NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS UNITED NATIONS FILMS, VIDEOS TO BE FEATURED AT VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, 30 AUGUST - 1 SEPTEMBER
Press Release
NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS UNITED NATIONS FILMS, VIDEOS TO BE FEATURED AT VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, 30 AUGUST - 1 SEPTEMBER
19970828Also To Be Aired on In-House Channels 3, 31, on 2-3 September
A retrospective of United Nations films and videos will be shown at United Nations Headquarters in New York on in-house channel 3 or 31 on Tuesday and Wednesday, 2 and 3 September. The screening will be from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.
The productions, which include the most recently released videos made by the Department of Public Information (DPI), as well as programmes dating back over four decades, are being screened at the fifty-fourth Venice International Film Festival from 30 August to 1 September. The Secretary-General will be attending the festival on 30 August.
The videos will also be shown simultaneously on a large screen in the viewing room in Studio 4 on the 1B level of the General Assembly Building near the Viennese Cafe.
On Tuesday, 2 September, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m., the following videos will be screened at Headquarters:
-- Overture (1958): Black-and-white film treatment of part of Beethoven's Egmont Overture (9 minutes);
-- Footnotes to a War (1980): Film on plight of refugees in Indo-China (15 minutes);
-- Free Namibia (1978): Film on history and situation of Namibia (then South-West Africa);
-- Breaking Barriers (1989): Video on hopes and reams of disabled people (29 minutes); and
-- Menace of Land-Mines (1997): Video on worldwide problem of land- mines (14 minutes).
On Wednesday, 3 September, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m., the following videos will be screened:
-- Asimbonanga (1989): Animated musical montage of the struggle by the people of South Africa against apartheid (6 minutes);
-- A Cyber-Tale of Three Cities (1997): Three teenagers on different continents communicate via the Internet about the problems their home cities face and the answers their communities are finding (28 minutes);
-- Secret in the Sand (1997): The menace of biological weapons using the work of UNSCOM as an example (29 Minutes); and
-- UN Peace-keeping: Situation report (1987): A day in the life of United Nations peace-keepers in Cyprus and the Middle East (27 minutes);
The retrospective at the fifty-fourth Venice Film Festival and the current screenings in New York provide a showcase for United Nations films and videos, which have played an important part in the Organization's information work since the 1940s. The United Nations image on television news, largely based on material provided daily by the DPI in New York, is a familiar one. Less well known is the output of short and long documentary material which, over a half century, has continued to reach a worldwide audience.
The United Nations began covering its work on film shortly after the first General Assembly in London in 1946. In those days, coverage was on 35 mm film and also included feature production. One of the United Nations' early 35 mm productions -- a short documentary entitled "First Steps", about a disabled child learning to walk -- won an Academy Award in 1947. An example from the era of 35 mm production, "Overture", which was nominated for an Academy Award, is included in the retrospective. Many distinguished figures from the film and television industry have contributed their talents to United Nations productions. Among them are director Roberto Rossellini, writer John Hersey, and television and radio personality Alistair Cooke -- who hosted a series of United Nations documentaries in the 1950s and 1960s.
As technology changed, so did the United Nations productions. Thirty- five mm film gave way to lightweight 16 mm equipment, making it easier for United Nations producers to cover activities in the field. "Footnotes to a War" (1980) and "Free Namibia", included in the retrospective, both told their stories using 16 mm.
Animation has also enhanced the United Nations' message. An animation film on disarmament, "Booom", won a Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1979. "Asimbonanga" (1989), included in the retrospective, shows how animation illustrated the anti-apartheid cause.
- 3 - Note No. 5429 28 August 1997
The arrival of high-quality video field equipment plunged United Nations television into the video era in the late 1980s. "Situation Report" (1989) was one of the first United Nations feature productions to employ this technology. "Secrets in the Sand" and "A Cyber-Tale of Three Cities", both released in 1997, are the most recent United Nations documentary feature releases produced in video format.
Over the years, United Nations film and video productions have won more than 75 international awards, most recently at the CNN World Report Contributor's Conference in Atlanta in 1997, where two news feature items produced by United Nations Television in its "UN in Action" series won news awards.
This year's screenings in Venice, which follow a 1996 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York during the United Nations' fiftieth anniversary year, are recognition by the industry of the place of United Nations film and television in the development of the documentary from over the past five decades.
More than 100 United Nations film and video productions are currently in active distribution.
For further information on United Nations televisions' daily output, call Joe McCusker, (212) 963-7462. For further information on United Nations feature and news magazine productions, call Barbara Sue-Ting-Len, (212) 963-6982.
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