Film Series: "Selling Democracy - Films of the Marshall Plan, 1948-1953"
Co-sponsored by Cinematheque!
The landmark film series, organized by Sandra Schulberg and curated with Ed Carter of the Academy Film Archive, features 25 films made in Europe by the Marshall Plan’s Motion Picture Section and by the Documentary Film Unit of the U.S. Office of Military Government (OMGUS) after WWII. It is a fascinating cross-section of the more than 260 films originally produced to hasten the reconstruction of Europe and to encourage the democratization of Germany . Embodying “the largest peacetime propaganda effort directed by one country to a group of others ever seen,” according to Marshall Plan historian David Ellwood, these films illustrate in surprisingly specific terms the strategy implemented by the Truman Administration for “winning the peace.”
Screening Schedule:
Saturday, October 13, 7:30 pm
Program One: Out of the Ruins (100 min.)
4070 Vilas Hall (Cinematheque)
Sunday, October 14, 4:00 pm
Program Two: Help Is on the Way (100 min.)
4070 Vilas Hall (Cinematheque)
Tuesday, October 16, 7:30 pm
Program Three: True Fiction (120 min.)
Historical Society Auditorium, 816 State Street
Wednesday, October 17, 7:30 pm
Program Four: Strength for the Free World (100 min.)
Historical Society Auditorium, 816 State Street
Additional Events:
Monday, October 15, 2007
Panel Discussion: "Selling Democracy - Films of the Marshall Plan, 1948-1953"
3:30pm, The Pyle Center
Panel discussion featuring Marc Silberman (German, UW-Madison), Rudy Koshar (History, UW-Madison), Jennifer Fay (Film Studies, Michigan State University), and Sandra Schulberg (Project Director for "Selling Democracy")
For descriptions of the films to be shown and examples of Marshall Plan posters, go to www.sellingdemocracy.org.
