysis you would use with anything else with films: Stage One: You analyze the film in terms of content - What is pictured? What is being said? And WHAT IS MISSING? There's always that: What's missing? Production: How did it come to portray what it does? When was it made? Who directs and stars in the film? Reception: What sense did people make of it when it was first made? And how did it influence attitudes and events over time? Now - how are they going to get answers to that? That's where the Internet comes in great! They're going to go back and look for movie reviews. If the movie was released in 2000, they're going to go back and look for 2000 movie reviews on this movie - and they'll get tons of information. And they'll get a good idea of how the public responded to the movie. So this is a great little research piece here. Second Stage. Analyze within three major frameworks moving-image documents as: Representations of history - What is the point of view of the major characters? Of the theme? And, are they adequate representations of history? ... and that gets to Noah's issues... Is this useful? How does the point of view come across? Are the film's messages direct and obvious, or more subtle and implied? (Instructor points out a spelling error) Second major framework: Evidence for social and cultural history - How accurate are the props and costumes in terms of providing actual social and cultural representations? What are the obvious and the more subtle visual clues in the film? What role does music play? What does the film say about power structures? Now a really good example of this is the great, old film, "Roots" If you look really closely at the slaves in Roots you're gonna see they have manicured nails. Everybody's clean. Everybody's really clean in the movie; nobody's dirty. Now, let's compare that with "John Adams" in which, by the time Abigail and John Adams get to the White House, their teeth are rotting. THAT'S an accurate portrayal. And that's one of the things that was so good about "John Adams" - is for the first time they showed how bad... Abigail, the first lady, is losing hair, her teeth are rotten... she looks like... you know .... and yet, that was accurate rather than portraying them as something they were not. So you really want kids to understand that. And what evidence is there for historical fact - How accurate is the story line? Dialog? Message? Again - what's missing? And these are the same questions we ask when analyzing any document! I would always have students.... and maybe you should have them all analyze the same movie and then have them use the same process for extra credit and they can come back and talk to you verbally. Whatever you want. But I give you this because I really think O'Connor and Jackson are right on about this. So now I've provided you with a bunch of resources for teaching about film. These books are all good. One or two of them might be worth reading... although I don't really think any of them are worth spending more than 2 - 3 hours on, at most. I don't think the "best" book is out there yet. I think it's yet to be written - maybe one of you will write it. Online - these are all really good: History in the Movies, and Historical Accuracy of Films - This is where you want to go. Go to this site and it's gonna really tell you what is accurate and what is not. Teach with Movies - which is $11.99 a year I believe is well worth your $12 investment. It's a homeschooling site; it's a little conservative, so they don't have very many "R" rated - most are PG and PG13 but they go through every single film and they show almost reel by reel exactly what's accurate and what's inaccurate. So you can call up a movie and at anytime check it out and they're constantly adding to it. I really like this site. Teaching History Through Film - is quite good as well. AP Central: Teaching History with Movies - is very good and that's on the AP website and History Place, Hollywood's Best History Films - are here. So, there's a huge arguement today that American's ... well really over the last 30 or 40 years that American's don't like watching history on TV. Or going to the films to watch history. And that is just not accurate. Can someone tell me how and why that is not accurate? [Student off camera] Just like all the biographical films that are coming out... we have "Lincoln" coming out this November, we have "John Adams" that came out... World War II stuff is always popular... and some do different perspectives - Clint Eastwood's "Letters of Iwo Jima" was the second losing-side perspective of a war film in the United States... they are always popular, it's just usually the facts aren't there... and so naturally assume that people don't care about it if there's no facts - they just want the action... [Instructor] Good. Aaron? [A different student off camera] It also seems like historical fiction is more popular now than it has been; in the last five years I can think of... "Inglorious Bastards", "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" as big examples. Also I think that big video games are being like historical fiction. [Instructor] I think people who say that people don't go to the movies to watch history are wrong and the box office tells us they're wrong. And also, the History Channel tells us they're wrong. 'Cause there are tons of people - millions of millions of people watch the History Channel. Millions of people watch Public Television. And the problem is, of course, is that many of them don't know how to be active participants in that viewing. So we KNOW kids and their families are watching historical movies, and again, we have to be the interpreter. Let me give you some interesting things: Between 1986 and 2001 in eleven of those fifteen years the picture that won Best Oscar was on a historical topic. Platoon, The Last Emperor, Driving Miss Daisy, Dances with Wolves, Unforgiven, Schindler's List, Brave Heart, The English Patient, Titanic, Shakespeare in Love, Gladiator, and A Beautiful Mind... all of them dealt with historical topics and all of them won "Best Picture" Almost every year in the last twenty-two Academy Awards movies about historical events have been nominated in some category; and in 1998 - granted that was long ago - ALL movies for "Best Picture" dealt with historical subjects. That was the year Shakespeare in Love won and the movies that were up were Saving Private Ryan, Shakespeare in Love, The Thin Red Line, Life is Beautiful, and Elizabeth. All five movies. So there is interest in history. And because of that, our kids are watching it. And because of that, we need to help them understand it. We have to empower them. Any questions about how and why? Okay. Then we're going to move on to the next goal.