Leo Seltzer (March 13, 1910January 27, 2007) was an American social-documentary filmmaker whose career spanned over half a century, having made more than sixty films. Leo Seltzer was born in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Quebec, Canada. 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. 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. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

for President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

. A 1961 documentary Seltzer directed for the

US Information Agency The United States Information Agency (USIA) was a United States government agency devoted to propaganda which operated from 1953 to 1999. Previously existing United States Information Service (USIS) posts operating out of U.S. embassies wor ...

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 James Michael Newell (February 21, 1900 – December 1985) was a gold medaled WPA artist, best known for his fresco murals. He was born in Carnegie, Pennsylvania into a large Irish family. His birth name was James Erbin Newell but he changed ...

executed for

Evander Childs High School Evander is a masculine Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is al ...

, 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 body Civil 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 st ...

* ''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 film photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorporated i ...

* ''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 CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

on institutions of high learning * ''Mad Whirl'', 1955?, TV series, produced for

NTA Film Network The NTA Film Network was an early American television network founded by Ely Landau in 1956 that operated on a part-time basis, broadcasting films and several first-run television programs from major Hollywood studios. Despite attracting more ...

* ''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. He r ...

* ''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 The Alliance for Progress () was an initiative launched by U.S. President John F. Kennedy on March 13, 1961, that aimed to establish economic cooperation between the U.S. and Latin America. Governor Luis Muñoz Marín of Puerto Rico was a close ...

and traditions common to the US and Latin America and is narrated by

Jose Ferrer Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. Given name Mishnaic and Talmudic periods * Jose ben Abin * Jose ben Akabya *Jose the Galilean * Jose ben Halafta ...

* ''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 that breaks a single continuous sequential shot of a subject into two parts, with a piece of footage removed to create the effect of jumping forward in time. Camera positioning on the subjec ...

, 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 ...

, 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:

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

: 1992,

References

External links

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