8 - History through Motion Pictures

History through Motion Pictures

by Romandeep, Ruo Chen & Victoria

Many documentaries created throughout the world have not shown much propaganda as of looking at other Cultures around the world. Documentaries have been formed around the uses of history and memory. The two films viewed in class were a combination of History, Memory and Propaganda the most subtle and extreme forms.

The ways Governments work come in all different shapes and forms. Many of the governments in modern day are democratic, but it once was a complete way of thinking. The four movies that deal with Government and the different ways it runs are: “Night and Fog.”, “Triumph of the Will.”, “Comfort and Indifference.”, “Action: The October Crisis.”

Night and Fog

(Alain Resnais, 1955, France, 32 minutes.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wx3wkgZuf0

“Night and Fog” showed us the end result of World War Two a and the horrible things that the Nazis did to their prisoners. The person in charge of this was Adolf Hitler who was the leader of the Nazi party of Germany. "Night and Fog" was a documentary film about how Hitler used his power to distort the German populations' minds and how he assumed Germans to be a superior race. The film was structured as being a short documentary film with a lot of Impact, in the sense that what we see is what actually happed and what people fear to think about today. The documentary showed actual prison camps and how people were brutally tortured and responsibility was foreign to the Germans. The story told in this documentary was of how when people asked who was in charge of causing this chaos and terror, nobody would say they were responsible. The images used in this movie were in color and black and white. It was a combination of the present and past and emphasized how there were not many remains of the camps and how something so horrible could still be overpowered by nature.

Triumph of the Will

(Leni Riefenstahl, 1935, Germany, 114 minutes.)

“Triumph of the Will” was completely different than “Night and Fog" where they showed all the positives reasons for following the Nazi Party and associating with them. Every person that was not part of this part did not have an income and therefore could not support a family. The director of this documentary emphasized on how powerful the German population was and how they needed to prove their strength to the world. "Triumph of the Will" showed us how Hitler used his child camps to seem like a “fun” place for other teenagers to go when in reality it was a camp to train them to become like all of the other Nazis. The camps and advertisements for the camps were trying to prove how friendly and role-model like, Hitler was.

The main issues presented in the films are; the use of Collective memory, and propaganda. These issues are represented in the film for one instance in the negative use of propaganda, Hitler was viewed as this tall strong father liked figure, with people cheering and loving him and having this big army. It made him seem larger than life and almost someone in which you would fear. The use of collective memory was shown in "Night and Fog" when they go to the prison camps and show how much it has changed from the holocaust and how many lives were lost. The innocent people kept fighting for their lives because, they remember the moments they had with loved ones and wanted to one day create new memories with them. In “Night and fog” the imagery was one of the best documented and graphic films in the explanation and experience of what had really happened at that time. It was almost cruel in how it was real It was because nothing was edited or acted and it was a horrible truth we have to face. In “Triumph and the Will” its message was very easy to understand. It showed that Hitler was this kind ruler that smiled and loved his country, and everyone loves him including the youth with their “fun” camps. The message also came across as a threat to anyone one who watched it that may have been against him showing his big army and supporters. The main concepts shown throughout the films were consisting of collective memory. The two films showed how having one bad memory can set someone off, which potentially happened to Hitler. He was reminded of how Germany lost WWI and how he wanted to prove everyone wrong and show dominance in the world.

Both films give the next generation a better view of the WWII and the memories lost within. If we separate theses film and watch only one of them, we will be only able to understand one side of it. But the second film and other knowledge, we can see different side of that part.

The two extra screenings explained another story about how memory and how French is the language of Quebec. It explained many things that our generation learned only from book. It seems that everything was peaceful. But actually it’s not that beautiful then we thought. It’s like a river; calm on the surface but dangerous if you go deeper.

On the two other film about our country,

Action: The October Crisis of 1970

(Robin Spry, 1973, Canada, 87 minutes)

“Action: The October Crisis of 1970” is a documentary film about a series of events that were triggered from the discontent of French-speaking Canadians who were not getting equal right and opportunities as the English and demanded justice. An unofficial political party called Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ) decided to take make the choices sovereignist's wanted to see even after all of the rioting and protests that occurred. After the first time that the PQ participated the vote gain 24%of the total votes has only a few seats in Parliament. The FLQ uses terrorism act to spread his message to the government.  The members of the FLQ decided to kidnap the British Trade commissioner of Montreal, James Cross and Pierre Laporte. The FLQ is a political organization that was for separating and not being associated with the rest of Canada. The film was structured in a chronological order, going from when French-speaking Quebecers wanted their own rights and lasted until the choices for Quebec were made. The main events encountered in the film were the riots and press conferences that occurred in October and the kidnappings of James Cross and Pierre Laporte.

Comfort and indifference

(Denys Arcand, 1982, Canada, 109 minutes)

    

“Comfort and indifference” made in 1982 is a documentary film about the sovereignty movement in the 1980’s and the referendum that happened in 1980. The documentary went in-depth into what the politicians said, what promises they wanted to make if they won and what the overall attitude of the population was towards this topic. The film directors wanted to show how the population wanted to stay together as a province, but at the same time wanted to not have anything to do with the rest of Canada. René Lévesque was the main politician at this time who favored Quebec not being part of Canada and for having a referendum to separate. The votes showed that 59.56% of people wanted Quebec to stay a part of Canada and 40.44% wanted to be independent.

The main issues raised in the film were history and collective memory and how it shapes us as a whole. The documentaries show the conflicts that happened between the English and French speaking parts and the actions taken by the FLQ, but they have brought both languages together as much as they have separated them

Both these films were very special, because they showed how much of a culturally diverse place it is and how it is a good place for children to grow up in. They show in the streets how people would all dress similarly but have their own unique style at the same time. The documentaries really emphasized on what the intentions of Quebecers were and what kind of people would be ruling and what kind way police would act. The documentaries showed raw footage of how making Quebec separate would change everything for the people living inside Quebec. Many questions were brought up while watching this film such as, if Quebec did separate how would the political justice system work differently from the rest of Canada? How economically advanced would Quebec be? What currency would be made after it separates? Both films had many eye opening scenes but among the most controversial was René Lévesque saying "If I've understood you well, you're telling me 'until next time'." This quote can imply that perhaps the French speaking population of Quebec is rising and maybe one day it will separate. These two films help to create our sense of history collective memory because; they both show us how life used to be and how it has brought us all closer together as a community. The October crisis was heavily involved with collective memory and history b and zan ecause it focuses on how we were a predominantly French speaking Province and we are losing touch with this side, yet we stay strong. The extreme extents to the film should not have been taken, because we can all work together and we have included, both the French and English language and lifestyle Into our everyday lives

Why these films?

From the four documentaries, they have shown collective memory and how history can be interpreted in completely differently ways. In the movie “Comfort and indifference” The people who would choose for Quebec to separate have the same problems of the people who want Quebec to stay a part of Canada, but because of similar values and perceptions, they form the community of Quebec. So by having background and the culture, the story is different. All stories will be then different. But no matter how you look at these stories, there’s a definite version.

Then apply this in a movie. What we watch is the perception of the movie maker or the producer. No matter how we think or look at all images, if we don’t know other “versions” of the story, we won’t be able to see the views of the director. That’s the importance of collective memories. By having different story tellers plus our own analysis the story will be complete.

The movie “Comfort and indifference”, the director added an extra player in the movie, Niccolo Machiavelli to introduce Machiavellianism in this specific part of Quebec history. By introducing quotes of this man’s view, it gives a definition of all movements of the government and of the population. It’s a good way to show the audience that we all might have a different past, but we can shape our future and there isn't just one side to every story. At each different quote, it gives some examples from the speeches in the movie as well. What can be interpreted from Niccolo Machiavelli is that regardless of the differences that occurred with the French and English sides, we can work together and make both languages a part of our history to come. 

We can learn a lot about our heritage as Quebecers and we can learn a lot about the Holocaust and WWII. Many of the ideas brought up in the four movies were that we all have a history and past, whether we chose to accept it or deny it. We can all work together and let bad-blood wash away or we can solve our problems with words and non-violence. We can learn that Germany might have had a bad past but one person doesn't form an entire history, it's who else choses to contribute and make their country sought out to what they want it to be. These four films can challenge our vision on the world in many negative ways, but we can also look at in in the sense that, without everyone putting in effort to stop someone from ruling the world, or even making a province separate, we would not have learned the true meaning of effort and how a bad memory can make a positive future. The documentary directors used many good strategies to make the viewer more involved and some of the more predominant were; the use of archival footage to show proof towards what they tried to prove and how they tried to use propaganda to carry a certain message. These movies can relate to almost all of our lives because, fear was shown to almost everyone that was involved with these time periods and it is very similar to the Quebec federal elections. The movies brought up many questions and it put fear into the viewers because, what if there was a referendum and Quebec did change, how would we have reacted and felt and how would we have been able to change that? 

At the end, these documentary films, or these stories are part of our past and we have had many good memories and bad memories from our past. It is only up to the generations to come to learn from the mistakes that happened In the past and to observe the different events that took place In history to make the world a better place to live for the future generations to come. The past has had many inspirational leaders and many fearful dictators, but without having the experience of it happening in the past, it was bound to happen in the future and It does, but not to the same extremes as it once did.