Citizens of What Country
Stills
About
"This is the story of a young American Army deserter arriving in Buffalo's bleak bus terminal, his pre-flight coaching by a peace worker, his trek across the bridge and into Toronto, the way of things so far in the exile community, the melancholy expectancies for himself and others of the New Dispossessed in this next-to-worst of two worst possible worlds. The directors have by all odds a most life-gripping topic. We get apparently spontaneous, heart-jolting remarks by poker faced youngsters who have lost about everything but their lives. There are glimpses of a commune with the most depressing kitchen tub of indelible chow since Chaplin's THE GOLD RUSH, bare boards in crack-wall rooms, the hollow timbre and seemingly even the smell of a social cave... The film gets to you. It evokes the ache and dislocation, at times the simple nobility of self-exiled youth, however wrong-headed they might appear to the political adversary." – John Dwyer, Buffalo Evening News "CITIZENS OF WHAT COUNTRY? A good question. A really good question. And a good movie. See it." – CARM-UNIQUE (publication of Committee to Aid Refugees from Militarism, a Toronto exile organization.) "A poignant human effect is created." – Edgar Daniels, Filmmakers' Newsletter. "Recommended for campus viewing." – Don Herb, Circle (publication of Lutheran Council in the USA, Department of Campus Ministry). "An extraordinary insight into the political and cultural refugee." –International Experimental Film Festival, Montreal.
Programs
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The Draft
Four films chronicling Vietnam War draft-dodging efforts, for the FMC's multi-program series "Films for Social Change: Revisited and Expanded"
For the sixth screening in our multi-program series FILMS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE: REVISITED AND EXPANDED, join us at the FMC Screening Room (475 Park Avenue South, 6th Floor) on Wednesday, April 3rd, 2024, at 7pm, for four vital films about the Vietnam War draft and draft-dodging, spanning 1966 to 1973.