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...that history teachers provide them with some tools for visual literacy. Faculty and students discuss these topics today the nation's graduate schools, but when I was pursuing my advanced degrees in history, no consideration was given to the subject of film. I found it necessary to educate myself in the grammar of film by reading such essential texts as David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson's Film Art. (2) History teachers also must recognize that there are differences between history on film and traditional historical writing, but it is important to acknowledge that both films and monographs are reconstructions of the past. In telling about the past, filmmakers as historians must compress certain details and characters to fit within a two-hour format. History teachers should concentrate on whether cinematic history contributes to our understanding of the larger historical truths rather than focusing on the minutia of detail.
While I have been fortunate over the last quarter century to teach a senior-year elective that uses popular film as a primary source through which to examine the formation of values and ideology in post-World War II America, I also try to incorporate the study of film into the eleventh-grade American history survey class. I believe that many of the issues that I introduce in this college preparatory course are applicable to college and university history curriculum and classrooms as well.
Time is certainly an issue with film in the classroom, so in most cases I simply utilize film clips running from five to fifteen minutes to illustrate a point. Preparing these clips certainly takes some time and energy, as teachers must carefully select a brief segment of the film that...
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