The A/V Geeks have been chugging along digitizing thousands of TV commercials held at Duke University’s Hartman Center for Advertising. We’ve done 6000 so far! Another couple thousand are online for your viewing pleasure! You can watch them online at this awesome site – adViews. You will need iTunes to view and download the commercials – although the content is free. Tell your friends!

A/V Geeks and Kino International team up to present two new DVDs! They can’t currently be ordered from the A/V Geeks site yet, but can be purchased online from your favorite DVD site..

How To Be A Man

For centuries, parents have struggled to usher their children through the magical, often treacherous, journey to adulthood. But in mid-century America, a new form of tutelage was engineered: the classroom film. Suddenly, the prickly issues of sexual development and juvenile delinquency could be addressed in tidy, ten-minute sermons disguised as dramas. To deal with the subtleties of behavior and the importance of fitting in, social guidance films were made on such topics as coping with failure (Planning For Success) and teasing (The Other Fellow’s Feelings). The films in this collection-curated and introduced by Skip Elsheimer, founder of the A/V Geeks educational film archive sample some of the lessons that were routinely taught to boys. In them, one sees slices of Americana, discovers the world of educational cinema (with a language all its own), and gains an insight into the hopes and fears of the parents and educators who relied on the power of cinema to initiate, educate and indoctrinate the young.

How To Be A Woman

As the daughters of the baby boom reached adolescence, the American school system struggled to educate them on matters of sexual and social development lessons that were not always being taught at home. To the teacher uncomfortable with such topics, classroom films were a godsend. They depicted the reproductive system in anatomical detail (Growing Girls) or through puzzling symbolism (The Wonders of Reproduction, produced by the Moody Institute of Science). Beyond sex education, classroom films addressed a wide array of social issues, from the importance of cooking skills (You’re the Judge, starring a young Bonnie Franklin), to self-defense (Attack) and how to appear more pleasing to others (Improve Your Personality). Often corny, sometimes frightening, these cinematic life lessons curated and introduced by Skip Elsheimer, founder of the A/V Geeks educational film archive provide a fascinating window to the hopes and fears of parents and educators in mid-century America.

Churchill – Wexler Films, 10 min 45 sec Shows how a gold-mantled ground squirrel at Crater Lake National Park has learned to solve problems connected with getting food. Illustrates how an animal can learn to find food that is hidden from view or out of reach.

This is one of the AV Geeks favorite films, mostly because Squeak is somewhat of a working class hero who, inspite of what obstacles “the Man” puts in his way, always perseveres.

This film is available on the Those Naughty Animals DVD-R

Our animated hero questions his sanity after blowing his top and driving his car into a police station.

This film is available on the Angry Night DVD

Only $10 each. Click on the images below to order.