What are filmstrips?
The filmstrip is a series of still images, often with accompanying scripted or recorded commentary, mostly projected for the purposes of civic instruction and education from the 1920s to the 1980s. The technology was often used in conjunction with other visual and aural media such as film (often 16mm), slides, wall-charts, maps, diagrams, textbook illustrations, and radio programmes. Equally, the filmstrip represented a low-cost, resilient alternative to portable film and slide projectors making it an essential part of visual education programmes in Western and Eastern Europe, North America and, through colonial networks, the rest of the world.
Who invented filmstrips?
Like many media technologies, there is no single point of origin for filmstrips. From what we know, filmstrips started being used in the 1920s. Here, filmstrips are a successor to the magic lantern projectors dating back to the nineteenth century. But equally they owe a debt to film projection and the development of the filmstock, particularly the non-flammable variety. In Europe, the film company Pathé invented the Pathéorama that was a single-viewer filmstrip device, and German producers Liesegang and Filmosto invented some of the early filmstrip projectors. In the United States, filmmakers such as Jam Handy are credited as the inventor of filmstrips.
Who made filmstrips?
Filmstrips were produced by government agencies, educational institutions, political organisations, church and missionary associations, and commercial enterprises. Some of the major institutions to make filmstrips include the Germany National Socialist Party, the British and American War Offices, the British Ministry of Education, and UNESCO. Among some of the prominent names to make filmstrips there was the German animator and filmmaker Lotte Reiniger who used the silhouette cut-outs from her animated fairy-tale films to prepare complementary filmstrips. Before he became Prime Minister, the British Labour Party politician, Harold Wilson, made filmstrips on the coal industry that expanded upon the discussions from his book, A New Deal for Coal (1945). Similarly, the American Socialist Democrat, Bernie Sanders, ran his own educational filmstrip business in the late 1970s, not long before he became the Mayor of Burlington, Vermont. The inexpensiveness of filmstrips made them a valuable medium for all here. In fact, in addition to the prominent institutions and person, filmstrips were made by numerous other artists, educators, and scholars to innovate, educate, and entertain within their own specific contexts, such as the filmstrip made by the artist Marian Ray (on the left) to advertise her work to educators. Learn more about filmstrip stories on our Blogs and Resources pages.
Who used filmstrips?
They were used by all those who benefited from the specific characteristics of this form of projection. In general, two main groups of users can be distinguished. First, educators of all kinds, who sought to take advantage of the didactic benefits of slide projection but lacked access to an established institutional projection setup. Second, a more leisure-oriented use, in which family entertainment was the primary focus.
How did filmstrips work?
The images on a filmstrip are sequentially printed onto a single strip of film stock (often 35mm), typically non-flammable. Filmstrips were usually rolled into a small cardboard, metal or plastic box that was easy to transport. Similarly, filmstrip projectors, which were distinct from film projectors, were also designed to be portable. Here, many manufacturers, particularly for the toy market, also made filmstrips for single viewing (hand-held) devices. Indeed, as a cheap and portable means of public education, all aspects of a filmstrip were designed for user convenience.
What topics did filmstrips cover?
It would be easier to list topics filmstrips did not cover. From how to behave on holiday, to proper handwashing, to the cultivation of crops, to what to do in the event of a nuclear attack, filmstrips helped visualise all sorts of issues clearly and efficiently. Christian organizations in particular, contributed a broad range of social, religious, and anthropological topics. Within the violent history of the twentieth century, filmstrips also served propagandistic purposes. E.g. for promoting colonial, communist, or Nazi politics. They could function as educational aids, news media, advertising tools, or simply as storytellers of fairy tales.
When were filmstrips most popular?
The answer varies for different parts of the world. For example, filmstrips were extremely popular in pre-WW2 Germany, but only gained traction as an educational medium in Britain after the war. They remained an important visual aid till the 1980s, when filmstrips were replaced by automatic sound and slide projectors, overhead projectors, television, and video recording formats. In Eastern Europe, the technology remained in prominence up until the 1990s, where home-based devices for film viewing remained restricted to a select few. Much like its origin, there is no singular end point for the filmstrip. The technology was gradually replaced by other media forms.
Where can you find filmstrips today?
Filmstrips today are both everywhere and nowhere. As a once ubiquitous projection medium, they have left traces in archives and private homes but have largely faded from memory, making them difficult to access and often rediscovered only by chance. This project seeks to identify and connect these dispersed holdings in different types of archives in film, photographic and text collections. Across our partners and other institutions, we find holdings that vary widely in size, condition, and accessibility. By improving visibility and searchability, we aim to reestablish filmstrips as an accessible visual resource. If you know of existing collections of filmstrips, we encourage you to get in touch.
Why should filmstrips be preserved?
Filmstrips contain images of the past — propaganda regarding race and colonial attitudes, communication of scientific knowledge, and visual records of different parts of the world. As we note, filmstrips were sometimes written and produced by famous artists, authors, politicians, scholars, and educators, foregrounding their attempts at imagining the world through the medium of filmstrips. In postwar Europe for instance, for instance, the British Socialist thinker G.D.H. Cole used filmstrips to educate children and adults on concepts relating to self-governance, democracy, and workers rights. Here, in forgetting the filmstrip we might also be forgetting the ways in which Europe sought to remain culturally and politically relevant across the twentieth century.
What does it mean to preserve filmstrips?
Our project answers this question by working with national and local archives across Europe. We are bringing together archivists specialising in film, photography, and paper collections to establish protocols regarding the preservation of filmstrips and ancillary materials — filmstrip lecture notes, audio commentary, educational journals, photographs, educational experiment reports etc. — to encourage access to filmstrip resources as a means to enhance the comprehension of European (and thus, world), history. A guide on the preservation of filmstrips, can be found here.
Featured Image: The Art of Designing Film strips (1952) by Marian Ray Filmstrips (illustrated by Marian Ray herself). Courtesy Institute of Education and University College London (UCL), Special Collections.