Films by season & age - The Power of Propaganda (Ages 15-18)

Seasons are a great way to explore different ideas through watching a group of films. Why not try watching all the films in a season and make some time for discussion. Topics and discussion points are included.

What are the agendas of the people on who you rely for information? Can you be sure you’re being told the truth? What if it’s all one enormous deception? These are the questions that concern us in this FilmClub season, as we take a long, hard look at the subject of propaganda – the “art” of putting across information in such a way that there only appears to be one side of an argument or one version of events, usually for political ends. Here you’ll find movies about propaganda – a fine adaptation of George Orwell’s legendary
novel 1984, for instance, or Wag The Dog, a blackly comic look at a fictitious war presented to the public to distract them from a sex scandal with the help of a gullible media. But we’re also offering films which were themselves propaganda – such as the infamous Triumph of the Will, a documentary on the Berlin Olympics of 1936 that is widely acknowledged as a stunning example of the power of the movies, but one that was used by the Nazis to help promote their regime. Sometimes the purpose of propaganda has been relatively innocent – for instance, to keep up the spirits of ordinary people in wartime. At other moments, however, the goal simply becomes control and manipulation. You’ll find films that deal with both aspects of propaganda in this seasons – one we hope will remind you to always consider just who is telling you a supposed “fact”, and what they might stand to gain from you believing it!

SUGGESTED PAIR

George Orwell’s novel 1984 was written only a few years after the wartime Went The Day Well, but while the latter acted as propaganda itself in encouraging Britain’s “war effort”, the former was a scathing analysis of the way a government can misuse control over the people. Thank You For Smoking and The Corporation each deal with the kinds of media and PR tactics employed by modern day corporations.

TALKING POINTS

Are there times when you think the use of propaganda is justified? How much – if any – of what we think of as our news today could be classed as propaganda? Do you think that movies can be propaganda even when they appear to be completely nonpolitical and to have no real “message”?