Education in the School of Dreams: Travelogues and Early Nonfiction Film Jennifer LynnPeterson. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013.

Abstract

Education in School of Dreams: Travelogues and Early Nonfiction Film Jennifer Lynn Peterson. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013.Educational films are not a recent phenomenon. As reader will learn from this very interesting book by Jennifer Lynn Peterson, assistant professor of film studies, University of Colorado Boulder, many of earliest ones began as what author calls travelogues or scenics. These were a staple of early motion picture theaters, short films that depicted tourist destinations and exotic landscapes which were otherwise inaccessible to most viewers. Peterson's title is a play on words as the school of dreams reflects attitude of these early film-viewers to visit, if only through these short films, other parts of world. For modern traveler, social media makes it possible to show sights and sounds of a trip available to all right as visitor is in midst of site, but, right before World War I in early days of film, this was obviously not possible. Instead, early film viewer saw which were a form of virtual tourism or documentary that was often presented as lectures to supplement accompanying films and photos.Peterson attempts to bring attention to this early period in film history that she feels has been overlooked by historians. Most of emphasis of her discussion is on films and American West which was a considerable source of fascination to audiences in this period. Not surprisingly, many of early films were adventure stories and Westerns, with good cowboys and bad Indians. This book focuses on travel films exhibited in commercial US theaters during early cinema's transnational era, roughly years 1907 to 1915, when films first began to be shown in dedicated movie houses and cinema emerged as a distinct form of media with its own set of practices (2).Travelogues evolved from work of American writer and lecturer, John Lawson Stoddard, who began traveling around world in 1874; he published books about his adventures and gave lectures which he illustrated with black and white lantern slides he reproduced from his photographs. Then, in 1892, Stoddard recruited Burton Holmes as his junior associate; in 1897 Holmes succeeded his mentor then went on to become one of most important lecturers of his day. He coined term, travelogues, in 1904 when he introduced film clips to his lecture series. …