MAKE MINE FREEDOM: PATRIOTISM AND PUBLIC LIFE Saturday, January 15 at 4:30 p.m. In the stressful times of World War II and later the Cold War, patriotism became linked with mobilization against common enemies. This wartime mentality has continued to persist, and we continue to define American democracy less by its own nature than by what it is opposed to. This program shows various constructions of patriotism and public behavior, with an enemy lurking more or less visibly in each film. MAKE MINE FREEDOM John Sutherland Productions for Harding College, 1950. Technicolor, 10 min., 16mm. In the darkest days of the Cold War, many manufacturers felt that a tighter consensus among Americans could be achieved by education about our economic system and its benefits. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, founded by the former chairman of General Motors, was one of those wishing to spread the news about capitalism, and funded Harding College (Searcy, Ark.) for $570,000 through his foundation to produce a series of films intended for lunchtime screenings in workplaces. Make Mine Freedom, one of nine titles originally released, takes its place in ephemeral film history as one of those films (like Master Hands) that reveals perhaps more than it intends to. A kind of self- deprecating humor prevails throughout, perhaps because the films were made to play before distracted and highly skeptical audiences, and the targets of this humor include our consumer culture and the dubious innovations it creates. Other films in this series included Meet King Joe, a segment of which is included in the To New Horizons laserdisc installation. Another Sutherland film, Destination Earth, follows in this program, and A Is For Atom is featured in the THE HUMAN PRODUCT: ANIMATION AND ANTHROPOMORPHISM program. "...Many companies have initiated regular programs of noon-hour and off-shift film showings....This is by no means an invitation to propagandize. These voluntary employee audiences are fair-minded Americans whose interest and enthusiasm places a direct responsibility upon the program planner. The fact that movies have a favorable psychological effect in relieving boredom and strain is rewarding in itself. If a good film program can inculcate ambition and greater productivity to earn a deserving higher wage, that is certainly the desirable objective. Films are no substitute for a raise." (Business Screen, March 20, 1949). CONQUER BY THE CLOCK RKO-Path, 1943. 8 min., 16mm. Directed by Slavko Vorkapich. Produced by Frederic Ullman, Jr. Written by Phil Reisman, Jr. Photographed by Larry O'Reilly. Edited by John Hoffman. Musical score by Erno Rapee. The only film in this series produced under the auspices of a major studio, Conquer by the Clock drives home "the fact" that there was little difference, as far as results are concerned, between the patriotic but thoughtless American and the Axis saboteur. The film's flavor is shown by a partial synopsis, written by a wartime reviewer expressing the anti-Japanese racism of the time: "a girl inspecting rifle cartridges in a war plant -- a patriotic American -- takes time for an extra smoke, neglects to fill her place on the inspection line, and thus allows several boxes of uninspected cartridges to pass as O.K. One of these cartridges, a dud, later finds its way into the rifle of an American soldier somewhere in the South Pacific. On scouting patrol, he sights a Jap, aims, presses the trigger and fires -- harmlessly. He is killed by a Jap bullet." Similar to many other World War II-era films, Conquer by the Clock equated patriotic conduct with industrial productivity, and reframed the New Deal-era ethic of collective action into a wartime context. Three parables about laziness, carelessness and malfeasance on the homefront are followed by an inspirational song in the style of From Dawn to Sunset (see the CAPITALIST REALISM program). Slavko Vorkapich created montage sequences for many Hollywood features and was the acknowledged master of image combination and superimposition techniques. Since it's not a feature-length film in current distribution, many of his fans haven't had access to this film. TUESDAY IN NOVEMBER United Films for U.S. Office of War Information, Overseas Branch, 1945. 17 min., 16mm. Director: John Houseman. This pseudo-documentary of the 1944 general election was made for overseas audiences, many of whom did not enjoy the right to elect their own governments. Beautifully shot, scored and constructed, this film will seek out and stir whatever trace of idealism still may survive in your mind. Tuesday in November dramatizes both the participation of citizens in the electoral process and the campaign for the Presidency, linking these two threads into a quasi-religious quest characterized by unchallenged belief, ritualistic behavior and culminating in a mass announcement before a large crowd. The simplicity expressed in the narration and many of the images was a conscious choice dictated by the non-English-speaking intended audience, but for us now underscores the film's stature as a morality play. This and other Office of War Information films have been criticized for idealizing and oversimplifying the reality of American life, and there is no question that they do so. Ultimately, though, the dramatized sequences are not as interesting as the newsreel shots spread throughout the film, showing the enthusiasm and commitment of ordinary people, and the power of the final sequence -- hundreds of thousands of concerned citizens gathered in Times Square waiting for election returns -- cannot simply be dismissed. DESPOTISM Encyclopedia Britannica Films, 1945. 10 min., 16mm. With Harold D. Laswell, Ph.D. "You can rate a political system on a scale between democracy and despotism." How does ours measure up? Surprise! The end of World War II was marked by the release of films calling for world government and exposing the nature of fascist and authoritarian rule. Despotism offers a number of indicators by which the degree of democracy or despotism in a society can be measured, using a sliding, thermometer- like animated scale. DAY OF THANKSGIVING Centron Productions for Young America Films, 1951. 14 min., 16mm. In the midst of the Cold War a family too poor to afford a Thanksgiving turkey counts its blessings -- and decides that what's on the dinner tableisn't important...it's the freedom under which we eat it. Filmed in Lawrence, Kansas. The actor playing "Bill Johnson" appears as a gasoline station attendant in Harold "Herk" Harvey's film Carnival of Souls, produced in and around Lawrence. Harvey was a staff director at Centron and is reputed to have taken advantage of their facilities in the production of his 1962 feature. WHAT IT MEANS TO BE AN AMERICAN Frith Films, ca. 1951. 20 min., Kodachrome, 16mm. Emily Benton Frith made some 80 films with her handheld camera and Kodachrome. Many of her films were concerned with what we would now call "family values." In their originality and refusal to master the rules of motion picture technique, Frith's films are relics of a time when individual entrepreneurs could achieve success in the nontheatrical film business. The film's title, of course, speaks for itself. Frith's film Mother Mack's Puppies Find Happy Homes will play as part of the FAVORITE FILMS program. DESTINATION EARTH Produced by John Sutherland Productions for the American Petroleum Institute, 1954, 14 min., Technicolor, 16mm. Director: Carl Urbano. Script: Bill Scott, Michael Amestoy and George Gordon. Production Design: Tom Oreb, Vic Haboush. Animation: George Cannata, Ken O'Brien, Bill Higgins, Tom Ray and Russ von Neida. Backgrounds: Joe Montell. A Martian explorer sent by autocratic Martian ruler "Mr. Ogg" arrives on Earth to determine the secret of its prosperity. Unlike Mars, fettered by a centrally controlled command economy, Earth is prospering due to private enterprise and cheap oil. This revelation, when disseminated around Mars, is itself sufficient to foment a Martian revolution, and the solar system begins to remake itself in a Terrestrial image. .