American Food and American Marketing: Program 1

"By the sixties, the advertising world was confident that anything and everything could be packaged and sold. Not just brand name products, but a world view was purchased on the shelves of supermarkets and suburban malls, and displayed in magazine ads and on highway billboards. Using the marketing strategies that sold America an ever increasing bill of goods, filmmakers examined just what was being sold, to whom and how. Some, like Andy Warhol, used these strategies in their art, mass producing a mirror image of a commodity society. Others sought to reveal what is concealed in commercial advertising images: beneath the polished glamour, days of unglamourous tasks, behind the lily white facade, discrimination against blacks, and under the commercial artists' lights...just another 'lemon'." Kathy Geritz Lemon (Hollis Frampton, 1969, 7.5 min, Silent, Color). Oh Dem Watermelons (Robert Nelson, 1965, 12 min, Color). Schmeerguntz (Gunvor Nelson, 1966, 15 min). Andy Warhol (Marie Menken, 1965, 22 min, Silent, Color). Excited Turkeys (Willard Maas, 1969, 10 min, Color). Doggie Diner and the Return of Doggie Diner (Lenny Lipton, 1969, 7 min, Color). (Total running time: 75.5 min, Prints from Canyon Cinema, Inc., Film-makers' Cooperative, and PFA Collection)

This page may by only partially complete.