We of Film & History Have Been Busy. .. The Editor's Reflections and Reports (2007)

We of Film & History have been busy… The Editor's Reflections and Reports Deborah A. Carmichael Oklahoma State University New Masthead Although some things may change, others do not and we have been busy as usual at Film & History. Peter Rollins has become the Director of the Center for the Study of Film and History, allowing him the time to orchestrate larger projects while advising us here at the journal. As the new Editor-in-Chief, I am delighted to continue the outstanding thirty-seven year tradition of Film & History with the help of Cynthia Miller of Emerson College, our new Associate Editor-in-Chief. Cindy now wears two hats, as she continues to be one of our busy film review editors with the help of Solomon Davidoff (Suffolk University-Boston), who has joined our editorial crew. Mathew J. Bartkowiak (Michigan State University) will now assist our longtime, hard-working book review editor, Robert Fyne. To better live up to John E. O'Connor's founding mission for Film & History, our Pedagogy and Syllabus editorial staff has been expanded to include veteran Associate Editor Ron Briley, who will now tap the expert help of Alan Marcus (University of Connecticut) and Scott Metzger (Pennsylvania State University). Other new and skilled editorial staffers are Associate Editor, Ken Dvorak (San Jacinto College), who many of you probably know as the able organizer of the annual Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association conference and Keith Wheelock (Raritan Valley Community College), our Associate Editor who is a filmographer extraordinaire. We celebrate our good fortune to have all these energetic scholars here at Film & History. Click for larger view Figure 1 Cynthia Miller Film & History League Conference on "The Documentary Tradition" (November 2006) We are delighted to report that Film & History sponsored yet another successful biennial conference in 2006, this time on "The Documentary Tradition." This thematic umbrella allowed a wide range of panels that you might like to review by visiting our website at www.filmandhistory.org. Much of that success is due to the large attendance, with over 500 participants, consisting of both august senior scholars and energetic graduate students. Convening at the Dolce Center in Dallas provided us with our own "campus," with meeting rooms aplenty and an auditorium that accommodated all of our attendees for the many special events scheduled throughout the conference. Plenary sessions included both film scholars and filmmakers. The conference opened on Wednesday with two award-winning documentarians, Allen and Cynthia Mondell of Media Projects, Inc. (Dallas), who have for twenty-five years produced films that address important social and cultural topics. Introduced by Barton Weis, president of the Video Association of Dallas, the Mondells presented film clips and offered insights into the challenges of independent documentary distribution. Wednesday evening, Jim Welsh, Editor Emeritus of Literature/Film Quarterly, with his usual aplomb, chaired a mega-panel of editors who offered advice on publication and overviews of the work of these journals. Editors included: Kathy Merlock Jackson of the Journal of American Culture, Gary Edgerton and guest editor John Tibbetts of the Journal of Popular Film and Television, Brett Bowles and Roel Vande Winkel of the Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television, Gerald Duchovnay of Post Script, and many from the Film & History editorial ranks. Thanks to all of these editors for sharing their expertise! Click for larger view Figure 2 The Mondells The Thursday plenary sessions were equally edifying. In the afternoon, a special panel on the PBS documentary The March of the Bonus Army traced the process of bringing history to the screen with comments from historians and filmmakers. Lucy Barber, historian and National Archives staff member; author and producer Paul Dickson; assistant producer David Seitz, and the producer, Glenn Marcus, who brought his experience with PBS and the NEH, described the work they undertook to develop this film [End Page 6] from conception to...