NEWSLETTER

Society for the History of Children and Youth

Canadian Happenings

Mona Gleason, University of British Columbia

Upcoming Conferences of Interest

The Canadian Historical Association (CHA) meets in Toronto, Ontario at York University at the end of May, 2006. The History of Children and Youth group of the CHA has proposed four sessions for the conference: new theoretical and methodological directions in the history of children and youth, the history of juvenile justice, and two open sessions on the history of girls and the history of boys. We hope to hear soon whether these proposed sessions have been accepted.

In October of 2006, the Canadian History of Educational Association will hold it biennial meeting jointly with the History of Education Society (USA). The conference, entitled "The Educational Past: From Margin to Centre", will be held in Ottawa, Ontario. Paper and session proposals are due 1 March, 2006. Panels that bring together scholars from both the Canadian and American national contexts are especially encouraged. More information can be found at www.ache-chea.ca.

The following special column investigating film as a historical source is written by Brian Low, a historian of children and youth currently teaching at Xiamen University in China, and author of NFB Kids: Portrayals of Children by the National Film Board of Canada, 1939-1989 (Waterloo, 2002).  Here, Brian underscores the underutilization of this valuable resource by historians and possible reasons for it. Thanks to Brian for sharing his insights with us.

The National Film Board of Canada as a Resource for Historians of Children and Youth

By Dr. Brian Low, Xiamen University,  Xiamen, Fujian, China

In Canada, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) houses an exceptional cinematic resource for historical research into post-WWII Canadian childhood.  Founded in 1939 by John Grierson, father of the British documentary film movement, the NFB archival collection preserves more than a half-century of cinematic representations of Canadian young people in their family, school, and community contexts.  Produced under the Film Board's mandate to "interpret Canada to Canadians," this immense body of films (there are more than 9,000 productions in the entire collection) offers a comprehensive record of the social and educational issues involving Canadian children and youth from all regions, racial and ethnic backgrounds from World War II to the present.  It is thus somewhat remarkable how underutilized the NFB archival films have been as a resource by social historians in general and by historians of childhood and youth in particular.  With the exception of my broad survey of cinematic portrayals of Canadian children (see  NFB Kids: Portrayals of Children by the National Film Board of Canada, 1939-1989, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2002, as well as "The New Generation: Mental Hygiene and the Portrayals of Children by the National Film Board of Canada, 1946-1967" in History of Education Quarterly, 43, 4 [Winter] 2004), the NFB collection has been infrequently exploited by historians of childhood and youth, and then almost invariably to illustrate arguments derived from other sources.  This holds true, as well, for the historical use of childhood images produced by independent Canadian filmmakers, and for images produced for television by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) from 1952 to the present.  Indeed, what is most apparent about historical work to date using filmed portraits of Canadian children is how very little has been undertaken.

In large measure, this overall neglect of cinema portraiture by Canadian social historians is due to an uncertainty about film as a historical document.  Specifically, what does film document? Although they seem seductively attractive as a historical resource, what physical, social, or intellectual realities of any place or time can be credibly derived from motion pictures?  Mainstream wisdom has held that since no film escapes fiction, films should be studied primarily for the attitudes they forward into a society, rather than as credible reflections of that societyÑa convention that entrenches films in a supporting role in written social histories: i.e., as supporting documents for arguments constructed elsewhere.  However, the little work that has been done to date with cinematic portrayals of children in Canada suggests that the historical value of cinematic images might extend beyond that, both for single productions and whole bodies of films, owing to the unique attributes of motion pictures as primary documents.

The first of these attributes is the high cost of even the shortest of productions meant for mass distribution and, consequently, the large volume of paper that is often generated for an individual film.  Most production files for single films contain correspondence among all the interested parties in a motion picture, from its conception to its reception, and thus a paper trail to underlying motives and agendas for a production that would not be readily apparent to its audience.  Likewise, production photographs, script versions, expense and receipts statements, newspaper clippings, and audience reports often found in production files can be equally revealing as to the degree of credibility to be afforded to a particular portrayal, as well as to the filmmaker's intent and audience reception.

The second attribute that distinguishes film from all other primary sources is movement.  Movement is the essence of film. Thus, an historian using film documents as a primary resource might utilize whatever is to be found in motion picture movement that escapes other documentationÑsocial relations, for example.  As E.P. Thompson observed in his classic text, The Making of the English Working Class (1968), social relations are best observed within the passage of time: their subtleties by necessity requiring examination in movement.  Historically speaking then, social relations of the past (as well as social practices of the past) might be best observed in a massive body of films from that pastÑas only film suspends segments of the passage of time without stopping movement.  In my study of NFB images, for example, the social relations of children and youth with their parents, teachers, other adults, and each other change markedly over time--though the degree to which these parallel historical shifts in Canadian society cannot, of course, be established conclusively. 

In sum, some pioneering work has been done in Canada to make more effective historical use of cinematic images of children, some methodologies explored to advance beyond the accepted wisdom concerning film as a historical document, and one historical exploration undertaken of a major Canadian source of such images.  But it is a vast understatement to say much more remains to be done.  As I observe in my study, "They are a forest of images, the children in the cinematic society."  In Canada, childhood historians have only begun to clear a pathway into that forest.

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