Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/407863
58 CINEMONTAGE / NOV-DEC 14 Workers Film and Photo League, which was interested in, among other things, using the movie camera to document social conditions for a working-class audience. Since he was still working as a musician, he could not go out with film crews on his rehearsal days, so more and more of his film work concentrated on the editing table and the soundtrack. In early 1935, his writing career began. He became a film critic and editor for New Theatre and other periodicals, choosing "Robert Stebbins" as a pseudonym to protect his other jobs. By 1936, he left music for filmmaking. Through the league, and his literary ventures, Sidney became acquainted with a large number of talented people who were to become major contributors to both the American documentary movement and to theatrical film: editors/directors Jay Leyda, Leo Hurwitz and Irving Lerner; cinematographers/directors Ralph Steiner, Paul Strand and Willard Van Dyke; and writer/ director Ben Maddow. By 1937, a new organization had come into existence: Frontier Films. Frontier was staffed by many of the people who had come through the league and Nykino (New York Kino). Frontier, while on the left in its political orientation, was independent of outside influences in that it raised its own funds for its own projects. The idea was to work cooperatively on each project. The writer, director, editor and cinematographer were all to collaborate at each stage of the undertaking. Sidney's name led the credits on an extraordinary set of documentaries by A promotional image for The Quiet One with, from left, director Sidney Meyers, co-writer and co- cinematographer Helen Levitt, producer Janice Loeb and associate producer William Levitt. Courtesy of Helen Levitt Estate.