Annenberg School's namesake attends talk on TV and history

University Trustee Walter Annenberg made a rare appearance at Penn last night for the "most special [night] of the year for the Annenberg School," according to Dean Kathleen Jamieson. The event, the sixth annual Walter and Leonore Annenberg Distinguished Lecture in Communication, featured Sir Jeremy Isaacs, producer of the noted World War II documentary The World at War. Sponsored by the Annenberg Alumni Association, the lecture series honors the school's founder. Chatting with a group of graduate students at the reception, Annenberg, a University alumnus and former ambassador to England, wistfully told them, "Would that I were a student," and said he attends the annual event "to be involved" with his alma mater. Designed as an opportunity to present some of the most distinguished people in communications, the annual lecture brings students, alumni and professors, as well as Annenberg and his wife, together for a reception, lecture and dinner. Speaking about "Television and History," Isaacs -- who was a chief director of Britain's cutting edge Channel 4 -- interspersed his lecture with clips from his new historical documentary, The Cold War. He recalled that Ted Turner, who proposed the new documentary series, requested "that fellow who made The World at War? Jeremy Irons" to direct it. Instead, he got Isaacs, and The Cold War will air on CNN next September. Speaking before a crowd of about 100 at the Annenberg School, Isaacs -- who described himself as "a maker, a practitioner" -- addressed the challenges facing documentaries as they fight towards recognition as legitimate historical scholarship. Isaacs acknowledged the medium's inherent inadequacies. He contrasted it, for example, with television's ability to "put flesh on the structured bones of narrative" by giving faces to facts. More problematic are the difficulties of authenticating pictures, according to Isaacs. Joking that "the camera may never lie, but the film [can]," he emphasized the importance of verification with several anecdotes about the embarrassing consequences of mistakes in documentaries. Prominently mounted on Isaacs' wall, for example, was a blown up frame of film once intended as the cover shot for his first documentary series, The General Strike. Much to his chagrin, the frame proved to be of Ireland, while the workers' strike took place in England. He has kept the frame on his wall ever since as a reminder of such mistakes. Isaacs also highlighted the importance of differentiating between the telegenic and the historically relevant. He shared a story of an aide who selected Russian soldiers to interview about Afghanistan based on the viewer's ability "to identify with them." Envisioning a day when "future historians will have to spend as much time in the film archives as in libraries," Isaacs closed by noting he was "glad to be involved in television history."