Valentine's Day might be billed as Singles Awareness Day or an evil manifestation of corporate America, but no one can resist its appeal. Not even A/V Geeks.
As such, local film group A/V Geeks is sponsoring a screening at Duke's Center for Documentary Studies tonight to celebrate the holiday. Instead of showing typical Valentine's fare (i.e. Meg Ryan movies), the event, called Love Is..?, will screen a collection of educational films from the 1950s and 1960s. With names like Going Steady?, How Do You Know It's Love?, Are You Ready for Marriage? and Should I Marry Outside of My Faith?, the films' themes revolve around relationships, love and marriage.
"It just worked out really well that it's Valentine's Day and there's all these great films about dating and marriage and stuff like that. It's fun, kind of corny," A/V Geeks founder Skip Elsheimer said.
Despite the films' "corniness," Elseheimer said their worth is deeper than a chuckle.
"Particularly after World War II, there were a lot of people rushing into marriage who really didn't know how to have a marriage. There was a lot of thought about what made a good marriage," he said. "So all these films are ultimately about how to have a successful life being married. Because being married of course was the ultimate thing that the government wanted. They wanted to have good families because good families help create a good nation. It's kind of interesting with hindsight to look back and see what was important and see what they got right and what they got wrong and be like, 'Wow, that totally does not fly nowadays. That's so radically different.'"
On the other hand, Elsheimer added that in spite of the films' ridiculousness, they do offer insight into enduing cultural issues.
"It's also really interesting to see what they got right and to be like, 'Wow, they really knew what they were talking about back then.' And so these problems... they knew what they're talking [about] and it's clear that no one paid attention to them," Elsheimer said.
Elsheimer's fascination with mid-20th century educational and government films dates back approximately 15 years. He was in a band that attended various auctions to acquire goods and would often leave with obscure materials like marching band uniforms. Eventually, he had purchased a set of 500 educational films for $50 and that started his interest.
As he began acquiring more films, Elsheimer started showing them during his band's sets and then between other bands' sets. Soon, he began featuring the films prior to bands as shows of their own.
"The films were strong enough on their own to be their own show," he said.
After collecting over 20,000 films, Elsheimer has moved onto monthly screenings of his collection. In fact, the films have become so much a part of his life that entire rooms in his home-a converted boarding house-are filled with films. His screenings are held at various venues throughout the Triangle and, for the past five years, have monthly included shows at the CDS. Elsheimer's brand of films are unique among other screenings at Duke.
"They can be quite entertaining to see what the pedagogy of the youth was like," Screen/Society coordinator Hank Okazaki said. "It's kind of a kitsch, nostalgia thing. They're educational in the way they reflect society's concerns at the time. There's a sense of nostalgia in how things have changed over time."
Though he hopes people enjoy the films, he does want them to remember his main goal.
"It's part of my major mission to get these films out to the public to remind the people that these are cultural artifacts that are important to us," Elsheimer said.
Love Is...? will be held tonight at 7 p.m. at the Center for Documentary Studies at 1317 W. Pettigrew St. off of East Campus. A donation of $5 is suggested. For more information, visit www.avgeeks.com.
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