This year marks the 70th anniversary of Britannica’s film production wing, which means that by this point our archive is quite the treasure trove. Some of these films are outdated, some are irrelevant, and some are cultural artifacts—kitschy products of their time. We have decided to start sharing the most entertaining ones here on the blog as “Britannica Classic Videos.”
* * *
With the U.S. Senate considering the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill this week, we decided to feature “Immigration” as the next installment of Britannica Classic Videos. Produced in 1946, this film conveys as much about post-World War II patriotism and jingoism as it does about migration to the United States from 1890 to 1924 (the year of the Immigration Act). The selected excerpts include a dramatization set in a turn-of-the-century European steamship office, where passengers flash back to the hardships they endured in their European homelands.
“Immigration” contains many elements that seem ridiculous to an audience seventy years removed from its context: The overwrought symbolism in the flashbacks. The absurdity of the hats that signal socioeconomic status. The animated walls protecting America’s western and eastern borders. The sheer over-dramatization of it all. But what struck me most was its definition of “diversity” at the end. Immediately after discussing immigration from Mexico and the Caribbean, the narrator speaks of “a people still diverse…of every community, race, and origin,” while the visuals almost exclusively depict individuals of European descent.
“Americans all” in 1946—ludicrously limited today.