Neighbors The Living Desert White Wilderness

Testing the philosophies and techniques of documentaries, this evening features 1950s antiwar propaganda as well as riveting images of North American Wildlife. Much more an allegory than a documentary, Norman McLaren's masterpiece Neighbors is one of the great antiwar films. It also features McLaren's "pixilation" technique. (1952, 7 mins.) Stunning nature cinematography and the not infrequent inclusion of staged scenes were the hallmarks of Disney's "True Life Adventures" series. The Living Desert depicts animal life in Arizona's Sonoran Desert. (1953, 69 mins.) Wildlife in the North American arctic is the subject of White Wilderness, which includes the controversial "suicidal lemmings" sequence, an occurrence now widely discredited. (1958, 72 mins.)