Treasures III Social Issues in American Film, 1900-1934
(DVD)

Special features: Commentary [optional audio feature with each film]; About the film [text feature]; Book includes essay about each film by Scott Simmon, essay about the music for each film by Martin Marks.

Film curator, Scott Simmon ; music curator, Martin Marks ; contributing archives, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, George Eastman House, Library of Congress, Museum of Modern Art, National Archives and Records Administration, UCLA Film & Television Archive ; composers, Aardett Sextet, Allen Feinstein, Stephen Horne, Martin Marks, Michael Miller, Brian Robison, Elena Ruehr, Charles Shadle, G. Scott Vercoe.

Commentators include Richard Abel, Margaret Archuleta, Blaine M. Bartell, Jennifer M. Bean, Lendol Calder, Donald Crafton, Margaret Finnegan, Jere Gulden, Tom Gunning, Randy Haberkamp, Jennifer Horne, Patrick Loughney, Russell Merritt, Chon A. Noriega, Rick Prelinger, Cecilia deMille Presley, Steven J. Ross, Shelley Stamp, Gregory A. Waller, Kristen Whissel.

In the years before World War I, virtually no issue was too controversial to bring to the screen. The first American movies were deeply engaged with society, coming from an era when movies and entertainment were intimately interwoven with public debate. As such, they were shown in commercial movie theaters but also in clubs, churches, schools, and everywhere screens could be hung outdoors--from the sides of city tenements to country barns. This archive sends these treasures back into the world, where they found their inspiration. "The City Reformed" deals with the urban problems: poverty, criminality, health, safety, child welfare, and corruption. Gender, family, and the crusade for equal voting rights dominate in program 2, "New Women." Labor struggles and oppression are central to program 3, "Toil and Tyranny." The final program, "Americans in the Making," brings together films confronting immigration, race relations, and wartime home-front sacrifice.

DVD; Region 0 (All), NTSC; Dolby digital sound.

Silent with music and English intertitles.