Films that Work: Industrial Film and the Productivity of Media (Film Culture in Transition)

The history of industrial films - an orphan genre of twentieth-century cinema composed of government-produced and industrially sponsored movies that sought to achieve the goals of their sponsors, rather than the creative artists involved - seems to have left no trace in filmic cultural discourse. At its height the industrial film industry employed thousands, produced several trade journals and festival circuits, engaged with giants of twentieth-century industry like Shell and AT & T, and featured the talents of iconic actors and directors such as Buster Keaton, John Grierson and Alain Resnais. This is the first full-length book, anthology, and annotated bibliography to analyze the industrial film and its remarkable history.Exploring the potential of the industrial film to uncover renewed and unexplored areas of media studies, this remarkable volume brings together renowned scholars such as Rick Prelinger and Thomas Elsaesser in a discussion of the radical potential and new possibilities in considering the history of this unexplored corporate medium. Contents......Page 6 Introduction......Page 10 I Navigating the Archive......Page 18 Archives and Archaeologies......Page 20 Record, Rhetoric, Rationalization......Page 36 Vernacular Archiving......Page 52 II Visuality and Efficiency......Page 64 Early Industrial Moving Pictures in Germany......Page 66 Layers of Cheese......Page 76 Images of Efficiency......Page 86 “What Hollywood Is to America, the Corporate Film Is to Switzerland”......Page 102 Poussières......Page 120 Thermodynamic Kitsch......Page 128 III Films and Factories......Page 152 Touring as a Cultural Technique......Page 154 Corporate Films of IndustrialWork......Page 168 Filming Work on Behalf of the Automobile Firm......Page 188 Eccentricity, Education and the Evolution of Corporate Speech......Page 212 Centron, an Industrial/Educational Film Studio, 1947-1981......Page 222 Films from Beyond the Well......Page 244 IV See, Learn, Control......Page 258 The Personnel Is Political......Page 260 Behaviorism, Animation, and Effective Cinema......Page 284 Technologies of Organizational Learning......Page 304 The Central Film Library of Vocational Education......Page 316 “Reality Is There, but It’s Manipulated”......Page 330 V Urbanity, Industry, Film......Page 348 Modernism, Industry, Film......Page 350 A Modern Medium for a Modern Message......Page 378 Harbor, Architecture, Film......Page 392 Industrial Films......Page 406 The Desiderata of Business-Film Research1......Page 464 Contributors......Page 472 Index of Names......Page 477 Index of Film Titles......Page 481 Index of Subjects......Page 486 Only available in The history of industrial films an orphan genre of twentieth-century cinema composed of government-produced and industrially sponsored movies that sought to achieve the goals of their sponsors, rather than the creative artists involved seems to have left no trace in filmic cultural discourse. At its height the industrial film industry employed thousands, produced several trade journals and festival circuits, engaged with giants of twentieth-century industry like Shell and AT & T, and featured the talents of iconic actors and directors such as Buster Keaton, John Grierson and Alain Resnais. This is the first full-length book, anthology, and annotated bibliography to analyse the industrial film and its remarkable history. Exploring the potential of the industrial film to uncover renewed and unexplored areas of media studies, this remarkable volume brings together renowned scholars such as Rick Prelinger and Thomas Elsaesser in a discussion of the radical potential and new possibilities in considering the history of this unexplored corporate medium. The history of industrial films - an orphan genre of twentieth-century cinema composed of government-produced and industrially sponsored movies that sought to achieve the goals of their sponsors, rather than the creative artists involved - seems to have left no trace in filmic cultural discourse. At its height the industrial film industry employed thousands, produced several trade journals and festival circuits, engaged with giants of twentieth-century industry like Shell and AT & T, and featured the talents of iconic actors and directors such as Buster Keaton, John Grierson, and Alain Resnais. Films that Work is the first full-length book, anthology, and annotated bibliography to explore the industrial film and its remarkable history