Bradley E. Reeves (Appalachian Media Archives) presents
The Tennessee Valley Authority: Built for and Owned by The People
This new 23-minute video, made for the Orphan Film Symposium on Water, Climate, and Migration, documents the history and controversies surrounding the TVA since the 1930s, compiling 8mm and 16mm home movie footage, 16mm documentary film clips, folk music recordings, excerpts from feature films, and local television newsfilm and videotape.
The Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933 chartered the agency to modernize the region. It aimed to educate farmers in ways to improve crops, help replant forests, control forest fires, and improve the habitats of fish and wildlife. Electricity and modern home appliances were to make life easier and farms more productive. Electricity also drew industries into the region, providing desperately needed jobs.
The development of the dams displaced more than 15,000 families. This created anti-TVA sentiment in some rural communities. Local landowners were suspicious of government agencies.
The TVA dam projects, especially the opening of the Norris Dam and park in the northeastern part of the state, inspired a booming tourism industry. Boating, fishing, swimming, and even rural river baptisms attracted both vacationers and local residents. An entire Appalachian regional culture was changed by this massive construction and modernization project, though to this day, local residents either revere the efforts of the TVA or hold an eternal grudge.
— Bradley E. Reeves
See also . . . .
• The TVA’s own corporate history and heritage site (tva.com): “Watch as centenarian and early TVA employee, Halie Forstner, 107, recalls how TVA changed lives. . . . ”
• “The Artist with a Camera,” Charles Krutch of Knoxville photographed the TVA. Feb. 5, 2020.
• Tennessee Valley Authority Record Group 142, National Archives at Atlanta: “photographers took over 500,000 photographs. . . .”
Lewis Hine photograph, “A group showing some of the men working at Norris Dam,” November 3, 1933. (NARA)
• More Movies
• Tennessee Valley (1936) U.S. Department of Interior 47 min.
U.S. National Archives
• This Is TVA (1958) Sam Orleans Associates (Knoxville) 28 min.
• Note: Sam Orleans has his own tie to the Orphan Film Symposium, having been the subject of a presentation and screening at the 2006 edition, devoted to Science, Industry, and Education. Bradley Reeves & Louisa Trott (Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound) “Sam Orleans Will Go Anywhere, Film Anything”: Today’s News, Tomorrow’s Men (1946) preserved for the occasion by Colorlab (listen to the live recording) 23 min.