Academic Films for the Classroom

Geoff Alexander has authored two books on cinema and has written on musical subjects ranging from jazz history to flamenco. He is the founder and director of the Academic Film Archive of North America, in San Jose, California, the first archive solely dedicated to the history, preservation, and scholarship of the classroom educational film.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgments      Foreword by Rick Prelinger      Preface      List of Abbreviations      1. The Formative Years of Educational Film: 1900–1960      2. A Cold War Funds a Hot Medium: The Progressive Era, 1961–1985      3. Writing a New Cookbook: How Academic Films Were Funded, Made, Bought, and Sold in the Progressive Era      4. The Companies That Made the Films and the People Behind Them      5. Immortal Longings: The Life and Films of John Barnes      6. Profiles of 34 Significant Academic Filmmakers      7. Final Takes: The Denouement of the Academic Film in Classrooms and Its Resurgence on the Internet      Appendix A: 36 Films in This Book Currently Available for Free Viewing Online      Appendix B: Milestones in Academic Film      Appendix C: Requiem      Chapter Notes      Bibliography      Index

“Alexander’s book is a highly readable paean to the men and women behind these academic films...Alexander’s compelling narrative and anecdotal style make it hard to put the book down”—The Moving Image.