The term ‘ephemeral film’ was first coined by film archivist Rick Prelinger to categorise films including social guidance films, police training videos, and PSA’s, specifically made for non-artistic purposes. Veering from insidious propaganda to the hilariously misguided, this strand offers a portal into the prejudices, fears and desires of a not-so-distant past.

After the Second World War, the USA was gripped by the ‘Red Scare,’ a national paranoia that the country was being infiltrated by communist spies.

This hysteria found its natural home in the burgeoning educational film industry, through the technology of the day and by using schools and workplaces as screening venues, corporations were able to disseminate anti-communist material at an alarming speed.

Collectively, these films display the absurd rhetoric used to warn citizens of insidious communist tactics and the concomitant, lingering threat of nuclear annihilation. Programmed by Tom Grimshaw. 87’

This retrospective is kindly supported by The Prelinger Archive and AV Geeks.