Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman Papers
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Abstract
The Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman Papers contain research materials and personal files related to the work of journalists and filmmakers Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman. Half of the collection documents Snitow and Kaufman's film company Snitow-Kaufman Productions, which includes research and promotional materials related to their films. Two boxes include FBI files used as research for the documentary Between Two Worlds. Papers related to their other documentaries feature interviews, film transcripts, and press materials for the films Blacks and Jews, Thirst, Drones in My Backyard, Between Two Worlds, Secrets of Silicon Valley, Company Town, and Offshoring. The collection also contains two boxes of Alan Snitow's files documenting his work at KPFA-Pacifica Radio, as well as diaries and interview notes from a 1989 trip to the Soviet Union.
Historical Note
Filmmakers Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman have made eight short and feature-length documentaries through their film company Snitow-Kaufman Productions. Their feature-length documentaries include Blacks and Jews (1997), Secrets of Silicon Valley (2001), Thirst (2004), Between Two Worlds (2011), and Company Town (2017), the majority of which have aired on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) programs "POV" and "Independent Lens." The documentary Between Two Worlds was intended to be featured on "POV" under the title "Discontinuity," but was eventually released independently in 2011.
Deborah Kaufman was also director and founder of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, which she ran for 13 years.
Alan Snitow is a journalist who worked for 12 years as a producer at KTVU-TV News, the Bay Area Fox new station, and as News Director and reporter at the Bay Area's Pacifica Radio station, KPFA-FM in the 1970s and 1980s.
Arrangement
Alan Snitow's files related to his work at Pacifica Radio are arranged in roughly chronological order. Snitow-Kaufman Production files are grouped by material type. This collection has not been arranged by an archivist. The materials are arranged in the order in which they were received from the donor.
Scope and Contents
The Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman Papers contain research materials and personal files related to the work of journalists and filmmakers Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman. Half of the collection documents Snitow and Kaufman's production company Snitow-Kaufman Productions, which includes research and promotional materials related to their films. Two boxes contain FBI files used as research for the documentary Between Two Worlds. The documentary focused on communist purges within the American Jewish Congress (AJC). These materials include Alan Snitow's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for FBI files on the AJC, the Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee, the American Jewish Committee, and individual AJC members including Billie Portnow, Judith Pollack, Stanley Levison, Shad and Justine Polier. Alan Snitow also submitted FOIA requests for files on his parents Virginia Levitt Snitow and Charles Snitow, but those files are not included in the collection.
Materials related to other documentaries in the collection include interviews, film transcripts, and press materials for documentaries produced between 1994 and 2015. Documentaries for which these materials are available include Blacks and Jews, Thirst, Drones in My Backyard, Between Two Worlds, Secrets of Silicon Valley, Company Town, and Offshoring. These documentaries touch on topics including Jewish identity, relationships between Jews and African Americans, American business, technology industries, and access to drinking water.
The collection contains two boxes of Alan Snitow's files documenting his work at KPFA-Pacifica Radio. Alan Snitow was News Director of the Pacifica Radio's Bay Area station KPFA-FM during the 1970s and 1980s. His files include proposals and drafts for news stories, fundraising work, news department training documents, and administrative files related to his work as News Director. They also document disputes between Pacifica management and staff between 1997 and 2000.
Other materials in the collection include diaries, interviews, and tape logs from a trip Snitow took to the Soviet Union in 1989. Snitow used some of his research from this trip in his reporting at KPFA, but his diaries also document his personal experiences during his travels.
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Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Because of the assembled nature of this collection, copyright status varies across the collection. Copyright is assumed to be held by the original creator of individual items in the collection; these items are expected to pass into the public domain 120 years after their creation. The Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive is not authorized to grant permission to publish or reproduce materials from this collection that were not created by Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman. Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) held by Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman, the creators of this collection, were relinquished and transferred to the public domain in 2017 by Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman. These materials are governed by a Creative Commons CC0 license, which permits publication and reproduction of materials accompanied by full attribution. See, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman Papers; TAM 720; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman in March 2017. The accession numbers associated with these gifts are 2017.019 and 2017.072.
Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures
Audiovisual materials have not been preserved and may not be available to researchers. Materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.
About this Guide
Processing Information
At the time of accessioning materials were placed in archival housing and a collection level finding aid was created. In December 2017, the collection-level description was updated and a box and folder list was created to include new materials added to the collection. This collection has not been arranged by an archivist. Materials are in the order in which they were received from the donor.
