Leo Seltzer (April 5, 1903 – January 30, 1978) was an American social-documentary filmmaker whose career spanned over half a century, having made more than sixty films. One of the founders of the Workers' Film & Photo League, Seltzer received many international awards for his work, including an

Academy Award for Best Documentary Short This is a list of films by year that have received an Academy Award together with the other nominations for best documentary short film. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are annou ...

for ''First Steps'' in 1948. In 1962 he served as cinema-biographer to the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

for President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...

. A 1961 documentary Seltzer directed for the

US Information Agency The United States Information Agency (USIA), which operated from 1953 to 1999, was a United States agency devoted to "public diplomacy". In 1999, prior to the reorganization of intelligence agencies by President George W. Bush, President Bill C ...

and released by United artists called ''Jacqueline Kennedy's Asian Journeys'' showed the First Lady's experiences visiting India and Pakistan.

Filmography

* ''Technique of Fresco Painting'', 1936?, showing the entire process of planning and painting a mural in fresco, namely "The Evolution of Western Civilization", which James Michael Newell executed for

Evander Childs High School Evander is a masculine given name. It is an anglicization of the Greek name Εὔανδρος (lit. "good man", Latinized ''Evandrus''). It has also been adopted as an anglicization of the Gaelic name Iomhar (the Gaelic variant of the name Ivor ...

, New York City * ''Merit System Advancing'', made for the

New York Civil Service Commission The New York State Civil Service Commission is a New York state government bodyCivil Service Law § 5. "There shall continue to be in the state government a department of civil service. The head of the department shall be the president of the sta ...

* ''Cattle and the Corn Belt'', director and photographer, produced by Louis de Rochemont Associates, shows the annual roundup, the branding, and the shipment of cattle in the fall to the farmers in the corn belt where they are fattened for market * ''From Hand to Mouth'', 1939, co-directed with Elaine Basil, for the

WPA Federal Art Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administratio ...

, an educational film on the causes and prevention of bacillary dysentery * ''Sculpture for Today'', 1939?, co-directed with Elaine Basil, for the Motion Picture Unit of the Photographic Division of the New York WPA Art Project * ''Public Health Service'' (1942), co-directed with Elaine Basil, for

Eastman Kodak Company The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

* ''First Steps'', 1947, as director and producer * ''The Earth and Its Peoples: Cattle and the Cornbelt (USA - The Middle West)'', 1949, as director, produced by Louis de Rochemont Associates * ''Florida— Wealth or Waste,'' 1949, director, produced by the Southern Educational Film Production Service, written by George Stoney * ''Article 55'', 1952, director, for the United Nations, depicts the problems of Bolivia that confront a UN mission * ''The Search'', 1955, TV series, director, for CBS on institutions of high learning * ''Mad Whirl'', 1955?, TV series, produced for NTA Film Network * ''A Long Way from Home'', 1958, sponsored by United Service Organizations, Inc. * ''Jacqueline Kennedy's Asian Journeys'', 1962, director, narrated by

Raymond Massey Raymond Hart Massey (August 30, 1896 – July 29, 1983) was a Canadian actor, known for his commanding, stage-trained voice. For his lead role in '' Abe Lincoln in Illinois'' (1940), Massey was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Amo ...

* ''Progress through Freedom'', 1962, director, produced for US Information Agency on the visit of President and Mrs. Kennedy to Mexico, which dramatizes the Alliance for Progress and traditions common to the US and Latin America and is narrated by Jose Ferrer * ''The American Commitment,'' 1963, produced for US Information Agency and narrated by

Howard K. Smith Howard Kingsbury Smith (May 12, 1914 – February 15, 2002) was an American journalist, radio reporter, television anchorman, political commentator, and film actor. He was one of the original members of the team of war correspondents known as th ...

* ''In Friendship and Independence,'' 1964, produced for US Information Agency * ''A Day in Malaysia,'' 1967, produced for US Information Agency * ''Kokosing'', 1970?, cinemetographer, produced for US Information Agency about the Kokosing Camp in Vermont * ''A Report on Acupuncture'', 1974, director and writer, for Macmillan Films,on the practice of acupuncture as applied primarily to diagnosis and treatment of pain and illness''Library of Congress Catalogs Films and Other Materials for Projection 1974'', 1975. p.332.

Sources

*Campbell, Russell. ''Cinema Strikes Back: Radical Filmmaking in the United States 1930–1942'', Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1982 *Campbell, Russell
Leo Seltzer interview: A total and realistic experience

Jump Cut A jump cut is a cut (transition), cut in film editing in which a single continuous sequential shot of a subject is broken into two parts, with a piece of footage being removed in order to render the effect of jumping forward in time. Camera posit ...

, no. 14, 1977, pp. 25–27 *Alexander, William. ''Film on the Left: American Documentary Film From 1931 to 1942'', Princeton, N.J.:

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial su ...

, 1981 *Seltzer, Leo. "Documenting the Depression of the 1930s: The Work of the Film and Photo League" i
Platt, David, ed. ''Celluloid Power: Social Film Criticism from the "Birth of a Nation" to "Judgment at Nuremberg"''

Metuchen, NJ Metuchen ( ) is a suburban borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. The borough is a commuter town of New York City, located in the heart of the Raritan Valley region within the New York Metropolitan area. The borough, along wit ...

Scarecrow Press Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an independent publishing house founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the company offers scholarly books for the academic market, as well as trade books. The company also owns the book distributing compa ...

: 1992,

References

External links

Leo Seltzer
at IMDb {{DEFAULTSORT:Seltzer, Leo 1903 births 1978 deaths American documentary filmmakers American photojournalists Social documentary photographers