This collection documents the production of numerous films by the Bureau of Audio Visual
Instruction (BAVI) and community partners, BAVI's outreach efforts including the activities
of film appreciation groups across the state, and the composition of BAVI's visual aid and
later film library. The vast majority of materials focus on the period from 1948 to 1965,
and both prior and later periods are sparsely documented in publications, film library
catalogs, and a few miscellaneous records. In particular, after the early 1970s there is
little documentation detailing the production of original University of Wisconsin films.
Materials include: visual aid bulletins, film bulletins and catalogs, catalog supplements,
film study guides, shooting scripts, narration scripts, film proposals and treatment
documents, research and publicity clippings, laboratory orders, film budgets, outlines,
handwritten notes, internal and external correspondence, actor profiles, interview
transcripts, grant proposals, photographs, negatives, production schedules, audience
surveys, press releases, correspondence based course materials, meeting minutes of
organizations including BAVI, UW Extension Arts Committee, and the Wisconsin Arts Council,
publications, pamphlets, conference schedules, and title cards.
The bulk of the materials were used in the production of original films and television
programs. They include drafts of treatments, outlines, shooting scripts, narration scripts,
and synopses, budgets, and related edits and comments. For example, the materials related to
"Racial Discrimination in Housing" and "To Find a Home" include the original transcript,
treatment, and synopsis of Barbee's original hidden camera documentary, and related
correspondence and meeting notes which reveal the conflict over Barbee's film and the
development of the scripted film to "To Find a Home" as an alternative. The collection also
includes research materials used in film production, such as interviews with white Madison
homeowners and realtors about racial discrimination in housing used in "To Find a Home" and
transcripts of Turkish folklore used in "The Fountain and the Apple Tree."
Correspondence documents the collaborative nature of many of BAVI's films, and the input of
subject experts such as UW Extension Geography Professor Robert Finley and state and city
officials. Frequent collaborators and correspondents include: BAVI staff such as Jackson
Tiffany, Stuart Hanish, and Maurice T. Iverson, film production companies such as Byron Film
Laboratories, UW Extension faculty, UW-Madison faculty, and external organizations including
the Wisconsin Historical Society, the Anti-Defamation League, the City of Milwaukee, the
United Givers Fund, the United States Office of Information's Motion Picture Service
Division, and the Wisconsin State departments of Public Instruction, Health, and Public
Welfare.
The collection also includes a number of publications and promotional materials for both
individual films and correspondence based courses. Many publications are film study guides
meant to be used in local film appreciation groups. Filmmaker and photographer Cameron
Macauley worked for BAVI from 1951 to 1958. Beginning in 1953, he developed film study
guides that accompanied twenty international films which BAVI distributed to local film
appreciation organizations across Wisconsin. In 1957, he and Henry Breitrose published "Film
Study: A Guide to Film Analysis and Appreciation" using these materials. Other materials
include pamphlets advertising UW Extension correspondence courses taught through the
Educational Telephone Network, teaching guides such as the History of Wisconsin Teacher's
Guide, and press releases for various films.
The collection contains numerous issues of BAVI catalogs and bulletins detailing their
slide and film library's holdings. BAVI distributed Visual Aid bulletins detailing their
slide library to prospective patrons across the state until 1939. The bulletin was replaced
by an educational film catalog, which was mailed to teachers across the state. BAVI selected
films for its library after they were evaluated by Wisconsin teachers. In the 1960s, over
500 teachers served as film evaluators. The collection also includes supplements to many
catalog issues with additional films added to the library throughout the year.
The collection includes photographic stills and photographs of the production process from
numerous films from the 1950s and early 1960s. The films documented include: "The Milwaukee
Way," Wisconsin's State Capitol," "Wisconsin Patrols for Safety," "Barns for Better
Dairying," "Cancer Research at Mcardle," "Showtime," the Lab School film, and one or more of
the films from the International Understanding and Folklore Film Project which BAVI designed
for the United States Office of Information's Motion Picture Service Division. The stills
from "The Milwaukee Way" which document the everyday lives of workers, students, and
government officials and the photographs of the production process itself are particularly
noteworthy. The collection also contains graphics and maps used in the production of
"Wisconsin's Peoples: Immigration and National Origins" and the Wisconsin's Geography
series.
