Lance Bird

Documentary featuring original materials from the 1939 New York World's Fair. Includes film images of Jason Robards Jr. as a child at the World's Fair and clips from the promotional film "The Middleton Family at the New York World's Fair" (1939).

Composed entirely of archival material and narrated by actor Pat Hingle, this hour-long film documents the run-up to the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed. Made in the 1970s, the film carefully lays out major historical events, as with the stunning footage of the German Zeppelin Hindenburg bursting into flames over New Jersey in 1937. Powerful images such as this are both literal and metaphoric documents of the tragedies of the age. By relying on the old newsreels alone to depict the events, the filmmakers immerse us in the period in a way that would not have been possible had they interviewed a team of experts. Compared to some of the more freely associated assemblages presented in the series—and especially to Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?—this film seems stoic, contemplative. When left to speak for themselves, archival images can be most illuminating.

A young writer dreams of an odd house and sees many deaths connected with it. Where does reality end?

Narrated by Martin Sheen, this documentary assembles archival civil defense films, government propaganda, and educational footage from the Cold War era to examine how Americans were taught to prepare for nuclear attack. Through these materials, the film explores the promotion of fallout shelters and the official message that survival in a nuclear war was possible.