A Year Toward Tomorrow

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Movie
Original title A Year Toward Tomorrow
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1966
length 25 minutes
Rod
Director Edmund A. Levy
production Edmund A. Levy
music Frank Lewin
camera Ross Lowell ,
William Garroni
cut John Oettinger
occupation
President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Poverty Bill

A Year Toward Tomorrow (German in about a year towards morning ) is an American documentary - short film by Edmund A. Levy in 1966. Levy produced the film and was also at the 39th Academy Awards with an Oscar in the Awarded the category “Best Documentary Short Film” .

content

The film is preceded by the words: “VISTA volunteers live and work for a year in all parts of America, wherever they are supposed to serve. The events in this film actually happened and were re-enacted by the VISTAS themselves. "

The documentation deals with the AmeriCorps VISTA program, a national service program for the alleviation of poverty. VISTA was launched in 1961 by the then President of the United States, John F. Kennedy . His successor Lyndon B. Johnson took up Kennedy's ideas in 1963 after Kennedy's tragic death and signed the Economic Opportunity Act in 1964, making VISTA officially established. In January 1965 the first group of 20 volunteers began their service. At the end of 1965 around 2000 volunteers were working in the Appalachian Mountains, in migrant labor camps and in poor neighborhoods. They did whatever was needed in the communities - building, teaching, farming, mentoring, and more. By 1966 the number of volunteers had already grown to 3,600. You had to be over eighteen years old and be available for at least a year. A six-week training program preceded their deployment. For their work they received a small allowance as well as a meal allowance and, after completing their assignment, an additional amount. They had to live wherever they were, as it was believed that this was the only way they could become part of the community of those they were supposed to take care of. In the film, individual cases are used to illustrate how the volunteers work on site and how diverse the areas of responsibility are.

The idea of ​​living and working among the poor was brought up to young people in the 1960s, when more than 32 million Americans crossed the poverty line. Some volunteers chose to stay. Jay Rockefeller came to West Virginia from Vista as a volunteer in 1964 and was later elected governor and one of the state's senators.

production

The film was produced by The Office of Economic Opportunity. The executive producer was Carl V. Ragsdale .

Award

literature

  • James Ciment: Postwar America: An Encyclopeida of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History , Volume One-Four, published by Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, London and New York, 2015, pp. 1330 ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The 39th Academy Awards | 1967 sS oscars.org (English)