Description
| Title | Continent Aflame Part Two |
|---|---|
| Duration | 1 hour 44 secs |
| Collection | Educational and Television Films Ltd |
| Language | |
| Country View on map | |
| Director | |
| Subjects | |
| Terms of Use | more… |
Description
A view of South American political and social troubles in the 20th Century. Focus on Chile, Mexico (material from 1910), Peru, Venezuela and PanamaSegments
?Segment 1
Starts: 0:00
(8:52)
Spanish Civil War newsreel footage 1936: US Lincoln Battalion marching near Madrid. Hemingway part of the Lincoln Battalion. Graves of fallen American Brigaders. Exterior shots of the White House. Colour footage: Washington, young American soldiers who received decorations in Vietnam, throw away medals in protest. Panama Canal Zone, training of 8th US Special Forces group. On a mass scale, units train for Guerilla warfare in Latin America and Vietnam. B/W footage of teacher lecturing Latin American nationals. Emphasis on importance of war of words and political 'brainwashing'; CIA training of Green Berets including Guerilla warfare training in a mock village. Brief interview with General Edward Flanagan, commander of Green Berets; the same military wings that tracked down Che Guevara in Bolivia. Photographs of Che Guevara in Bolivia. Letter dropped by US military offering money for capture of Che Guevara. Soldiers who captured and killed Che Guevara. Homage to Che Guevara: song over photos.
Segment 2
Starts: 8:52
(9:09)
Colour: Santiago housing settlement named after Che Guevara. The People's Unity Government brings in educational reform, buses turned into improvised schools, milk provisions for children. Pan over shanty towns, terrible conditions. Description of housing reforms. Building developments. Allende takes part in a voluntary workday. Interview with Allende: he speaks of the future of Chile and Latin America and in particular combating the brutality and harsh existence of many Latin Americans. Cave dwelling prospectors in Atakarma desert: working conditions for miners. Film follows journey of the miners from mining caves to taking goods over the scorched landscape.
Segment 3
Starts: 18:01
(11:20)
1970 - hippies run rally in Venezuela, film claims that their smoking of pot prevents credence being given to their protest. In the most southern school in the world, children sing the national anthem. Their father's are oil workers working in the newly nationalized companies. Whale and seal-hunters and members of other agricultural and farming industries. Monuments to the people of the plains: the shepherds. Tierra del Fuego, at the southern tip of South America, the landscape and its wildlife. Evidence of natural gas supplies. Puerto Williams, Chile, the southern most town in the world and its post-office. The postal agent registers marriages, deaths and births due to no priest being in the vicinity. The Straight of Magellan. The capital of Venezuela, Caracas: street scenes and urban infrastructure. Influence of foreign investment in the city.
Segment 4
Starts: 29:21
(7:14)
Spanish influences on the cultural life and architecture in Caracas and Lima. A bull fight in present day Venezuela. A bull fight in Barcelona, August 1936; first month of the Civil War in Spain. Anti-fascist gestures in the audience and displayed by the soldiers.
Segment 5
Starts: 36:35
(11:06)
Northern Latin America landscape nearing and in Panama where the influence of the United States was rigorously felt because of the occupation of the Panama Canal zone. The leader of Panama General Omar Torrijos gives a speech to crowds of farmers. Celebration to marks the commission of a new water supply system. History, economic and political problems of the Panama Canal Treaty of 1903, footage of canal and ships. Street scenes present day Panama. The American occupation zone fenced off from the Republic of Panama. Filming inside the United States territory of the Panama Canal area and its headquarters. A child peering through a fence looking from one side to another: prosperity divided from the slum area of Hollywood in the Republic of Panama.
Segment 6
Starts: 47:41
(13:03)
President Kennedy Avenue, renamed by locals as Martyr's Avenue: two names of the dividing area with the American zone. US atrocities committed in 1964 against protesting Panama students: black and white newsreel sequences show evidence of protests and soldiers attacking. Funeral procession of victims. Five minute silence as act of remembrance and protest. Colour scenes of the memorial. Panama City, the country's capital, a quarter of a million people meet in the main square for the Independence Celebration, only a few yards from the US controlled Canal Zone. People sing the Spanish song 'Sovereignty' and dance to the music as an expression of their desire to see the American military presence withdrawn from Panama. Speech by General Omar Torrijos, denouncing US occupation. Montage sequence-celebrating socialist Latin America. Credits. (Soundtrack continues after image ends).
