In my explanation of orphan films to family members and friends unfamiliar with the genre, I usually preface by saying, "It's not film literally about orphans." This all changed on Saturday afternoon when we were shown two works dedicated to orphans or otherwise disadvantaged children. The first, stills from The Passaic Textile Strike, was presented by George Willeman of the Library of Congress. Immersed in a world of nitrate, George received a six reel print of The Passaic Textile Strike from NYU's Tamiment Library.
 |  |
Assisted by the Communist Party, the workers made the film to show what happened during the strike and how they were treated. Reels 1-4 were in great shape, but according to George reel 5 was frozen solid and "looked like a coffee cake." Not wanting to lose the beautiful material, George took an image of every scene from this reel and assembled it using iMovie and iPhoto. He presented us with a 4-minute compilation of all the stills which included striking images of children attending school, playing in a newly constructed playground, and participating in a game of "crack ball." The film emphasized that these are the children of the working class, the future workers of America, and they should be the primary focus of poverty aid.
The second screening was of the Jewish Labor Committee's Nos Maisons d'enfants presented by Gail Malmgreen of Tamiment Library. The film is a preservation work-in-progress as one reel is fully restored while the other was just transferred from nitrate. The film was made for the JLC as a fundraising tool. Gail explained that the film was meant most likely for private screenings to show how the JLC used their funds to aid Holocaust survivors in the immediate post-war period. Unfortunately, little is known about the children portrayed in the film, although Gail surmised that many of them were not in fact orphans but had parents who were destitute following the war. Most people are more interested in orphaned children than with those who have parents. (If only the same could be said for film!)
 |  |
The film documents day-to-day life in several homes throughout France. Some houses too care of children whose parents were killed, while others cared for refugees from Europe and North Africa. The children study, receive medical attention, and dance and sing outside. The final scene depicts a group of children thanking their "friends in America." A young girl says, "We learn. We sing. We play. We want for nothing." The double-orphaned film is a fascinating artifact of post war history, but I think Gail said it best in her presentation when she commented, "The soul of the film is in the faces."
For further reading please see Gail Malmgreen's article, The Children, available on our blog.