Tuesday, July 2, 2024 at 7:30pm
Richard Cawston's Television and the World
361 Stagg Street, Suite 407, Brooklyn
Television and the World, Richard Cawston, 1961, 16mm, 85 mins
In 1961, the BBC’s Richard Cawston and his crew journeyed twice around the world, some 80,000 miles, to produce a documentary about international television, intent on capturing a moment when the new medium was developing rapidly on every continent. Two years earlier Cawston had produced This Is the BBC, his study of a day in the life of the network, and now set out to compare parallel operations in a variety of locales, each proceeding under different political and economic paradigms. “Even with all the advantages of jet travel,” Cawston later reported, “I had to begin by making a ruthless selection. As I was dealing with a means of mass communication I decided to go where the greatest masses existed, or where television seemed to have the greatest opportunities for exerting influence.”
The resulting program, Television and the World, broadcast that same year to commemorate the BBC’s 25th anniversary, profiles nine of the countries Cawston visited on his research, stopping by television studios as well as the homes of everyday viewers. What emerges is not a picture of a McLuhan-esque global village, but rather a strikingly broad array of approaches and attitudes towards the technology. In Italy, rural communities are seen using television as a means of adult education, with villagers congregating around a communal TV to learn reading and writing; in Egypt, broadcasters provide light entertainment for a wealthy elite; in Thailand, television is partially run by the army, with cameramen working in military uniform. Stations in Poland and Russia operate under tight state control, while programming in the US and Brazil is dominated by commercials. Japan invests heavily in R&D, boasting six networks with three in color, and in newly independent Nigeria, TV is a form of post-colonial negotation, taking root, in part, with British support.
Epic in scope, Television and the World nonetheless retains Cawston’s Free Cinema approach, favoring the quiet moments of everyday life, interspersing delicate observations of families gathered around the tube with more raucous footage of contemporary international programming—dramas, comedies, news, pop music, and dancing. Despite television’s diverse global forms, one commonality emerges: hungry for content to fill the hours, networks around the world are flooded by cheap American product, with old Westerns and telefilms quickly becoming an electronic lingua franca.
Tickets - Pay what you can ($10 suggested donation), available at door.
Please note: seating is limited. First-come, first-served. Box office opens at 7pm. No entry 10 minutes after start of show.