Blackhawk Films - Bringing You the News

Before television news became a nightly routine and long before digital archives placed history online, audiences around the world experienced current events through theatrical newsreels shown in neighborhood movie theaters. Decades later, Blackhawk Films helped preserve many of these remarkable films by making them available to collectors on 8mm, Super 8, and 16mm film.Blackhawk Films – Bringing You the News! is a comprehensive exploration of Blackhawk’s newsreel and documentary library, tracing the company’s role in preserving and distributing some of the most fascinating historical motion pictures of the twentieth century. Drawing from original Blackhawk bulletins, catalogs, collector prints, archival material, and years of firsthand research, author Frank Slabinak documents the films that once arrived in small film boxes but carried the sights and sounds of world history into collectors’ homes.Inside are more than 300 film listings covering:Fox Movietone News releasesWorld War I and World War II subjectsaviation and transportation filmspolitical campaigns and presidential appearancessports highlights and championship eventsparade films and ceremonial pageantryhuman-interest stories and unusual curiositieshistorical documentaries and compilation featurespreservation and reconstruction projects associated with Movietone materialThe book also explores the world of home movie collecting itself — the the bulletins, catalogs, digest editions, silent and sound versions, film boxes, release histories, and collector culture that surrounded Blackhawk Films during its decades of operation.Featuring rare illustrations, vintage bulletin reproductions, historical photographs, detailed release information, and an extensive index, Blackhawk Films – Bringing You the News! serves as both a historical reference and a nostalgic journey through the golden age of theatrical news reporting and film collecting.For collectors, film historians, and anyone fascinated by the preservation of motion picture history, this volume offers a detailed look at how Blackhawk Films helped keep the past alive — one reel at a time. Read more