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Leo Seltzer
Leo Seltzer
Born	April 5, 1903; Canada
Died	January 30, 1978 (aged 74); New York

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 for First Steps in 1948.^[1] In 1962 he served as cinema-biographer to the White House for President John F. Kennedy. A 1961 documentary Seltzer directed for the US Information Agency and released by United artists called Jacqueline Kennedy's Asian Journeys showed the First Lady's experiences visiting India and Pakistan.^[2]

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, New York City
Merit System Advancing, made for the New York Civil Service Commission
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, an educational film on the causes and prevention of bacillary dysentery^[3]
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^[4]
Public Health Service (1942), co-directed with Elaine Basil, for Eastman Kodak Company^[5]
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^[6]
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^[7]
Mad Whirl, 1955?, TV series, produced for NTA Film Network
A Long Way from Home, 1958, sponsored by United Service Organizations, Inc.^[8]
Jacqueline Kennedy's Asian Journeys, 1962, director, narrated by Raymond Massey
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^[9]
The American Commitment, 1963, produced for US Information Agency and narrated by Howard K. Smith
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^[10]

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, 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, 1981
Seltzer, Leo. "Documenting the Depression of the 1930s: The Work of the Film and Photo League" in Platt, David, ed. Celluloid Power: Social Film Criticism from the "Birth of a Nation" to "Judgment at Nuremberg" Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press: 1992, ISBN 978-0810824423

References

^ "The 20th Academy Awards | 1948". www.oscars.org. 2014-10-05. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
^ Tomlin, Gregory M. (2016). Murrow's Cold War: public diplomacy for the Kennedy administration. Lincoln: Potomac Books, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-1-61234-771-4.
^ "Seltzer and Basil Direct and Photograph for WPA," American Cinematographer, November 1939, p. 515.
^ Living Films: A Catalog of Documentary Films and Their Makers, published by the Association of Documentary Film Producers, Inc., 1940, p.50.
^ Documentary News Letter, 4(1), January 1943, p. 172.
^ Documentary News Letter, 8(71), January 1949, p.10.
^ "Camera Crews Go To College To Get Material For New TV Film Series," Joseph W. MacDonald, American Cinematographer, January 1954, p. 32.
^ "60 Films Share 'Chris' Awards: Term Color 'Exceptional' and Judging 'Difficult' as 135 Films Are Submitted for Largest Columbus, Ohio Festival," Business Screen Magazine, 3(19), 1958. 19.
^ "'Progress for Freedom' Shows President's Trip to Mexico," Business Screen Magazine, 5(23), 1962, p. 57.
^ Library of Congress Catalogs Films and Other Materials for Projection 1974, 1975. p.332.