New Deal Film Festival

By Rob Christopher in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 14, 2008 5:08PM

Banks collapsing. Economic uncertainty. A widening gap between the rich and the poor. Which era are we describing?

Roosevelt's New Deal constituted a whole series of programs and initiatives aimed at getting the country back on its feet. The Works Progress Administration gave regular employment to many artists, photographers and filmmakers. Columbia College has organized a 75th anniversary program of many New Deal films, which runs this Wednesday. Included are several influential but hard-to-see documentaries. “Coming from the only period in the 20th century US history that the government had an active involvement in the production and distribution of art, these New Deal films give us a glimpse of the attempts in this country of creating art with a mission," as Columbia professor Carmelo Esterrich puts it. It's a total 180 from contemporary attempts to practically dismantle arts programs like the National Endowment for the Arts.

Among the most well-known movies on the program are the documentaries The Plow That Broke The Plains and The River, both featuring scores by composer Virgil Thompson. They have a kind of weird pastoral beauty that seems to have completely vanished from the American documentary. It's safe to say that we aren't likely to see anything similar coming from Washington anytime soon.

In addition to three sets of screenings there will also be a series of panel discussions and lectures. The full line up is here. Everything takes place at Columbia's Film Row Cinema Theater, 1104 S. Wabash. And it's all free!