Irving Rusinow

Rusinow at the camera, with wife Kim at the stove

Irving Rusinow made films for companies including Encyclopaedia Britannica Films (EBF), where he specialized in subjects related to education and schools. We are trying to complete his biography and filmography, so please contact us if you can add information to this page.

Rusinow was born in Detroit on October 11, 1914, and later attended the University of Chicago. Prior to working for EBF, Rusinow was a photographer, and a colleague of Dorothy Lange, making documentary photos for the Bureau of Agricultural Economics. He later made films for the Office of Inter-American Affairs, and was film director in the office of information of the Department of Agriculture. He founded his own company, Irving Rusinow Film Productions, in 1959. He passed away on August 2, 1990.

His first films for EBF were made in the era before EBF virtually stopped making Guidance films, and focused on the subject area of civics and the classroom. In 1963, Milan Herzog hired him to direct the 54-part Spanish Language series La Familia Fernández. Son Jeff Rusinow remembers the filming: "Dad took the whole family to Mexico City for about two months while he was filming. I took a leave of absence from my 4th grade class and had a tutor while in Mexico. We rented this really cool house with high walls and peacocks in the yard." In 1966, Rusinow completed a film, Teaching French with Films, an instructional film which taught foreign language instructors how to use EB's Je Parle Français series in the classroom. He also documented EBF's Project Discovery initiative, which was introduced to Congress as a method of helping to secure government funding for educational film, in his film Project Discovery: a Demonstration in Education.

We are attempting to complete his filmography, and believe he made many more films than are on the following list. Films with hyperlinks will take you to our collection at the Internet Archive, where you can view them free of charge.

Partial Filmography

Step-Saving Kitchen, A (1949)
Skippy and the 3 R's (1953)
Mike Makes His Mark (1955)
Desk for Billie, A (1956)
Not By Chance (1957) for National Education Assn. (Agrafilms, Inc.)
Crowded Out (1958) for National Education Assn. (Agrafilms, Inc.)
Megalopolis: Cradle of the Future (1962)
'La Familia Fernández series' (54 films, made in 1963) [View 'Otra Carta,' lesson 54 in the series]
Light and What it Does (1963)
Sound and How it Travels (1963)
Electricity and How it is Made (1964)
School for Ted (1964)
Project Discovery: a Demonstration in Education (1965)
Library, The: a Place for Discovery (1966)
Postal Service: Letter to a Football Hero (1966, 1977)
Teaching French with Films, Pt 1: Listening and Speaking (1966)
Doctor, The (1968, 2nd Ed)
Farm Community (1969)
Jan: Boy of the Netherlands (1971)
Rotterdam-Europort: Gateway to Europe (1971)
Starting School (1973)
Vocational Opportunities in High School (1973)
Learning with Today's Media (1974)