Vietnam 1965, courtesy National Archives

On Sunday, May 2 at 2 p.m., two Vietnam War-era documentaries will be shown at the Everett Public Library Main Library auditorium as part of The Big Read program featuring The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien’s fictional account of the Vietnam War. These films and their creation and distribution are a part, perhaps less well known, of the story of United States involvement in Vietnam.

 Night of the Dragon, released in 1966, and Vietnam! Vietnam!, completed in 1968 and released in 1971, were produced and distributed by the United States Information Agency.

USIA was an independent agency within the executive branch of the federal government that existed from 1953 to 1999. Part of the mission of USIA was to explain and support American foreign policy and promote U.S. national interests through overseas information programs. These two films, narrated by Charlton Heston, were part of a USIA attempt to explain and justify U.S. involvement in Vietnam to the rest of the world.

Neither of these films could be shown in the United States at the time they were released. Until 1990, federal law prohibited films produced by the USIA to be shown in the United States unless a special exemption was made by Congress for a particular film. Congress was reluctant to have USIA information efforts directed at American citizens.

USIA distributed its films to foreign cinemas and world leaders, and showed them in USIA libraries around the world. While Night of the Dragon was shown widely abroad, Vietnam! Vietnam! was given very little exposure. By the time it was ready for distribution in 1971, U.S. foreign policy and the military and political situation had changed and the film was not considered helpful.

A word of warning about these films – there are some graphic scenes in each that may be considered disturbing – this screening is meant for adult audiences.

Marge

Seattle filmmaker Francine Strickwerda’s mother died from breast cancer when she was a child. Her family never discussed the subject, leaving her with a fear of these most obvious of female body parts. Busting Out, a film by turns funny and heartbreaking, explores America’s obsession with breasts as well as the grim reality of breast cancer, and is Strickwerda’s attempt to lay her personal demons to rest.

I’m not a sports fan, but Ward Serrill’s The Heart of the Game won my heart.  Serrill follows the Roosevelt High School girls’ basketball team, including their amazing coach Bill Resler as well as their star player Darnellia Russell, through six tumultuous seasons. Another great sports film for non-fans is A Hero for Daisy, which documents Olympic medalist Chris Ernst and her college rowing crew’s battle to force Yale University to provide equal facilities for female athletes. I would rate A Hero for Daisy as required viewing for young sports enthusiasts.

If you are a mother, or if you have a mother—and that’s all of us, right?—The Story of Mothers and Daughters is worth a look. Catherine Ryan and Gary Weimberg explore this often complicated relationship, minus the sentimentality that creeps into Mother’s Day cards. 

Death comes for us all, but most of us never imagine our lives ending with a home funeral. Elizabeth Westrate’s Family Undertaking introduces us to several families who decided to do it themselves, finding a meaning in death they believe is lost when we turn our loved ones over to the funeral industry. Despite its rather dire subject, this film is thought-provoking and heart-warming—and sometimes even funny.

I’ll leave you with one final recommendation, and it’s a film by Coline Serreau (yes, it has subtitles—but you won’t mind). Chaos, the funny, action-packed tale of an unhappy French wife who ends up the unlikely ally of a young prostitute seeking to escape the criminals who force her to work for them, received a standing ovation from festival attendees.

Eileen