Just when I thought I was "getting it"...

Week 4

Defendants from the Nuremberg trials

So this week, things were shaken up a bit with the addition of nonfiction films. I felt that I had a good grip on fiction films so figured it was time to take the next logical step.  It would be one thing if I went to a fiction film to a somewhat recent, feature length nonfiction film but I had to choose two tricky VHS tapes to catalog.  The first was called “War Crimes” and was more of a collection of newsreels from the WWII era about the Nuremberg trials.  After the newsreels came a short documentary called “Trial at Nuremberg”.  I’m not sure if documentary would be the right word for it, seeing that it was so full of speculation and dramatic narrative but then, Michael Moore’s movies are called documentaries, aren’t they?

The biggest challenge of this record was where to enter the specific information about each piece of this film.  Does it all get thrown into a 520 field?  The record I was augmenting had it set up this way.  Cate explained that it would be easier to trace and add detail to each part of the film (such as the narrator and length of each clip) if instead, each piece became its own 505 note.  This, I could understand but then it got even trickier with the addition of having to remember which delimiters to use and how to format the sub-fields.

…then came time for subject and genre headings.  There were some great one’s already in the files.  I added “propaganda films” as a genre heading and am pretty curious to see how Cate responds to this. It was a risk but I feel that I can back it with the information found in the authority file. (Excuse me while I pat myself on the back for realizing that despite some struggles, I have learned a lot in the last few weeks).

Next I cataloged a copy of the "Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute" aka "Freedomfest" concert from 1988. This brought back many a memory, since I think I was glued to the set when it first aired in order to see George Michael, who I though was a pop god at the time. As far as genre heading are concerned I now know the difference between “Filmed television concert” , “Concert films” and “Filmed performances”.

George Michael at "Freedomfest", 1988

Yes, there is a difference.  Concert films are feature length films of concerts that were taped for the reason of being released on video. “Filmed performance” is a live performance from start to finish, without editing.  I would think this may be use more frequently for plays and whatnot.  The Mandela concert was a “Filmed television concert” It was filmed specifically to be televised and was then edited and released as a VHS.  Got that?  Good because there’s a lot more where that came from.