Film Record: Forgotten Frontier, The

Screen capture of The Forgotten Frontier

Identifier:

• LCCN: 99468247 (Source: https://lccn.loc.gov/99468247)

Date produced: 1930

Filmmaker(s):

Marvin Breckinridge

Languages:

English

Length:

6000 ft

Format:

35mm

Colour:

B&W

Sound Notes:

Silent

Awards/Recognition:

ACL Ten Best 1930 - Special Mention
National Film Registry (U.S.) 1996

Description:

"The Forgotten Frontier, filmed by Miss Marvin Breckinridge, is the most ambitious amateur made welfare film yet recorded. To show the operation of the Kentucky Nursing Service, Miss Breckinridge spent several months filming in the mountain districts reached by that organization. With the cooperation of the mountain folk, she staged several short dramas, each demonstrating the usefulness of one of the centers or some phase of their work. The completed picture runs 6000 ft., 35mm., and, in spite of the numerous technical difficulties, it is excellently photographed." Movie Makers, Dec. 1930, 788.

Resources:

Discussed under "amateur social problem filmmaking" in Charles Tepperman's Amateur Cinema: The Rise of North American Moviemaking, 1923-1960, 227-230. See also "Marvin Breckinridge." In Jane Gaines, Radha Vatsal, and Monica Dall’Asta, eds. Women Film Pioneers Project.

Locations:

• Kentucky, United States of America (Filming)

Subjects:

• Medicine
• Work
•      Labor

Genre:

• Documentary

Form:

• Feature

Tags:

Repository:

Library of Congress; U.S. National Library of Medicine

Screenings:

• The film was publicly shown for the first time at the Mecca Auditorium, New York City, on January 15, 1931 as "the main feature of a program to spread interest in and knowledge of the Frontier Nursing Service" Movie Makers, Dec. 1930, 772. : New York City, New York.
• Breckinridge presented the film "during a tea given by Lady Tweedsmuir" (Boxoffice, April 29, 1939, 120) at Rideau Hall: Ottawa, ON

Video Link:

• via YouTube (U.S. National Library of Medicine)

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