French children in a youth camp, postwar
Creator(s)
- Voutsas (Camera Operator)
- Julien H. Bryan (Producer)
- Victor Vicas (Director)
- Sam Bryan and International Film Foundation
- International Relief Organization (UNRRA) (Producer)
Biographical History
Julien Hequembourg Bryan (1899-1974) was an American documentarian and filmmaker. Bryan traveled widely taking 35mm film that he sold to motion picture companies. In the 1930s, he conducted extensive lecture tours, during which he showed film footage he shot in the former USSR. Between 1935 and 1938, he captured unique records of ordinary people and life in Nazi Germany and in Poland, including Jewish areas of Warsaw and Krakow and anti-Jewish signs in Germany. His footage appeared in March of Time theatrical newsreels. His photographs appeared in Life Magazine. He was in Warsaw in September 1939 when Germany invaded and remained throughout the German siege of the city, photographing and filming what would become America's first cinematic glimpse of the start of WWII. He recorded this experience in both the book Siege (New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1940) and the short film Siege (RKO Radio Pictures, 1940) nominated for an Academy Award in 1940. In 1946, Bryan photographed the efforts of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency in postwar Europe.
Scope and Content
This series of outtakes features adolescents (both male and female) in the mountains in France playing volleyball and other sports, dancing, singing and engaging in various outdoor activities at a youth camp. The exact location of this camp in France is not known. In the BG several tents are visible on the hillside. This footage has obviously been staged for the camera. The camera slates between takes indicate that this production was done in conjunction with the YMCA, which explains the focus on youth and their healthy development; the footage was most likely intended for use in an informational/documentary production for the French to encourage a return to routines of daily life that existed before the war.
Note(s)
At the time of the filming, Julien Bryan was working under contract for the International Relief Organization/UNRRA and tasked with capturing images of Europe rebuilding. The finished films were intended for an international [European] audience, often screened under the auspices of the US Department of State. Detailed preservation notes from the film lab are available in Film and Video department files. Additional photographs are available in the USHMM Photo Archives. See also Film ID 3023 for duplicate clips.
Subjects
- FRANCE
- SPORTS/GAMES
- POTATOES
- MOUNTAINS
- TENTS
- BRYAN, JULIEN
- DANCING
- COOKING
- CHILDREN
- POSTWAR
- EATING
- YOUTH GROUPS
Places
- , France
Genre
- Film
- Outtakes.