1. Hill Town of Guatemala (10:25)

Date:
1942
Summary:
The fascinating life of several small towns perched on the slopes of an extinct volcanic mountain. | The fascinating life of several small towns perched on the slopes of an extinct volcanic mountain.

2. Roads south (18:19)

Date:
1942
Summary:
The seventh in a series of a film about the Americas, this film shows the water, rail, motor, and air transportation routes of Latin America, tracing their development from early Spanish exploration to the 1940's.

3. Testing the I.Q. (16:18)

Date:
1942
Summary:
Demonstrates the administration of the revised Stanford-Binet intelligence test and the calculation of the I.Q. Gives a brief explanation of principles, and shows the administration of form L to a 5-year old child. Close-ups show the actual use of the testing material. Explains scoring standards and calculation of the I.Q.

4. Middle East (07:10)

Date:
1942
Main contributors:
British Ministry of Information
Summary:
Using maps and animated diagrams, the importance of the Middle East in the world strategy of the Allied nations during World War II is shown. Austere images and narration inform the viewer of the strategic issues at stake: control of oil production, the region's role as a wall obstructing supply lines between Japan and Europe, the distance Allied supplies must travel to reach Egypt, Palestine, Iraq and Iran. Narration states "The Middle East stands between our enemies. While we hold it our enemies cannot win, and it will become a vital instrument in their defeat."

5. The Soviet School Child (24:07)

Date:
1942
Main contributors:
British Ministry of Information, Soviet War News Film Agency, Central News Reel Studios, Moscow
Summary:
A Soviet-British co-production reporting to the Allied nations on the lives of children in the Soviet Union, providing "a glimpse of the Soviet child from infancy to high school." Portrays an idyllic and well organized system for educating and caring for the 35 million Soviet children of the day. The scholastic, athletic, and creative accomplishments of Soviet youth are shown.

6. View of the Soviet world. (11:59)

Date:
1942
Main contributors:
Caldwell, Erskine, 1903-1987
Summary:
Erskine Caldwell, American novelist and reporter, interviewed before leaving Moscow, briefly tells of the civilian defense work he witnessed. Scenes showing how the Russians are carrying out their pledge of "All for Victory!" including efforts in huge metallurgical plants, the oil industry, the rapid harvest, nurses drilling, and Red Cross work.

7. Japs bomb U.S.A.! (09:43)

Date:
1942
Main contributors:
Castle Films, inc.
Summary:
"Newsreel pictures of the attack of Dec. 7, 1941, on Pearl Harbor. Closes with America's ringing answer to the enemy challenge." (War Films Bulletin of the Extension Division Indiana University, February, 1943, 5). This American newsreel portrays the attack on Pearl Harbor and the aftermath of the strike. Includes footage of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's December 8th "Infamy" speech in front of a joint session of Congress.

8. Washington in war time (09:46)

Date:
1942
Main contributors:
Castle, Eugene W.
Summary:
A review of life in our nation's capital operating under the stress of war. Reports on the sudden increase in the city's population during wartime. Shows President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull receiving visiting dignitaries, including Winston Churchill and Vyacheslav Molotov. Brief appearances and addresses by the following: Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr., War Production Board Chairman Donald M. Nelson, War Conservation Board Chairman Paul V. McNutt, General George C. Marshall, Secretary of War Henry Stimson, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox , Admiral Ernest Joseph King, Commissioner of Education Dr. J.W. Studebaker, California Congressman Thomas Rolph, and General James Doolittle. Concludes with an address by President Roosevelt to the 28 Allied nations.

9. Ready on the home front (23:56)

Date:
1942
Main contributors:
Constable, J. M.
Summary:
Presents the general aims of the civilian defense program during World War II. Describes the training and duties of the air raid warden. Closes with a proclamation by Governor Schricker.

10. Basketball Fundamentals (14:07)

Date:
1942
Main contributors:
Coronet Productions, Bureau of Audio-Visual Aids, Extension Division, Indiana University
Summary:
Coach Branch McCracken and the Indiana University basketball team demonstrate in regular and slow-motion photography the fundamental skills involved in shooting, passing, dribbling, and defensive and offensive footwork. Coach McCracken appears briefly at the end directly addressing viewers.

11. The Trimbles of Maple Street (15:10)

Date:
1942
Main contributors:
Dick, Sheldon
Summary:
Dramatizes the conservation of war materials by residents of a typical town. Explains how the war effort is helped by sharing rides and collecting tin cans and other salvage. Explains the organization of civilian defense units and shows a neighborhood meeting.

12. The Airplane Changes Our World Map (10:48)

Date:
1942
Main contributors:
ERPI Classroom Films, Inc., Encyclopaedia Britannica
Summary:
Traces the history of mapmaking and representation of the globe on two-dimensional surfaces. Considers early problems of distortion in map projection, and reviews the projections of Mercator, Mollweide, and Goode. Uses animation to emphasize the concept of present-day map-making as influenced by the development of modern air transportation and the subsequent shrinkage in time-distance values. Narrator states "the airplane forces us to think of world travel and transportation in terms of great circle routes." These routes run independently of land and water and mark the shortest distance between points on the surface of the earth. The film shows that advances in human culture and technology transform our mapmaking and conception of space and distance.

13. The price of freedom (14:52)

Date:
1942
Main contributors:
Keech, Kelvin, 1895-1977
Summary:
This film "outlines the role that industry is playing in our war effort. Production of munitions and the operation of the payroll withdrawal plan for War Bonds are among the subjects treated." (Free Film Reviews, Movie Makers, January, 1943, 34.) Includes footage from a number of International Harvester factories and how the company's workers save money from their paycheck to help the war effort through a company-wide payroll savings plan.

14. Know your enemy--Japan! (14:47)

Date:
1942
Main contributors:
Knox, Gordon, 1906-1992
Summary:
"Produced in cooperation with the Institute of Pacific Relations, this film answers such vital questions as: How large in the Japanese Empire? Is Japan self-sufficient in food? What is Japan's naval and military strength? What are the living standards of the Japanese people? What are Japan's vital weaknesses? How can Japan be defeated?"--War Films Bulletin of the Extension Division Indiana University, February, 1943.

15. You Can't Eat Tobacco (13:18)

Date:
1942
Main contributors:
Mary L. DeGive, Margaret T. Cussler
Summary:
A social issue film directed at the problems of public health and malnutrition among rural southern tenant-farming communities. The film points directly to exploitative practices of the tobacco industry and reliance on tobacco growing as a cash crop in these communities as the cause of an ongoing cycle of poverty and poor public health. "Here is tobacco land: land of lost hope, land of broken promises, land of broken lives" states the narrator. Urging farmers to turn away from this single crop system in order to improve their own lives and those of the community, they suggest "the remedy is so close at hand - in the land itself." Farmers raising their own food, it is suggested, will lead to better health; community agents will provide guidance in raising food, gaining income from selling farm produce, education for children, and home economics programs. The concluding message to these communities is to "Eat well and be well. Learn about it, read about it, talk about it."

16. The Great Lakes (21:34)

Date:
1942
Main contributors:
National Film Board of Canada, Crawley Films Limited
Summary:
A Canadian film production addressed to U.S. audiences, showing the industrial and commercial cooperation between the two nations as it occurs throughout the Great Lakes. "The Great Lakes are shown as a great industrial region with an immense amount of diversified cargo flowing along the shipping routes that lie between Canada and the United States. It is the shipping theme that links together short sequences on the industrial life of the Great Lakes: steel production, pulp manufacture, ship-building, grain storage, and the workings of the huge locks of one of the most vital canal systems in the world" (National Film Board of Canada catalog record http://onf-nfb.gc.ca/en/our-collection/?idfilm=17015)

17. High Over The Borders (19:35)

Date:
1942
Main contributors:
New York Zoological Society, National Film Board of Canada
Summary:
In their routes of migration, birds "mock the man-made lines by which nations separate themselves," as the narrator states in this film intended to foster goodwill between the nations of the Americas. Two boys, Richie in the North and Ricardo in the South, both feel ownership of the barn swallows that reside in their respective homes at opposite ends of migratory routes. Aerial photography follows Canada geese migrating from northern Quebec to the Chesapeake Bay. Technically advanced high speed photography reveals the beating wings of the ruby-throated hummingbird. The bird banding and migratory data-collecting work of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is explained. Animated maps of the hemisphere illustrate some of the long-distance bird migration patterns between North and South America.

18. World of plenty (44:42)

Date:
1942
Main contributors:
Rotha, Paul, 1907-1984.
Summary:
Uses found footage and animated diagrams to discuss the production, distribution, and consumption of food; the pre-war problems of overproduction and the anomaly of glutted markets and hungry people; the control exercised over production and distribution during World War II, with special attention to the food supply in Britain and America; and to offer a picture of what might be done in the post-war period.

19. A letter from Bataan (14:21)

Date:
1942
Main contributors:
Shane, Maxwell, 1905-1983
Summary:
A Hollywood short aiding the war effort, emphasizing the need for preparedness and conservation of materials, i.e. rubber, metal, shellac. An American soldier writes home from Bataan, and while his family reads the letter, the soldier's ghostly apparition interjects statistics about food and equipment shortages.

20. Winning your wings (18:32)

Date:
1942
Main contributors:
Stewart, James, 1908-1997
Summary:
Starring Lt. James Stewart, this WWII recruitment film shows jobs, training and education provided to men between the ages of 18 and 26 who enlist in the U.S. Army Air Forces.