The bulk of the material was created by Robert Gessner.

This collection covers the development of film education in the United States, The Society of Cinematologists, and Robert Gessner's career as an educator and writer. In addition to film, Robert Gessner wrote about Native American life in the United States, anti-Semitism, and labor issues.

Series I: Correspondence is divided into two subseries:

Sub-series A Amberg Correspondence: The bulk of the material is correspondence related to Amberg's film project "The Captive Eye," including notes from significant film industry figures regarding permission to use their work in the project.

Sub-series B Gessner Correspondence: Contains Gessner's professional correspondence related to film  and film education, the cinema program at NYU,  film festivals, and publishing.

Correspondence that was originally filed with subject files is in Series II, correspondence of The Society of Cinematologists is in Series IV, and correspondence originally filed with writings is in Series V.

Series II: Subject files, projects, proposals, and course materials on film and film education.

Contains both Amberg and Gessner subject files. The bulk of the material consists of published articles, press releases, clippings, and notes on films and directors, film and television education, film production, and film festivals that Amberg and Gessner used in their work. The series also contains proposals, notes, working papers, and some correspondence regarding projects including the American Cinema and Television Academy, and NYU's closed circuit television courses. Course materials include syllabi, exams, slide sheets, and lecture notes for courses in Cinema and the Humanities.

Series III: Biographical Materials is divided into two subseries:

Sub-series A: Amberg Biographical Material includes Amberg's curricula vitae from 1968

Sub-series B: Gessner Biographical Material includes reviews of Gessner's work, articles about his career, curricula vitae, and other biographical material.

Series IV: Records of the Society of Cinematologists

The Society of Cinematologists (now the Society for Cinema and Media Studies) is a professional organization founded in 1956 at MoMA's Third Annual Conference on Cinema. Its members include film educators, filmmakers, historians, critics and scholars. This series contains Society of Cinematologists board minutes, newsletters, and correspondence from the organization's founding and its early years, and Reminiscences of a Cinematologist, a narrative account of the Society by Robert Gessner.

Series V: Writings is divided into two subseries:

Sub-series A: The Writings of George Amberg includes Amberg's typescripts of screenplays and articles on film and ballet

Sub-series B: The Writings of Robert Gessner includes Gessner's manuscripts, typescripts, notebooks, and working papers for novels, poetry, screenplays, and articles.  Also includes related correspondence as originally filed.

Series VI: Films

Nine cans of 35mm film elements, which are currently being processed and evaluated by the NYU library's Barbara Goldsmith Preservation and Conservation Department.

Series VII: Non-English Material

One box of unprocessed material including film posters, articles, and clippings in German, French, and Italian.

Series VIII: Scrapbooks

Two leather-bound scrapbooks containing articles, ephemera, and correspondence regarding the publication and critical reception of Robert Gessner's novels Traitor and Youth Is the Time; and one additional scrapbook compiled by Gessner on instruction at NYU.