Explore the history of poverty in America first-hand with this special DVD compilation of historical filmstrips featuring great movies from the Salvation Army, the United Fund and other positive social organizations. There are six films of invaluable video history that helped bring about social change in the United States.
Included Films:
Poverty in Rural America
Poverty in Rural America
Produced: 1965
Length: 27 Minutes
This 1965 film by the U.S. Department of Agriculture takes an account of the War on Poverty, with a special focus on poor Southern people living in rural areas. Examining hidden poverty in America, the film is vibrant, and full of intense interviews with the actually impoverished. The film definitely takes a close-up look at the everyday problems of the poor. While depicting the situations and tribulations of these poverty stricken people, there is always an appropriate seriousness. Also discussed are the beginnings of government entitlement programs and government programs for the working poor. These are crucial developments in the history of poverty in America, with other aspects like social welfare programs and even the beginnings of the national school lunch program. These programs, at that time, were treated optimistically as possible final solutions for the impoverished. Poverty in Rural America is eye opening for its candor, and all the more relevant when watched today because it can be compared to current standards and attitudes towards poverty.
With No One to Help Us
With No One to Help Us
Produced: 1967
Length: 19 Minutes
This straightforward, unembellished documentary captures the struggle of Newark welfare mothers to form a buying club in response to store markups on food prices for welfare recipients. The film shows the meetings and discussions the women took part in to get the club started. They faced resistance from all sides: store owners, wholesalers, government officials, and even potential members. In one scene, a group of the all-black club members enter a warehouse staffed by all white men. This scene, more than any other in the film, shows the tensions and fear with which the women struggled. In the end, they succeed in forming their club, and the film ends on a somewhat false note of hope that no children in the future will need to live in poverty. Despite the tacked-on ending, this film is an important documentation of the brave struggle of the poor women living in the Newark project against the racial, financial, and social obstacles in their way.
A Place to Live
A Place to Live
Produced: 1948
Length: 24 Minutes
A citiys finest resource is its people. And its children. Tall structures and rows upon rows of houses are suitable but they do not hold a city together like its citizens do. And without proper housing children can not grow into the adults they are meant to be. A wasted youth spent in squalor is a crime according to this film. A post war treasure shot in 1948, A Place to Live, brings home some riveting questions that still hold true today. What is the answer to housing problems for the poor? How do we assure that our greatest assets grow and thrive into functioning members of society? Is there a place to live for everyone?
For the Living
For the Living
Produced: 1949
Length: 22 Minutes
This is a story about a city. It is a story of streets and neighborhoods and of the people that live in them. It is the people who make a city what it is and in another sense it is the city that makes the people. Yet there are places amongst the towering structures and beautiful streets that are cruel, thoughtless, blocked and littered. It is the slums – a thoughtless backlash of a growing city. A city is a place for the living yet poverty stricken areas carry a death rate 1/3 higher than wealthier parts of the city. Is public housing the answer? Is it the answer to slums? For the Living, attempts to answer those questions and more, in this honest and bleak look at some of the roughest neighborhoods in New York City.
The Long Street
The Long Street
Produced: 1957
Length: 13 Minutes
There is a long street that seems to stretch forever. You live on the long street, enjoying the advantages of facilities for work and play. Like in all things there are two sides to the street. While many enjoy the bright side of the road, many others are walking along the shadowy path encountering obstacles physically as well as financially. The Salvation Army with faith in God and faith in man, is always ready to help any man, woman or child who come upon hard times, so they may find their self respect. They are an army against the shadowy path of disability. Made in 1957, this piece explores how the Salvation Army helps those who have lost faith in humanity and encourages watchesr to make financial donations to continue the fight. A historically significant work, The Long Street, is an intriguing look at the Salvation Army in the 1950s.
Till It Helps
Till It Helps
Produced: 1959
Length: 7 Minutes
Like any major city in the United States St. Louis is and was plagued with the problem of poverty stricken, disabled, people, who are not able to afford even the meanest of necessities. Til It Helps, serves as St. Louis attempt to get people involved in the community effort of helping the poor by donating money during the 1950s. Trash littered streets and stark ghettos, that are home to juvenile boys in search of trouble, remind the viewer that poverty is not merely an affliction of someone else but the affliction of everyone in the community of humanity.
