Peace Through Understanding: The 1964/65 New York World's Fair
	In Stock, Ships Immediately!		DVD: $39.99

		new york city, forest hills

Film Overview

View Official Website	Release Date: 2008-06-01 Running Time: 3:30 Content Rating: GA (General Audience)	DVD Region: 1 - U.S., Canada, U.S. Territories Media Format: NTSC-DVD Aspect Ratio: 4:3 Audio Language(s): English
Genres: Documentary >> History :: Documentary >> Space Exploration :: Documentary >> Art & Artists

Synopsis

PEACE THROUGH UNDERSTANDING: THE 1964/65 NEW YORK WORLD’S FAIR interweaves recollections of numerous participants with archival footage, photos and period music for a behind-the-scenes and historical account of the Fair and its turbulent and exciting backdrop of the Cold War, civil rights movement, space race, and more. The narrative incorporates their reminiscences and insights into the historical context of the event and the site itself as it evolved from an ash dump to the 1939/40 New York World’s Fair to the temporary headquarters of the United Nations to the 1964/65 World’s Fair and then, in 1967, to its current state as a New York City park. The magic of World’s Fairs is their ability to make possible what has never been done, to make achievable what has not yet been accomplished. This 2 DVD set – the 90-minute documentary and 2 hours from the cutting room floor - is the story of one … with numerous outtakes and never-before-seen extras!

Crew

Production Company: BBQ Productions | bio
www.bbqproductions.com

Bonus Features

Scene Selections
Outtakes
Deleted & Extended Scenes

Accolades

Press Reviews

Viewer | show/hide snippet
The amount of work and research that went into this film was evident and is truly mind boggling. How did the filmmakers find all of those people and present them so well? Awesome. The flow of the story carried my emotions along with it. I was excited about the promise of what the fair could be, nervous about it being completed on time, horrified when it rained, thrilled as it unfolded, sad when it ended and left wondering what it was all for when it was demolished. I watched the people going to the fair -- happy scrubbed white faces. Men and boys in suits, women and girls in dresses. It looked so perfect, so American. So post-war, so Happy Days. But we know it was not all that way then, and they knew it too. Just when this thing is looking like the crown jewel of a perfect America, the film hits us with the racial unrest of the time. Brilliantly timed. Perfect. I have always thought that the greatest time to live in America would have been the end of WWII to the Kennedy assassination -- if you were white and had a little money that is. If not, well, it ain't your America. Not your dream. We moved to the suburbs and had backyard cookouts and bought Fords and Chevys and Pontiacs and Buicks. We lived in Futurama. Better living thru petro-chemicals. The BOMB is our friend. What I took away
from the film is that the fair was one last gasp, one last grab at the apple. One last chance to celebrate the America that so many people wanted it to be, one that had in fact been for so many but sadly excluded so many others. Americans were forced to look at the faces of their neighbors and see their tears. They knew that questions were being asked and that our once infallible and protecting government and military did not have good and just answers. There just might be a day of reckoning around the corner, we might have to look around, or worse yet, look in the mirror. But....but, not before we go to the fair. The New York World's Fair! I have read most of Hemingway's work. Part of his brilliance was that his stories seem simple at first. O. K., that was a pretty good book, but it just stays with you, you think about it, it embeds itself in your consciousness. The filmmakers took what seems to be a simple story and portrayed it in such a way as to evoke social thought and an examination of our history. They embedded the conflict of June Cleaver meets Jane Fonda in my consciousness. I will think of this film often, the story it told, the questions it asked. Some it could answer; some linger to this day.