[IMC-bristol] Films For March?

[kyra]

by happy chance, jack stevenson is coming to the cube with his hearts 
minds body parts and more - friday 20th, sat 21st feb

(in fact this was the screening that the cube were asking me to ask BSTW 
for support for...)

cheers anyway, and should be good

kyrax

James Venables wrote:

> 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