Potential Research Report subjects, Fall 2009

Dana Polan's 16mm kinescope of an early cooking TV show in San Francisco (also on DVD). In Dan Streible's office.
Post-war orphans films discovered by Elena Rossi-Snook in the sub-cellar of NYPL's Donnell Library:

Union Local, 1940s, B&W 26 minutes. From DMC 1959 catalog: An unbiased presentation of the function and activities of a union local, showing grievance procedure, meetings, elections, contract negotiations, etc. clearly and convincingly. Produced by the U.S. Department of State. Directed by John Barnard, script by Emmett Murphy, distributed by USIS. Note: OCLC indicates that this title is held only by the University of Maryland.

- Tre Fili Fino a Milano (Three Cables to Milan), 1958, Color 18 minutes. Documentary showing workmen erecting one of the pylons and stringing up three cables which will eventually reach to Milan. Un-narrated. Country of origin: Italy. Directed by Ermanno Olmi. Note: if I remember correctly, the print we have is reversal and has incredible color and contrast. There is no indication from an on-line and OCLC search that this film exists in the U.S. I think that it's existence within the DMC collection underscores the post-war interest in allied nations' culture and progress.
- Christ Did not Stop at Eboli, Date?, B&W 20 minutes Union for the Struggle Against Illiteracy, the adult education movement training teachers, and providing educational and cultural activities for adult villagers in southern Italy. Produced by the American Friends Service Committee (Quakers). Note: this organization still exists but there is absolutely no information about this film except in the old DMC catalog. There is no indication from an on-line and OCLC search that this film exists in the U.S. (filmed in Italy- see above re: interesting that it belonged to DMC)--This one may be shown at Orphans Film Symposium
- Baltimore Plan, 1953, B&W 20 minutes. From DMC 1959 catalog: An impressive documentation of a Baltimore project in which municipal agencies and citizen groups cooperated in a successful program of housing improvement to meet standards of health and sanitation. Directed by Selma Weisenborn and John Barnes. Director of Photography Louis Clyde Stoumen. Produced by Encyclopaedia Britannica Films, Inc. An OCLC search indicates that this title is held by a library in South Africa, Rick Prelinger and the UCLA Film & TV Archive.
Home Movie 16mm travel films by Claudia Lea Phelps began in 1923 - scenes of Japan, Formosa, Philippines, India, Egypt. Color Lab is currently printing these for University of South Carolina's Mark Cooper, and Dan Streible has a VHS of them.
Wild Men of Formosa (192?, Fox Newsreel) is being preserved for Orphans. Contact is Mark Cooper at Univ of South Carolina.
Out-takes from United Fruit Company sponsored film about its vast holdings in Central and South American, shot by Fox in 1923. Mark Cooper at Univ of South Carolina has interesting outtakes from Cuba, Columbia, Honduras, and Guatemala. Research would involve trying to discover if the film was ever completed, under what title, whether any other copies survive, etc.
Wallace Kelly films; Marthat Kelly in Brooklyn has copies of some (but not all) of them, and Dwight Swanson has been working with these:

Wallace Kelly amateur film that may be preserved for Orphans. The first film he made, 1930 in New York. A very interesting silent b/w short that shows he was clearly seeing European art films during his year in NYC.
Wallace Kelly's Kodachrome footage of Mt. Rushmore being built, Yellowstone, etc.

Dan S has assorted other works:

a couple dozen 16mm film prints in his office from a third-hand collection he brought from SC (though it was originally harvested in NYC)
many VHS copies of Movietone stuff that no one's researched

Frank Moore and Jim Self's The Miller's Wife. It is an unfinished 16mm work by the creators of Beehive. Fales has all production elements for this title. [Brent Phillips]
Some material from George Eastman House, without much identification [Dan has these]

"Garbo's first film", 1920? (VHS copy)
Beauty Spots in America (silent, 28mm preserved onto 35mm, WQuicktime copy)
Ailment Prevention (silent, 28mm preserved onto 35mm, WQuicktime copy)
In the Shadows of the Pyramids (silent, 28mm preserved onto 35mm, WQuicktime copy)
Concrete Industry (silent, 28mm preserved onto 35mm, WQuicktime copy)

The Impressionable Years [aka The Republic of Children] (1952, Peter Elgar, for the US State Dept) 30 and 40 min. editions. Narrated
by Henry Fonda. Featuring, in a rare extended version, Carl Sandburg (singing kind of a creepy song). [Elena Rossi-Snook & Dan Streible]
footage of Camp Tamiment (the summer resort that supported the Rand School, which is the institution from which the Tamiment Library originated). Two reels of 16mm b/w silent film, each ca. 10 minutes long, together comprising one complete 20+ minute film entitled, Tales From Tamiment. This is a film celebrating Camp Tamiment (the resort founded by New York City's Rand School of Social Science--a pioneer workers self-education school established by members of the Socialist Party). It features lots of energetic young adults clowning and
enjoying strenuous outdoor activities, and includes a few glimpses of Rand School elders. (this may already be researched enough) [Erica Gottfried]
Texas Archive of the Moving Image has a variety of unidentified films. For example, some fight films that you could work with Dan S. on. Some Jack Johnson training scene that needs to be identified, and 2 films ca. 1900 that Dan recognized as Lubin fake fight films, but have not identified them specifically yet.
George Willeman of LC Culpeper reported acquisition of a collection that include one of those 1930s Melton Barker itinerant films (KIDNAPPERS FOIL) that had not been identified before. Shot in Tennessee.