Films as Primary Sources for History

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Films as Primary Sources for History If a picture is worth a thousand words than how much is a moving picture, or movie, worth? In the study of history, the usage of movies as primary sources is controversial. Motion pictures are more commonly well-known as sources and created for entertainment purposes. Film is a creation of a reality. This has some valuable resources for the study of history in many respects. They may or may not be representational, and some may include writing or printing. Some can be categorized as fine art, others as documentary record. Originality may or may not be important, and the content may or may not be the primary focus. History is made by people - in a sense that it is written by people positioned in time and in location, living under a certain political regime, in a certain cultural arena, and having an access to certain interpretative schemes. There are many different types of films. Documentaries and news (newsreels in some instances) are one of the most widely recognized and less-controversial in the study of history since their purpose is not purely entertainment but instead the exploration of an aspect of the world around us. In many respects, they are exposing history as it is happening. Yet with even these films, it should be realized that they are the interpretation of the director/producer, the camera angles are chosen, the people interview are chosen, the information portrayed is chosen. Yet it still retains its advantages. This is the past at its most immediate, valuable for its record of social and cultural life (even if inevitably somewhat distorted in its art form by its purpose as something other than an accurate record). News footage has recorded, both for the cinema newsreel ... ... middle of paper ... ...f all, because it is the ongoing story of humanity. So should films be primary sources for history? Both an affirmative and a negative are the answers. Many factors including, the time of film, who created it, who the intended audience is, what the film is about, etc. in relation to the topic being studied are what make film a valuable historical source. Films, in many respects, are no different from any other type of historical sources and should be treated as such. Visual resources are a peculiarly direct and telling source of encounter with the past, even if the image cannot always be taken as truthful, and film, being the one of the youngest visual mediums, is usually discredited. Film is a historical tool, but that does not mean that it should be neglected as an aesthetic object, instrument of propaganda or a phenomenon of mass media and cultural industry.

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