Idealista. Autoritário. Datado. Simplista. Propagandístico. Tais foram muitos dos pequenos filmes educacionais exibidos nos Estados Unidos desde a década de 1950 até o início da década de 1970, alguns para crianças do ensino fundamental, outros para alunos do ensino fundamental e médio.
Freqüentemente, uma tendência de humor combina com um tom sério, mas amigável, e um propósito sóbrio. Os bonecos dos filmes, personagens de desenhos animados, colegas da faixa etária dos espectadores ou especialistas ensinam ao seu público cativo sobre uma ampla gama de assuntos.
Hoje, esses filmes oferecem vislumbres nostálgicos das perspectivas, convenções sociais, valores e políticas de tempos passados, ao mesmo tempo que compartilham dois pontos: pelos padrões de hoje, eles parecem um pouco piegas e são todos de domínio público.
Relacionado: 10 filmes familiares banidos por motivos estúpidos
10 “Responsabilidade inicial: boas maneiras no refeitório”
Como o título indica, este empreendimento da Coronet Films de 1959 ensina a etiqueta do refeitório aos jovens escolares. Ao contrário da maioria dos outros filmes educativos destinados ao público jovem, este emprega um boneco como instrutor.
Bungle ensina aos alunos, por exemplo, o que não fazer no refeitório. Ele não lava as mãos nem penteia o cabelo antes do almoço, salta para o topo da fila do refeitório, derruba “tudo” e é indelicado. As crianças do filme concluem que não “querem ser como o Sr. Bundle”, que não tem amigos, e descobrem que gostam mais do almoço do que gostariam se o Sr. [1]
9 “Pato e Cobertura”
Neste filme da Archer Productions de 1951, patrocinado pela Administração Federal de Defesa Civil dos EUA, uma tartaruga chamada Bert, usando um capacete, caminha alegremente por uma floresta, cheirando uma flor. Quando um macaco em uma árvore abaixa um explosivo aceso preso a uma corda, Bert se joga no chão, cobre a cabeça com as mãos e se retira para dentro de sua concha. O dispositivo explode, partindo o tronco e arrancando galhos. O macaco desaparece, vítima, talvez, de sua própria brincadeira tola, mas Bert sobrevive, são e salvo, dentro de sua concha.
À medida que as pessoas praticam a técnica de sobrevivência de Bert em várias situações e ambientes, o narrador garante ao público que se eles “se abaixarem e se protegerem como Bert, [eles] estarão muito mais seguros”. No entanto, o filme também os adverte que todos, em todos os lugares, devem estar sempre prontos para “salvar-se caso a bomba atômica exploda” nas proximidades.
A ideia de que esquivar-se e cobrir-se poderia salvar as crianças dos efeitos da explosão de uma bomba atómica foi ridicularizada, mas esta foi a única salvaguarda que a Administração da Defesa Civil ofereceu aos cidadãos americanos durante os primeiros anos da Guerra Fria. [2]
8 “Faça a minha liberdade”
Uma produção de John Sutherland de 1948, esta tira de filme, produzida pelo Harding College, contrasta os perigos do comunismo e as bênçãos do capitalismo. Personagens de desenhos animados encenam disputas entre trabalhadores, gestão, políticos e agricultores antes de um vendedor de óleo de cobra, vendendo garrafas de “ISM”, garantir a uma multidão reunida que o seu produto pode “curar quaisquer doenças do corpo político”. A cura é gratuita para aqueles que desejam renunciar aos seus próprios bens e liberdades e aos dos seus filhos e netos.
John Q. Public interrompe, revendo o que o “sistema de livre iniciativa” dos americanos, reconhecidamente imperfeito, realizou. Depois de Joe inventar uma carruagem sem cavalos, a sua família e amigos contribuem para financiar a sua invenção, tornando-se “capitalistas” cujos fundos permitem a Joe comprar “ferramentas e propriedades” e contratar “mão de obra qualificada”. Devido à cooperação mútua entre estas partes, a invenção de Joe leva à fundação da indústria automobilística, que cria milhões de novos empregos. A experiência de Joe é repetida “milhares de vezes” em todo o país e cria muitos outros benefícios, enriquecendo a vida dos americanos.
In contrast to this blissful image of capitalism and its rewards, the film shows a tyrannical blue giant, the embodiment of communism, outlawing labor unions and seizing farms and equipment while repeating the mantra, “Everything is fine.”
After sampling a taste of ISM, none of the salesman’s potential customers want anything to do with the product. John Q. Public tells viewers that “anyone who preaches disunity, tries to pit us against the other through class warfare, race hatred, or religious intolerance… seeks to rob us of our freedom.” [3]
7 “Why Play Leapfrog?”
Another John Sutherland production, produced by Harding College, this filmstrip offers a lesson about supply and demand and their effect on inflation. As a rolled dollar bill and a price tag alternately jump over one another, the narrator observes, “Prices and wages often play leapfrog,” resulting in the steady rising of “our cost of living.”
A cartoon dramatizes this lesson as Joe, a doll factory worker, learns why sales prices rise. Raw materials cost little, but taxes and the labor costs for the production, transportation, manufacturing, and selling of “a finished product” are expensive, constituting as much as eighty-five cents of the pre-tax selling price. The solution to wage-price leapfrogging, Joe learns, is “increased productivity,” which enables “wages to keep ahead of prices.” [4]
6 “What about Prejudice?”
In this Centron Corporation film, high school student Bruce Jones, subjected to the prejudice of his peers and viewed as unintelligent and unemployable, is considered someone to be avoided. Because of his “background,” he’s seen as the instigator of a fight between him and Ed, a boy popular with the other students. Bruce is also incorrectly suspected of theft. When he doesn’t go to a dance, those in attendance appreciate his absence.
After he risks his life rescuing a couple trapped in a car and suffers severe burns when the gas tank explodes, most of his schoolmates come to realize that Bruce is not the villain they’ve made him out to be. While waiting to see him at the hospital, the other students grapple with their consciences, facing the fact that they’ve been unfair to Bruce and need to change their behavior. The film ends with a rhetorical question, asking viewers to decide for themselves the cause of prejudice, suggesting, as possibilities, “a lack of understanding,” parental influence, and peer pressure. [5]
5 “Despotism”
In this 1946 Encyclopedia Britannica political science filmstrip, democracy and despotism are seen as polar opposites of one another. No particular form of government is able, by itself, to protect a nation against tyranny, the film says, but experts agree that two sets of scales indicate whether a nation is despotic or may become despotic.
The respect-power scale suggests that despotism exists if few people are accorded respect or are permitted to exercise power in making decisions that affect their lives and their nation’s society.
The economic distribution-information scales suggest that despotism is likely to occur in the future when a smaller middle class exists, a greater loss of small farm ownership occurs, an increased nationwide control of employment and commercial opportunities occurs, the poor are taxed more than other income classes, the press and other media are controlled by only a few, government and commercial censorship occurs, and there is a focus on authoritative instruction. [6]
4 “Are You Popular?”
It seems that Coronet Instructional Films even took an interest in promoting students’ dating popularity. This 1947 filmstrip presents high school boys’ assessments of popular new girl Carolyn Ames. Her well-groomed appearance is one of the qualities they like. They also appreciate her sociability and the fact that she is scandal-free. Gregarious, she shows an interest in other people’s pursuits and is willing to assist them, and she includes others in the conversations of which she is a part. Wally, the boy she dates, is considerate of her and includes her in making their dating plans.
Their qualities contrast with Jerry Brown’s asking a girl for a date at the last minute and with Jenny’s seeking popularity by “dating all the boys” and “parking in cars with [them] at night.” Taking a girl for granted and being inconsiderate, the filmstrip implies, is no more likely to win friends than promiscuity, and it is better to emulate Carolyn and Wally than to follow the examples of Jerry and Jenny. [7]
3 “Supervising Women Workers”
This 1944 United States Office of Education Training Film, produced by the Division of Visual Aids of the U.S. Office of Education, takes contemporary viewers back to a period of blatant sexism in which female employees were seen to present unique problems for their supervisors.
As a group of women streams onto a factory worksite, Joe, the foreman, admits to his supervisor Mr. Brooks, “Women scare me—at least, they do in a factory.” Mr. Brooks replies, “Maybe the women are scared, too, Joe,” reminding the foreman that “most of them are working on their first industrial job” in “a totally unfamiliar world.” However, Mr. Brooks adds a sexist comment: “They’re not naturally familiar with mechanical principles, nor machines,” as men apparently were believed to be. But, with patience, Mr. Brooks assures Joe, “Women workers can be surprisingly good producers.”
Mr. Brooks provides a few tips about “breaking in new workers, especially a woman,” such as simplifying the steps in a process, avoiding technical jargon, and assigning them “routine, repetitive work.” Only after Joe asks his wife what she did that day, and she responds with a long list of tasks and reminds him that many of the women workers perform “two jobs, one in the home, one in the plant,” does he begin to see things from his female employees’ perspective. Even so, many more sexist comments follow, during Mr. Brooks’s return visit, as Joe and Mr. Brooks exchange notes. [8]
2 “What About Juvenile Delinquency?”
As this 1955 Centron Productions filmstrip shows, American educators remained interested in teaching students about all manner of topics, including street gangs and curfews. Impatient with a man whom they think waits too long at a stop sign, four members of a local gang twice bump his sedan with their convertible. When the driver confronts the hoodlums, they beat him severely. After the victim’s teenage son James, a member of the same gang, learns they’ve beaten his father, he rushes home to find his mother tending to his father’s injuries.
As a result, James stands up to the gang. He defends the actions of law-abiding students to the city council, perhaps avoiding the council’s enactment of laws curtailing teenagers’ activities. The film ends with an open-ended question directed to the audience: “What can you do to prevent juvenile delinquency?” [9]
1 “Stillman Fires Collection: Five Fires”
As is the case with most of the twentieth-century educational filmstrips, the title of this silent picture makes clear its nature—and, in this instance, its contents. Subtitles introduce each fire—but there are seven of them, not five.
First up is the 1946 La Salle Hotel fire in Chicago, in which 58 people died. Inside the high-rise building, hallways and rooms have been gutted by the blaze. Corpses are laid out on the floor, on a table, on a stretcher, some beneath covers, others displaying arms as the bodies are fingerprinted for postmortem identification. A woman turns away, gagging.
Os outros incêndios – no cais Weehawken em 1946, em São Francisco (sem data); em um quartel em Tóquio em 1946, no Yokohama Post Exchange em 1946, em uma refinaria em Whiting, Indiana (sem data), e na balsa de Staten Island em 1946 – fornecem cenas igualmente dramáticas, se não tão horríveis, quanto o La Salle Incêndio hoteleiro. Paredes de chamas e montanhas de fumaça com bombeiros subindo escadas enquanto carregam uma mangueira aparentemente interminável. Fumaça saindo pelas janelas para o céu e soldados saindo correndo dos quartéis em chamas. Montanhas ondulantes de fumaça agitada, paredes desmoronando, fontes de descargas de mangueiras de incêndio, uma cachoeira caindo sobre as bordas de telhados planos e vagões de metrô deformados pelo fogo. Se fosse necessária uma lição sobre os perigos do fogo, esta tira de filme certamente a fornece. [10]
