Propaganda film

A propaganda film is a film, often a documentary, produced for the express purpose of convincing the viewer of a certain political point. However, the propaganda is not limited to non-fiction films. Many of the dramatic war films in the early 1940s in the United States were designed to create consensus at the expense of "the enemy." In fact, one of the conventions of the genre that developed during the period was that of a cross-section of the United States which comes together as a crack unit for the good of the country. Arguably one of the earliest propaganda films is The Birth of a Nation, filmed in 1915.

Other noted propaganda films:

• Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky and the Media
• [Reefer Madness]?
• Triumph of the Will

Noted propagandists:

• Leni Riefenstahl

See also propaganda. For more discussion of propaganda and some examples of it in short films from the United States, see the 10-volume CD-ROM collection [Our Secret Century]?. And for a hilarious and horrifying subversion of the United States military's 1960s propaganda regarding the safety of radioactive materials, see [The Atomic Cafe]?.