Educational screen & audio-visual guide (c1956-1971])

of very good, despite the restrictive conditions under which it was made. East Germany should have a wide scope of interest for audiences at the . junior high, senior high, college, and I adult levels. Social studies classes, I such as those in history, government, and political science, should find this film informative and provocative, as it explores numerous segments of East German life— educational, religious, recreational, artistic, and political. Students of propaganda may wish to study the film content and even the film itself as a Western propaganda instrument. -James Pigg The Westward Movement II —Settlement Of The Mississippi Valley (Eticyclopedia Britannica Films, 1150 Wilmette Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois) 16 minutes, 16mm, sound, color and black and white, 1962. $180 and $90. Teachers' guide available. Description This film describes the mass movement of people into the region extending from Ohio to Iowa and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf. It illustrates through Ben Striker and other fictional characters the several reasons for the land rushes occurring between 1800 and the early 1840's, and indicates the importance of river transportation in a frontier economy. The million-square-mile Mississippi Valley, irregularly shaped and a thousand miles away from the Thirteen Colom'es, sprang to life with the Louisiana Purchase and the Northwest Ordinance. Despite a lack of fertilizer and crop rotation, the area north of the Ohio soon became a major source of grain and lumber. Land claims seemed to be no serious problem here. Most of the Indians already had been moved west by the government. Squatters had staked their claims even before the public land was up for auction, and then formed associations to protect their interests when bidding opened officially. Any newcomer who outbid an association member was thrown in some nearby stream. Others from the worn-out lands of New England and Virginia settled south of the Ohio and soon doubled their investment in land and .slaves by producing cotton for Europe. In time small farmers were forced northward and westward to Arkansas, Iowa, and Missouri. But they too prospered as the steamboat replaced three thousand flatboats, poled a thousand miles on the Mississippi by men who were "half horse and half alligator." By 1830 many communities appear ed up and down the Mississippi. Shops bulged with toys and other imports from England and France and local industries and hucksters brought to the housewife and farmer relief from their more arduous tasks. True, the big wheel which provided power for the lathe and other machinery was still turned by an apprentice, but steam was not too far off. In the early 1840's not only individual communities but the Mississippi Valley itself had become self-sufficient, and the great mass migration stopped at the eastern edge of "The Great American Desert." Of course there were individuals like Bill Striker who still had California or Oregon in their eyes and whose every lick of the axe let in an acre of sunshine. While his friends in the Mississippi Valley were content in their new homes with board floors and glazed windows, his quest for adventure, his love of land, and his pioneer ideals drove him still westward. But all had taken part in the most rapid development of virgin territory the world has ever known. Appraisal Settlement of the Mississippi Valley certainly must be included in the growing list of excellent films on one or more phases of our nation's westward movement. It provides for junior high school pupils, especially, a general but useful chronology of the midwest frontier and some synthesis of the human and physical factors contributing to its rapid population growth. Although the film lacks significant details of the 1785 survey law, its information on claims associations as well as on river transportation illustrates the cooperative and practical attitudes associated with frontier life. Emphasis on the evolving economy of the Valley up to 1840, with attention to both self-sufficiency and interdependence, provides some background for understanding the eventual parting of North and South. Maps are lacking in both number and detail and exterior sequences, photographed in restored villages, are disappointingly brief. E.xcept for a few under-exposed shots, however, color photography is excellent and the pictorial material carries its share of the film story. Understandably, it is not as successful in centering its story around a personality as is a companion titled Frontier Boy of the Midwe.^, a film of smaller scope intended for intermediate grades. Nevertheless, Bill Striker in Settling the Mississippi Valley is sure to appeal to the imaginations of many pre-teeners and some teen-agers too. —Kenneth B. Thurston NE^V from VIDEOI a unique self-contained CLOSED-CIRCUIT TELEVISION STUDIO VIDEO CNGINEERtNG CO. INC. 'ducator TM PEND1NS a magnification, microscopy and gross television system that's an audiovisual studio in itself! DISPLAYS . . . • SOLID OBJECTS • MICROSCOPIC SPECIMENS • PRINTED MATTER in an opaque or transparent form • LIVE TELEVISION • MOTION PICTURES • FILMSTRIPS • SLIDES Write for descriptive literature. NAVA CONVENTION Booth No. P-132 Priced from $1465.90 up. • mobile, compact console contains a TV camera, built-in monitor, flexible lighting units, built-in AC utility outlets, output jack for connecting other monitors plus all other necessary components. • decorator designed in handsome formica wood finish to blend with today's classrooms, laboratories and conference rooms. • simple to operate . . . just plug in . . . no technical skills needed! • handy working space on top and large storage space within console cabinet. • get only the components you require . . . add-a-function as you need it — everything from a built-in public address system to a built-in film or slide chain. • a basic audio-visual tool for every institution. • will feed into any existing Iv monitors, receivers and distribution systems. VIDEO ENGINEERING CO., INC. 'f-'^Kie RIggs Rd. & First PI., N.E. WASHINGTON, D. C. Educational Screen and Audiovisual Guide— July, 1962 395