One of the most talked about films at this year’s Festival was CSA: CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. Sure it wasn’t sci-fi, but sci-fi isn’t just about space travel and aliens, it’s about ideas and hypothesising alternative realities or possibilities, and if it has a strong political, social, philosophical or religious message behind it, so much the better. CSA has no spaceships but the ‘reality’ it portrays seems quite alien. What the film does is to take the classic starting point of a “what if” situation and presents it as a documentary. While some may call it a mockumentary, it is a serious, and powerful, piece of satire that uses the documentary format to give it credence.
The conceit behind this film is that the Confederates won the American Civil War and that not only is slavery correct and proper but the Negroes are better off because of it. The film is presented as an entire television programme created by the British Broadcasting Service, complete with a warning to viewers of its controversial nature, and commercial breaks for products such as Darky toothpaste and slave insurance. Although the director makes a joke out of the broadcast being of a banned foreign film, “unsuitable for children or servants”, the BBC4 documentary series, “The Power of Nightmares” by Adam Curtis, which exposes the US government as the inventors of Al Quaeda, and of having a long history of creating a state of fear (or terror if you like) in the US, has been completely banned from broadcast there, and that is no joke.
Apart from the fact that the racist attitudes alluded to still prevail in many areas of the US, it is the cleverly scripted voiceover and believable authority of the talking heads, similar to those that appear in ‘real’ documentaries, which give it its power. Coupled with the use of actual historical footage, photographs and paintings, whose meaning are completely altered by the accompanying dialogue, you are left wondering what is real and what is invented. Even the ‘historical’ scenes and public information films that have been recreated are made to look as if they were contemporary with faded colours and film scratches, further adding to the illusion.
Like any good satire, it does make you laugh, cautiously, because it is outrageous in every sense of the word, but its impact comes from its message. And, given recent events in the US (i.e. New Orleans), this is a timely reminder of US human rights issues and the fact that they are not the great democracy they claim to be.
It’s not bog-standard sci-fi or fantasy, but it is thought-provoking, which makes a very good reason to see it. If you missed it the Festival it is having a limited theatrical release from August 4. Regional dates and venues are:
04/08/2006 ICA Cinema LONDON
01/09/2006 Midlands Art BIRMINGHAM
01/09/2006 Warwick Arts Centre COVENTRY
22/09/2006 Film Theatre IPSWICH
22/09/2006 Cinema City NORWICH
29/09/2006 Dukes PlayHouse LANCASTER
06/10/2006 Chapter CARDIFF