Presented at the 2013 Southwest Association of Law Libraries (SWALL) Annual Meeting.
Speaker: Alan Pannell, University of Colorado School of Law.
Description: This session focuses on the changing role of librarians in choosing movies to screen, facilitating the use of film clips in the classroom, and finding resources for bibliographies and faculty scholarship.
Intended audience: Academic librarians and other librarians interested in the impact of law and film on future attorneys.
1. LAW SCHOOL
GOES TO THE MOVIES!
ALAN PANNELL
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO LAW SCHOOL
2. Outline
Why Law and Film
Traditional Uses of Law and Film
Traditional Librarian Roles
New Uses of Law and Film
New Roles for Librarians
Resources
3. Why Law and Film?
“No art passes our conscience the way film does,
and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into
the dark rooms of our souls.” – Ingmar Bergman
4. Why Law and Film?
“Popular culture is not only entertainment. It covers
98-99% of American society today in one way or
another.” – James R. Elkins, “Reading/Teaching Lawyer Films”
5. Why Law and Film?
“The reason for teaching lawyer films is simply this:
we need vivid, compelling representations of lawyer in
action.” – James R. Elkins, “Reading/Teaching Lawyer Films”
6. Why Law and Film?
Storytelling Principles
Examples of Legal Issues
Student Engagement
7. Why Law and Film?
“I believe seminars like Law
and Literature and my own
film seminar are actually a
return to traditional
pedagogy.”
– Alan A. Stone, “Teaching Film at Harvard Law School”
16. Copyright Issues
The Copyright Act
Classroom exemption:
(a) performances must be shown “in the course of . . . teaching activities” which involve
"systematic instruction [and] whatever their cultural value or intellectual appeal", do not
involve performances "given for the recreation or entertainment of any part of the
audience"
(b) performances must involve "face-to-face teaching activities" meaning that either an
instructor must be present in the room or "in the same building or general area"
(c) performances must take place “in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction” such
as "a studio, a workshop, a gymnasium, a training field, a library, the stage of an auditorium
itself, if it is actually used as a classroom for systematic instructional activities."
19. Collection Development
“Your library’s films are some
of the highest –quality work
in your building, often
unjustly ignored, maligned,
and simply consigned to
“popular material” even
though there is so much
thematic and artistic richness
waiting to be mined in a
discussion format.”
– Alan Jacobson, “How to Offer More Than a
Movie”
25. Interdisciplinary Scholarship
“Un-Dead Labor: China, Industrial Production, and the Zombie Apocalypse,” by Brynnar Swenson
(Presented at Southwest Texas Popular Culture Conference 2013)
30. Selection Committee
TRANSCENDENCE: Big Fish
JUSTICE: Capote, Compulsion, Philadelphia, Norma Rae, To Kill a Mockingbird
COURAGE: 12 Angry Men, North Country, Erin Brokovich, A Few Good Men, The Verdict
41. Resources
SWALL Bulletin Fall 2012: Guide to Law and Film Resources + Updates
Law in the Reel World: http://lawinthereelworld.wordpress.com
Books
42. Resources
SWALL Bulletin Fall 2012: Guide to Law and Film Resources + Updates
Law in the Reel World: http://lawinthereelworld.wordpress.com
Websites
25 Greatest Legal Movies
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/the_25_greatest_legal_movies
Law and Lawyers in Popular Culture
http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/exhibits/lpop
43. “How to Offer More Than a Movie: Producing Film Discussions That are Serious Cultural Events,”
Alan Jacobson, American Libraries, July/Aug. 2011, 42
“Law & Film: Teaching Film at Harvard Law School, ” Alan A. Stone, 28 Vt. L. Rev. 813
“Symposium: Law in Film/Film in Law: Reading Teaching Lawyer Films,” James R. Elkins, 24 Legal
Stud. Forum 573
Resources
SWALL Bulletin Fall 2012: Guide to Law and Film Resources + Updates
Law in the Reel World: http://lawinthereelworld.wordpress.com
Articles
Visual learning style of today’s studentsEthics most common issueEspecially useful for trial advocacy
Visual learning style of today’s studentsEthics most common issueEspecially useful for trial advocacy
Law & Film Scholarship took off in the 90s.
Mimi Wesson Law & Literature class - Law & Film grew out of law and literature- Guest Speaker: Jim Palmer
In Debt We Trust – Amy Spitz Consumer Law Class
Discussion GroupsChoose discussable movies (SEE: Jacobson, How to Offer More Than a Movie)Consider name recognitionMore successful if required or recommended by faculty
Shown at Military Law Society event
Fair Use = Classroom setting / Speakers / No marketing to public
Focus on classic law movies and well-known contemporary legal filmsSEE film lists/ filmographies in books: Movie Therapy for Law School/ Reel Justice/Celluloid Courtroom
As needed/requested by faculty OR New titles through collection dev process
Accept everything!
Positive Psychology at the Movies: (1) The American Film Institute’s 100 most inspiring movies.(2) Positive Psychology movies, grouped by desirable character-building traits.
Questions: Choose “discussable” questions (Jacobson, How to Offer More than a Movie)
