[IMC-bristol] Films For March?

[James Venables]

Hello IMCers,

I was sent the message below from a Jack Stevenson from Denmark. He's 
touring the UK through Feb & Mar, & looking to show some of his anti-war 
films. As you're looking for stuff to show in March, this may be of 
interest to you, especially the short films. (He may be around for 25th 
Feb too.)

Email: Jack Stevenson <pust.jack at get2net.dk>

Cheers,

James

***************************************
Subject: Denmark calling
To:      james at venables.plus.com
From:    Jack Stevenson <pust.jack at get2net.dk>
Date:    Thu, 22 Jan 2004 21:04:14 +0100


Dear James,
     I am an American film writer and print collector living in 
Denmark and from Feb. 17 to March I will be touring in the UK with a 
collection of anti-war films - details in this attachment. If you are 
interested in arranging a show for your group, get back to me and we can 
discuss dates, etc.
     Best regards, Jack Stevenson

HEARTS, MINDS & BODY PARTS:
THE SECRET CINEMA OF U.S. MILITARY PROPAGANDA
Curated and presented by Jack Stevenson, an American film historian 
living in Denmark

The following films show how the U.S. government tried to "sell" various 
policies and ideas to the American public - and to U.S. soldiers - in 
time of war. Although the styles of propaganda have changed, this 
collection of films, from the start of (America's involvement in) WW2 
through to the Vietnam War, reveal the techniques and attitudes of a 
country trying to understand, explain and/or vilify the enemy to the 
American public and in the process serve its own political ends. While 
some of these films have uncanny parallels to the current situation in 
Iraq, in a broader sense they show how the American government viewed 
and dealt with foreign populations and political systems considered a 
threat.

Note: The show is composed of three parts which can be shown in any 
combination. For example, part two can be omitted to make a show 
consisting of parts 1 and 3 that runs 60 minutes, if this specific 
content and duration is preferred. Parts 1 & 2 constitute a running time 
of about 85 minutes. All films are on 16mm format, optical (normal) 
sound and will come carefully spliced & cleaned and ready to snap on the 
projector and play.  So a good working 16mm projector & screen will need 
to be supplied. I can address any questions at:  pust.jack @ get2net. Dk



PART ONE: WW2

JAPANESE RELOCATION: 1942, 10 min., Considered potential security risks 
in the event that Japan should invade the Pacific coast, all American 
citizens of Japanese ancestry were ordered by the Government to move to 
bleak desert internment camps as far away as Idaho. Suddenly prisoners 
in their own country, they (over 100,000 people)lost homes and business 
and lives were shattered. This film is a chilling attempt by the 
government to put positive spin on what would remain one of the darkest 
episodes of America's wartime past. Can the internment of American 
citizens of a specific race, for the greater good of "national 
security," ever happen again?

YOUR JOB IN GERMANY: 1945, 15 min., Produced by Frank Capra and 
co-written by Theodore Geisel (better known as "Dr. Seuss"), this 
hard-hitting piece of hate propaganda was shown to American soldiers 
occupying a just-defeated Germany and constitutes one of the most angry 
and bitter films of the war. Capra condemns the German people as a 
whole, not just the Nazi leadership, and acidly warns that "The German 
lust for conquest is not dead - it's just gone underground…trust none 
of them! … someday the Germans might be cured of their disease - the 
'super race disease' - but until that day, we stand guard!" A 
masterpiece of emotional manipulation.

OUR JOB IN JAPAN: 1946, 18 min., Also produced by the Capra film unit, 
this was a companion piece to YOUR JOB IN GERMANY and aimed to educated 
U.S. occupying forces about the true nature of their just-defeated 
Japanese enemy. Describes the Japanese as unwitting dupes manipulated by 
the power-mad warlord class who used the Shinto religion to "stir up 
ancient nightmares, ancient hatred … and up from Japan's murky past, 
bring back the mumbo-jumbo." The Japanese, instructs the film, must be 
made to understand the morally superior ways of American culture. (Note: 
In that Bush constantly refers to the occupations of Germany and Japan 
as successful models for the occupation of Iraq, these last two films 
are of special relevance. One wonders what a "Your Job in Iraq" will 
look like.)
____________________________________________________________


PART TWO: THE COLD WAR

SURVIVAL UNDER ATOMIC ATTACK, 1951, 10 min. This American Civil Defense 
film demonstrates how easy it really is to survive an atomic attack 
(turn off stove, close curtains and hide in the basement) and states - 
against the backdrop of a massive nuclear explosion - that if the 
Japanese had known what we know now, thousands of lives would have been 
saved. A disturbing artifact of the times, absurd and campy  but 
ominous. An attempt to convince the American populace that nuclear wars 
were "survivable".

SHELTER ON A QUIET STREET, 1962, 10 min. Produced by the Dept. Of 
Defense. Ten years later people were still preparing to survive a 
nuclear war, but now you were encouraged to build your own bomb shelter 
instead of squatting under the tool table in the basement. Bomb shelters 
are here promoted as a "family values" thing as paranoia ruled and the 
communist menace grew.

RED NIGHTMARE: 1962, 25 min., This legendary anti-Communist melodrama - 
co-produced for TV by Warners Brothers Studio and the Department of 
Defense - presents the story of "typical American" Jerry Donavon who 
goes to sleep and awakens the next morning to find his small town has 
become Communist overnight: his wife is frigid, his kids threaten to 
report him to the authorities and the church as been turned into a 
museum of Soviet scientific inventions. Jerry is thrown in prison, given 
a mock trial and sentenced to be shot! Jack Webb, star of DRAGNET, 
provides bizarre on-screen narration in what would have doubled 
perfectly as an anti-Communist episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE. An amazing 
artifact of anti-Communist paranoia and a certified cult film favorite 
today.


PART THREE: VIETNAM

KNOW YOUR ENEMY: THE VIETCONG, 1968, 18 min. A U.S. Army troop training 
film uses much captured Viet Cong footage to try and give soldiers an 
introduction to the thinking and tactics of their enemy in the field, a 
resourceful, determined and committed foe who refuses to fight the kind 
of war we wanted to fight, combatants who "melted back into the 
populace" (More echoes from Iraq).


END
-- 
James Venables