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EUR FILM REVIEW (CSA: CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA): What if the South Had Won the Civil War?
(February 16, 2006)
*If you’ve ever wondered what the course America history might have taken if the south had won the Civil War, you might like to check out CSA: The Confederate States of America. Written and directed by Kevin Willmott, a cinema professor at the University of Kansas, this fake film unfolds much like a Ken Burns PBS documentary, though narrated by a Brit as if a serious BBC production.
Willmott has cleverly spliced in reams of historical footage, though editing them in to present a country where slavery never ended. This documentary-style flick also contains present-day commercials in order to convey the sense that one is actually watching television.
For instance, the first ad, for Confederate Family Insurance, features a carefree white family frolicking in front of their suburban home with a picket fence. The commercial is unremarkable till the very end when a voiceover proudly proclaims, “For over 100 years, protecting a people and their property,” while showing a slave toiling away in the garden.
CSA is likely to be misunderstood in much the same way Spike Lee’s Bamboozled caused controversy, because it presents America’s ugly legacy of racism in an in-your-face fashion, which leaves the viewer wondering whether the South might have actually won the Civil War afterall.
For in a telling postscript, the picture sorts out some of its fact from fiction, explaining that much of what you’ve just witnessed, such as Niggerhead Cigarettes and Coon Chicken were not fabrications but real products which were only relatively recently discontinued. Meanwhile, the culture is still saturated with subtle slave imagery, such as Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben.
An infinitely creative, and alternately sobering and humorous look at America’s lingering legacy of racism.
Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 89 minutes
Studi IFC Films
Willmott has cleverly spliced in reams of historical footage, though editing them in to present a country where slavery never ended. This documentary-style flick also contains present-day commercials in order to convey the sense that one is actually watching television.
For instance, the first ad, for Confederate Family Insurance, features a carefree white family frolicking in front of their suburban home with a picket fence. The commercial is unremarkable till the very end when a voiceover proudly proclaims, “For over 100 years, protecting a people and their property,” while showing a slave toiling away in the garden.
Lampooning everything from World War II to the Home Shopping Network, the production presents a very familiar country except that slavery still exists. So, the NAACP stands for the National Association for the Advancement of Chattel People, and blacks attempting to escape from their condition are diagnosed as suffering from a mental illness referred to as Runaway Slave Syndrome.
CSA is likely to be misunderstood in much the same way Spike Lee’s Bamboozled caused controversy, because it presents America’s ugly legacy of racism in an in-your-face fashion, which leaves the viewer wondering whether the South might have actually won the Civil War afterall.
For in a telling postscript, the picture sorts out some of its fact from fiction, explaining that much of what you’ve just witnessed, such as Niggerhead Cigarettes and Coon Chicken were not fabrications but real products which were only relatively recently discontinued. Meanwhile, the culture is still saturated with subtle slave imagery, such as Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben.
An infinitely creative, and alternately sobering and humorous look at America’s lingering legacy of racism.
Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 89 minutes
Studi IFC Films
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