From The Archive

Home Management: Why Budget? (1950)

Young America Films, Inc. Explains what the budget is, how it is set up in relation to needs and income, and what is to be gained by following a well-planned budget.

From The Archive

Play In The Snow (1945)

Shows children enjoying winter sports, making a snow man, playing fox and geese, sledding and skiing.

This film is available on the Dag, That’s Cold! DVD

From The Archive

Those Damned Mimes!

With the passing of pantomime auteur Marcel Marceau, the A/V Geeks have found some films that show his genius and, in contrast, films that demonstrate why mimes are so despised today. Films include: Guessing Game, The Box, Language Of The Heart, Affective Learning, Safe Play – Danger Places and more.

From The Archive

Dag, That’s Cold!

Let’s face it, August was brutally hot and the AV Geeks spend most of their time holed up in a dark dank basement watching films. To counteract the sticky humidity of Houston, we presented a show of films about living in cold weather. Films include Play In The Snow, How to drive on snow and ice, Surviving The Cold, White Wilderness – Lemmings, Cipher In the Snow and How to build an igloo, and more!

From The Archive

TOYS!

Here are some films
about toys and the morality tales associated with them. Includes: Toys, Steadfast
Tin Soldier, Buy And Buy, Santa’s Toys, lots of 80s toy commercials and
more!

From The Archive

Get’em at the A/V Geeks Store!

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.