Films on 5/25/08

Down and Out (1971) National Safety Council/Journal Films
Depicts falling as one of the most common causes of injury in a shop situation, and examines the common hazards which cause people to lose their balance, such as over-reaching, taking short cuts, failure to check equipment and not looking where one is going. This is one of my top ten favorite films. It has a great drum soundtrack and the guy just keeps falling over and over and over...

Portrait of a Vandal (1978) Centron Tells the true story of three young boys who vandalize a classmate's home. Shows the effect on the boys and their parents. Wow, they totally wreck the little girl's room. It seems like everybody enjoyed trashing the house.

Collective Behavior - Civil Disturbances - Part I - Evolution of Disorder and Crowd Psychological Factors (1975) U.S. Army.
This film was made for military police and soldiers on what causes civil disturbances and riots. A fairly enlightened film considering it was made by and for the Establishment. Lots of footage of demonstrations and rioting during America's late 1960s. The still on the left was from a Yippie rally and is a quote from Ed Saunders (The Fugs). I got this film on Ebay, but ultimately I'm looking for another film - Civil Disturbances - Principles of Control (1968).

From Rugs To Riches (1960) Thomas Craven/Caprolan
Made for carpet salesmen, madcap Jonathan Winters shills Caprolan acrylic carpeting with a variety of characters. Some of the bits work and others fall flat - like another internal sales film that audiences hate (but I love) Freeze-In. The color is bad on the film, but I'll try and get it online soon.

Ins and Outs of the Diaphragm (1976) Crommie And Crommie
Follows a woman who no longer wishes to use birth control pills as she visits a nurse-practitioner to be fitted for a diaphragm. Explains, through the course of the visit and the questions of the woman, what the diaphragm is, how it works and how it is inserted and removed. Nothing left to the imagination with this film. We see a cervix and how the diaphragm is inserted and removed from the vagina(!). Films that explicitly show how to use birth control are rare (mostly Army films made for men) - so this is quite a film.

But If You Live... (1982) Kemper
Focuses on high school students' attitudes towards driving and drinking. Features interviews with teens who survived DWI accidents but were left permanently disabled. Provides another perspective through a parent who lost a teenage daughter. I let folks pick a film based on titles. They picked this film over Johnny Boy, Silent Upstairs and Companions. Besides the wretched 1980s clothes and hair, this film was a downer - probably shown to high school kids the week before prom.

Family Talks about Sex (1977) Wexler Film Productions, Inc
Stresses frank family discussion about sex. Suggests that if parents frame their statements about sex around their own beliefs and that if the parent/child relationship is founded on love, respect and trust, then the child will be able to make responsible decisions about sex. A pretty progressive film but not as visionary as Parent to Child About Sex (1967) which addresses much of the same topics. This film did share a common thread that we found in Portrait of a Vandal and But If You Live... - little girl's bedrooms with canopy beds and funky headboards.