Inside Red China / Committee On Un-American Activities | Robert Carl Cohen, Dianna Cohen

we would like to thank all of the individuals and organizations that have helped make tonight's screening possible as well as all the screenings here at the Billy Wilder theater all of the shows at the Billy Wilder theater are free thanks to a gift from an anonymous donor and we are grateful to them for their support I also want to give a big thank you uh to our special guest of honor Robert Carl Cohen and his daughter Deanna Cohen for all their help and support in making this program possible let's so let's give everybody a round of applause for that so tonight is the second of our two night program celebrating the work of filmmaker Robert Carl Cohen how many people were here for Mondo Hollywood on Friday night that was a really special screening that was really a wonderful night and I know tonight will be too so thank you for coming out um in addition to his work behind and in front of the camera Robert has had a storied career as a foreign correspondent author photographer and lecturer born in 1930 Robert graduated from UCLA with a bachelor's degree in 1952 and earned his MFA from UCLA School of Theater Arts and Motion Pictures in 1954 for his thesis film the color of man after attending the sarban in Paris where he pursued a doctorate in social psychology he found himself embarked on a professional Journey that would be the subject of a move that could be the subject of a movie itself and probably should be as the cold war deepened in the late 1950s and early 1960s Robert traveled the world as a foreign correspondent for NBC and is an independent documentary producer in films such as inside red China and film lectures on East Germany and Cuba under Castro Robert presented U.S audiences with their first glimpses into countries and peoples on the other side of the ideological conflict that dominated their lives at the time assuming the risks of being the first U.S journalist allowed to film in these far-flung places Robert showed equal courage at home when uh in equal her courage at home when he turned his camera on how the Cold War was impacting the politics and culture of the United States case in point his 1962 essay film committee on Un-American Activities which was the first film made by a U.S citizen to directly challenge the US government and its cold war determined uh domestic policies tonight's program will begin with inside red China from 1957 and we followed immediately by committee on American activities after the films I'll be joined on stage by Robert and Diana for a post-screening conversation that promised me you do not want to miss please stick around for that um I could not be happier and more honored to have Bob here and to be able to celebrate his career at UCLA uh but please help me welcome right now Robert call Cohen good evening thank you for coming uh the first film that we're going to see inside red China just a couple words before the film having gotten my bachelor's and Masters at UCLA I had never taken a single course on China nor attended a lecture on China in fact I knew nothing whatsoever about China and if I had to make a list of Competency I would have put myself at the bottom of the list now I happen to find myself in Europe in the U.S army and I completed my service in the U.S Army in Paris and began living in Paris as a student for the doctorate in social psychology in the summer of 1957 there was a world Youth Festival in Moscow and to which I had no interest I had no interest in going there I was having a perfectly nice time in Paris the men in all died in World War II I had seven women friends registered my hotel room I was having a perfectly good time on the GI Bill and I was not looking for trouble in any way shape or form but this world Youth Festival was taking place in Moscow and I saw an ad in the new Statesman in the nation which I was capable of reading because I couldn't read French yet at the time so having to studied Latin here at Belmont High and it said that for about 130 bucks any Americans who happened to be in Europe could go to Moscow for two weeks room and board and return and I thought well World War III is about to come I had I learned about that in the military at Supreme headquarters I might as well go to Moscow and see what it is before the world comes to an end so I am four or five other Americans who hang out in Paris uh Show Silverstein's name might be familiar he became a cartoonist for Playboy uh we went to Moscow and we spent two weeks partying in Moscow drunk most of the time at the end of the Moscow Festival the Chinese invited everybody to come to China now I wasn't interested I knew nothing about China I was approached by Dan Shore who was the CBS bureau chief because I had done research for so-called Adventure the American Museum of Natural History in New York while I was in the military at four mamas I did research on random genetic drifts of rather esoteric subject and Dan George said to me are you going to accept the invitation to China I said Dan if I do my name is going to be on The Blacklist I'll never get a clearance I'll never not that I want to work for the government you know I've had no interest in doing so but I have no interest in going there he said if you do will you film for CBS I said well that creates a dilemma because obviously if the world is going to come to an end maybe I can help delay it for a few days by doing something and if CBS is interested in paying me to go to China even though I know nothing about China I guess I better go well the next day dancer said I spoke to New York and New York will not support anyone who defies the travel ban to China so I said then I'm not going to go I have no personal interest in it he said he said but Irv Levine of NBC wants to talk to you oh oh I said I began to see the picture here NBC Standard Oil Standard Oil was in China she Standard Oil wants to get back into China they're ready to defy the ban on travel to China by having somebody go there and make a film so I went and saw her Levine and I said what will you do for me said we'll give you an old camera you're going to leave in two days we'll give you a few rolls of film we don't have any I said will you pay me he said no but we'll pay you if we use any of the film so I took their old camera and about six rolls of film about 20 minutes of film I filmed in China it was all shipped to New York before it was processed they only bought about a minute and a half of film from me and they gave me a cardboard box with a bunch of scraps of film in it I took that film and I re-edited it into a silent lecture film and I began lecturing colleges about China and I found out that there was a great curiosity about China that was there was not being filled in any way and eventually I put a soundtrack on it and had it syndicated as part of the special of the week series so that's what we're going to see it's called inside red China now of course after coming back from China I tried to read about China I tried to study I try to figure out where I had been and what it meant and so what you're going to see is not a film made by an expert on China who knew all about China and Winter made a film what you're about to see is a collection of newsreels made by someone who knew nothing about China while I was filming there and I tried to figure out what relevance it might have when I came back I hope that it answers some questions I'm sure that there's a lot more information coincidentally enough I've been back to China several times since most recently uh 2015 seven years ago and and what I found was that the Chinese did not have the film that I had taken of China they had destroyed their own newsreels and so my films of China are unusual because the Chinese don't have their own films of that same period of 57. it's not that I were at any rate after the show I'll be happy to try to answer any questions you may have okay what's the other phone the other film we're gonna have well I'll talk about that later can you just introduce it because we're going to sit down and watch them both my daughter insist s committee on Un-American Activities is a political history of the automatic Activities Committee that I made because nobody else would do such a film and no one else has done one before or since and so it's about an American government function that nobody has made a film about and I happen to make it I'll be happy to deal with we'll deal with that after trying but right now let's go inside red China thank you so please tell me welcome to the stage Robert Carl Cohen and Deanna Cohen [Applause] we remember another round of applause for Bobby [Applause] another evening of deja vu I think thanks for sitting and watching it [Applause] when when I made that film a long time ago I never thought that this many years later what is it now 2022 I think I think when I made the film in 62 I never thought there would be a reason for looking at it today but unfortunately watching television these days and seeing the crap that's spewed by members of our government I can only well I'm happy I made the film and I'm sad that I had to make it and I'm very happy that UCLA is showing it today well we're I mean we're honored to show it of course Bob and it's an honor to have you here and I was I mean there's so many questions because watching the film again um there's so I mean Mondo Hollywood inside red China so many of your films you were working at a time and dealing with issues and subjects that we are still grappling with today I mean like every day but I wanted to go back so go going back to that time you talked about how inside red China came about um NBC sent you there can you talk about when you got back to the States and were on the lecture tour you were very successful lecturing with the film and talking about the film with audiences what do you think American audiences why were American audiences so interested in the film and what do you think their response was or what was their response to your lecture in your talk about inside red China well I I I did not have any I I was devoid of ambition okay why was I the point of ambition because in 1945 as a 15 year old I was sitting in a movie theater looking at a news reel and I saw the person a bomb go up and I had been very interested in science since I was 9 or 10 years old I was the youngest member of the LA science fantasy Society in 1942. say as a 12 year old and when I saw that nuke go up based on what I knew I said the world is going to come to an end very soon because we now have the capability of building a device and if we can do it everybody can do it and it's going to happen it's inevitable any weapon that can be built gets built and so as of 19 as of August 1945 I just said hey I might as well have a good time because no ambition will mean I am the world is going to come to an end okay I don't feel that much different today frankly so uh I got drafted in order to stay out of Korea because whereas World War II was my kind of War as a 15 year old I was very disappointed that the war ended before I could kill anybody I mean you know it's a 14 year old I was practicing gouging out eyes and slitting throats all the things that 14 year olds practice during the war but but but by the time Korea came along I was 19 years old I was already a student here at UCLA and I knew all about soybean Futures and Dylan reeden company and investment you know at a quite different attitude than it I had as a 15 year old and I said well the world could kind of come to an end we um we're gonna we're gonna blow the place up okay one way or another somebody's gonna do it okay there's no way to keep this Secret okay and so I was essentially I become an existentialist you know nothing mattered might as well have a good time I stated I stayed in college to stay out of Korea Korea ended just at the time that I got my Master's Degree I got drafted I was a star in the Army I was a director of Fort Monmouth uh in the signal Corps uh signal Corps pictorial Center in New York wanted me to make training films and in the middle of this whole fight between those two installations Paris reached out the general the US Army in Paris heard about me they like baseball players they like football players they're like film producers and so on and I get orders to go to Paris to make movies for NATO okay I like Paris I knew nothing about it before getting there it was a typical UCLA graduate and I I I I found out wow it's groovy here uh the men were dead from World War II there was nothing but women and and as a 24 year old you know on the GI Bill with access to the PX and you like to buy Silk Stockings yeah all the things that women need to live and you're a good dancer I had seven women registered my hotel room yes I had no ambition I loved Paris and I found out that I can make him a living in Paris by writing cartoons as you saw Mr Worster so I thought I'd write a little peace cartoon now people have accused me of a certain amount of prescience what is that flower that makes everybody feel peaceful you know does it have anything to do with drugs no I just thought it was a cute idea since then it has taken on you know a different life a different meaning but I was having a perfectly good time in Paris and I could make a living in Paris by writing little cute cartoons and all that I wasn't interested in Russia I wasn't interested in China I went there because it was such a bargain right I couldn't resist the temptation and then I get there and I get roped into this whole thing of going to China and filming for NBC I come back to the States because they wouldn't renew my password after that and I got back here and people started giving me thousands of dollars to stand up and show a movie and speak on stage well I couldn't resist that okay and so I was having a perfectly good time wandering around showing films and colleges and making lots of money and that's how I got involved in all this stuff but why do you think audiences were paying you thousands of dollars to see the film what was the American public what were they looking for in your film the impression I got was the team I don't say the average American but certainly the university audience the educated people and the aware people wanted to know what was going on in the world and we're not getting it from the media and they still don't I mean I learned that directly from NBC NBC made a deal with me to film in China I gave them footage you saw the footage there was chairman miles it was showing Rye there's a Chinese Air Force they didn't buy any of that they bought a minute and a half of American students and gave me back all the footage that they had not shown to the public which you saw here what was the footage that they wanted of the Americans what was the footage they wanted of the American students their story was American students defy the travel ban and so they showed some we didn't we didn't see that I didn't keep it okay it belonged to NBC I come back to New York and I've handed a cardboard box full of scraps of negative Chinese Air Force all the things that you think that our Network would like to show our public no can Bob can I jump in for a second what what was you've told me the story before but what was the situation where you got to go and meet Joe and Lai well who when you met Joanne Lai Ocho and lie okay the Chinese told us that any Americans that wanted to interview showing live at the seat of the state Council were invited to do so well I'm working for NBC and I've got their camera I assume the zooming show and lie and interviewing him would be of interest to NBC that's why I went there okay and then then every each one of us was entitled to ask him one question okay well David Chip the Reuters correspondent kept whispering in my ear ask him about Israel okay you know why doesn't China recognize Israel I thought chip wants me to ask him that because my name is Cohen okay I don't know drack about Israel okay I'm a typical University graduate it means I don't know anything about much of anything and I thought it was more interesting the question that I asked him and to ask about Israel and I did and you know that's how that's the answer to that what did you ask him now we have to know what you asked him you saw the movie but the film itself I mean I that it's it's for the period of time such an even-handed presentation and and it's it's probably not surprising to hear that NBC only wanted like a little bit of it because you're talking about industrialization you're talking about culture you're talking about transformation and you're doing it in a very objective way I think it's a very objective document how I mean we're talking about the Cold War your films are talking I mean basically I think your films are offering a counter narrative to the the the the the major narrative at the time were people surprised by the film when you brought it back I I'm a graduate of this institution I learned many things and I thought that the public would be interested okay and I found that I could actually earn a lot of money by going to universities than I did to many of them around the US and Canada and so on that there were people in our country especially on the University level who wanted to know what was going on now I was not an expert but at least I assumed things and I and then I went after I came back from being in China I read about China to know where I'd been and what I assumed and what it meant right because when I was filming it I didn't know what I was doing I was guessing and I found out that there is a big audience in the United States of educated responsible people who want to know what's going on right and that they were willing to pay me to share what little information I had with them well so I'm gonna have a few more questions and we'll turn it over to the audience when I call on you to ask your question you can just raise your hand we're going to bring a mic to you so please wait for the mic um and think of some questions because I'll turn it over the audience in a little bit so with that in mind though let's turn to um committee on American activities you were so some of your work many of your films were if not commissioned you were you were asked to go by you know you were hired to go and do some work and you created the lecture series created your folks but committing on American activities you was your project that initiated with you and your interest in trying to respond to the committee can you talk about how the film came about some people contacted me okay I think they were members of the Communist party I never asked them okay okay and they wanted to make an anti-unamerican Activities Committee film right okay and they contacted me and I said well I hadn't thought about it but I'll start reading about it and studying about it and I started doing that and I started writing a script and working on it and the people who had contacted me didn't like what I was doing they wanted me to make a movie saying the Un-American Activities Committee is a fascist nazi organization and should be abolished and I said I'm more interested in understanding why something comes into existence who supports it why support you know and all that I'm I'm spoiled by having a university education at UCLA okay not that all my instructors here agreed with that okay and and so I I I I I I told these people I'm sorry I'm not going to accept any money from you you've got me interested in this topic right and I'm going to do it the way I think it should be done and I went and found that there were people Jimmy Roswell and other people had made statements and I thought I think it's important to understand now would it be a good idea to have a committee that investigates Un-American Activities yeah that would be a committee that investigates anybody who tries to suppress free speech in fact that would be a committee that would be trying to investigate a good part of contemporary politics I think we have one of those right now but I mean we've had a president who who thinks he still is the president right who who's absolutely opposed to this democratic system okay and and there are people who despise the democratic system and want us to have a dictatorship that they control I don't think that's a good idea and anything I can do to oppose that I try to do well that's so that brings me to another question we talked about this on on Friday night with Mondo Hollywood how so what where were you you were dealing with these very controversial issues in a very challenging time where to say the wrong thing to do the wrong thing might end you might end up on a blacklist sounds familiar how did you I mean what were your personal politics if you don't mind getting into it how did you negotiate um your own personal politics with the politics of the time and through your films which also seemed very objective I mean they you know were you with the Counter Culture could you would you see yourself as a counterculture figure at that time ah it's a complex question essentially I became a student of psychology okay I was working for a doctorate in Social psych at the University of Paris which I never completed in fact I might drop out from three different doctoral programs okay and there's a whole acid scene came into existence and people say me take acid take acid take acid I said well you know I'm not a unprinciple opposed to anything I'll go hang out with these people and see what that's like so I went pass out with Dickie Albert Richard Dr Richard Albert later ramdas okay I sat with him for hours as a parade of people came through to tell him about their acid experiences and I took notes and listened to all this and I realized that it was so subjective on the part of the people involved that you know it was a subjective experience then I I became very friendly with Dr Eric tast in Chicago personal friend and he was using uh LSD with terminal cancer patients which today has come back into popularity okay and that was of interest to me as well but by sitting with Albert and everything else and so I I went to film an acid party okay I took cameras and lights with me there was nothing to film there were people looking at candles I can look at a candle we're going to point the camera and somebody looking at a camera and say this is somebody having an asset trip it's in your head now a terrible thing happened at that party after I left the party while I was at the party there was a little baby a one-year-old child and these people were fawning over it's innocence and its Purity and so on what do you expect with a one-year-old evidently someone threw the rather breezed on it or touch it and got it gave it acid and the baby steps when they died they couldn't get to it with the ambulance because so many people's cars were blocking the driveway and the people were so stoned they couldn't move their cars I I left and I heard about that afterwards and I said it's a it's a very bad scene you know now now the interesting thing is that today or according to the Press uh using lysergic acid and other things uh to deal with problems mental illness and so on seems to be there's more research being done now there's been a Resurgence of research and which I think is still very very difficult because my impression is it's very very subjective and it's very difficult to do any research on it but I never took the stuff right people said take out take acid take acid right take acid I'll start behaving like the people I've seen and they're all someplace else I don't want to be someplace else I want to be here and I want to know what's going on here but that's a so you were very I mean but that's the thing is you're very engaged with the current contemporary moment in your films but on the politics side which I mean you were you had to walk a line between the Communists you wanted to say one thing the government say I want to do another thing how did you do you have any feelings about how you like how did you negotiate or navigate just you just did your own thing these are areas that one deals with a great risk right because everybody's got a position and unless you take their position they think you're on the other side okay let's take communism okay I went to Russia because it was only 130 bucks right to go from London to Moscow return and have two weeks room and board in Moscow and have a lot of parties okay I went to Moscow to have a good time because I figured the world was going to come to an end we were going to blow each other everybody up and I still think that's a very strong possibility did you ever have an opinion on communism my opinion was that I met some Communists who were idealists I met a lot of them who were opportunists especially in the Russian government right I mean I remember particularly food seven the minister of culture of Russia who came here in 1960 and and I was a member of a group called Turn thoughts peace and we took for seven some of these people uh to the movies right and she was wearing some kind of a diamond dress in addition to being like 200 pounds overweight and I said the minister of culture of Russia is this fat overdressed woman right covered with diamonds that doesn't smell right to me I mean you know I I went I I after I'd been totally fish I started reading about it I read materialism and Imperial criticism my wedding but very few people in this audience even have heard about I try to understand the theoretical basis okay Karl Marx was a journalist he wrote for the New York Health Tribune he was describing the economic relationships of that period okay he wasn't inventing a philosophy people who call themselves marxists we're really reaching way out because of you going and you read what he wrote he said middle class business people have quite different interests in working people what's the big Revelation okay I'm a member of I joined the Teamsters Union when I was 15 years old I lied about my age I said I was 16. why because I was getting paid a buck an hour to work in the freight yards here in L.A I still got my union card okay my father was a union guy my father was a wallpaper hanger and I worked with him my childhood was based on working at different jobs with Union people we didn't work with non-union people we call them scabs because they took the job away from Union people which meant my father and my mother who were both Union people I was and still am all for organizations of working people and any kind of people who organized to protect their interests okay all right basically that's what I believe in I believe in self-interest and people organizing and working together for mutual interest when your personal interest conflicts with other people when you're hurting other people that's no good you have to accommodate you have to adjust yourself you can't say I want what's best for me to screw everybody else because then somebody will say okay there's more of us than there are of you or we've got more guns than you've got or something at that time My Philosophy is cooperative supportive relationship based upon knowledge and that's the way it still is today Paul can I just add something or just I think when you can correct me if I'm wrong but committee on American activities you made you made that movie in which year in 1962. okay so just for perspective for everybody here I I didn't know my dad obviously before I was born and I was born when you were about 35 36 I was born in 1930 no me I was born when you were 35 yeah yeah so when he was in Russia and China he was 26 years old and 27 years old and I I'm always trying to keep that perspective in my mind of the age he was when he was trying to navigate this and make these films he had his 27th birthday in China in 1957. pretty amazing so let's turn it over the audience if we have any questions raise your hand and I'll have the mic how about right here on the aisle or might come over to you right here I am astonished and um Blown Away by your um film about the house on American Activities Committee and the reason I say that actually my honest was Lillian Hillman my grandfather worked with Jack Warner and I grew up in Mobile Alabama and of course all my life uh I've seen the pictures of African Americans being hosed down uh you know in during the Civil Rights Movement I've never seen this footage ever before and I've been on the planet a long time not quite as long as yourself but um so I'm just wondering if any of you have any idea why this really important footage you know that happened outside of the San Francisco State house or whatever has never been seen or at least it hasn't in my mind you always see McCarthy and you see the hearings and that kind of thing but you never see you know what happened with these hearings that were around the country so thank you so much what was the history of the of house committee what was the history of its exhibition where did you show it who saw it and and what happened to the film The the Un-American Activities Committee filmed actually a pretty fair sales on the college level okay um I found out that there is that may still be there are people in our country especially connected with educational could you hold the mic problems I just bring the microphone especially connected with educational institutions you share like any one of them who would like to know what what the truth is what was really happening however generally speaking the subject is not taught it's not discussed I don't know what's taught here at UCLA today but I doubt that there is a single course that deals with the committee on Un-American Activities or that period in U.S history I I doubt it but I could be wrong somebody here might know I think I see a hand up in the back there okay what was it well I mean I mean I think the film is definitely I mean highly relevant today and I think it provides a lot of context for conversations we're still having today so let's try oh I was going to say also we have a copy of operation abolition if you'd ever want to research it we have a 16 millimeter copy in the archive collection here at UCLA which you can't actually access which you can access through the Powell Library if you're interested in checking it out um another question from the audience let's let's go to the woman who just it's about right the woman I'm yeah Mike's coming down you right you're right there yeah I have a comment and a question um again just like uh you I love seeing new things and learning about things in our history that have never been revealed before and I'm hoping that this will be televised or streamed or something like that because seeing 60 years ago that huge group of people I've never seen anything like that and it's coming round again that's my comment thank you so much for your films but my question is how did you meet your wife oh here I didn't know that right this lady here how did you meet your current wife Kim is the question how did I meet my current wife can I tell okay prepare yourselves my entire life has been devoted to trying to have a good time the time to enjoy myself okay I don't carry a whip I'm not a fraudulente I don't believe in suffering okay I try to eat you know and do it I try to do things that feel good okay and one day some guy said to me why don't you come up to Topanga there's a place up here where you can go around naked I said Are there women he said yeah lots of women I said there's naked women so I went up there and there were naked women okay and I started giving seminars in the nude in a hot tub where people were paying me to take off their clothes and get in the water and have me lead them in seminars so that everybody had a clipboard and I said on your clipboard write down anything you feel like writing down so everybody would write for half an hour and then hand in their paper and then I would read them their paper and they were paying me to do that I despise you I despise this kind of Workshop I said groovy thanks for paying for it so I was having a perfectly good time of course occasionally I would watch TV and say well the world the end of the world is coming you know any moment now and one day I was up there and I met my wife to be and she was up there she was a participant in the seminar or she didn't pay for one of my workshops she was hanging out with some French tarot card reader well I think we should rethink our q a foreign and I said to her you have not had many many years of higher education unlike myself you know three universities and so on I said however the way you speak and your logic sequence your your your smart person who knows what they're talking about if you could do or be anything what would it be and she said I'd like to go back to college and become a nurse or Midway so I said then why don't you do it and she said my husband doesn't want me to I said are you living with your husband she said no I said then why don't you do what you want to do so she did and we got married yay so every time for a couple more questions so let's go um let's come down here in front gentlemen right here we're gonna bring the mic down to you thank you um Mr Cohen it was very interesting to meet you and I just have a question regarding for the um out of China I have to speak louder in my hearing very bad I have a question regarding for the China right the um the she's playing the next plane and also I know what's going on very closely because I watch you know the uh not regular media I watch a lot of like Taiwanese political talk show so they always have a discussion regarding for you know Daily News and daily what's going on activity so my question is the next thing that Taiwan they they they're going to have a you know semiconductor you know right now in Nano three right taiwan's gonna have a new semiconductor Nano three semiconductor right a nano3 right now it's it's five this is developing yeah then what happened in another three years right it's gonna be a nano one so my question is right now either Russia in the China they don't have this technology yet so that's what's what's going on right now that's right right now you guys can try to block what what's the situation right now because Russia is so I don't have right so my question is I I read something about that right right let's see my conductor so you got this is gonna be the next Oil very important in the future it's almost like a Terminator you know Skynet ships stuff like that anyway so what's your question oh okay my my question I just would like to hear your opinion about it yeah right about the Taiwanese development right right Taiwan and China semiconductor right I feel fatter to be asked about a topic that I'm not an expert on I know I know what you mean but you can do the best you can I know because I like your East Century I think like any other technology it depends on how it's used okay it could be used for good or it could be used for not good depending on who owns it and who controls it I hope that it's used to benefit people but the best I can do well by the way the uh when you talk about the new right don't worry about it you guys is watching that but mq you know one of those mq whatever the number they're all watching it so as long as the um anybody right when a new one let's launcher nuclear they will see it it's the launch of nuclear it's not just like you'd launch it like right away you have to really you know prepare right so they were watching it so before that thing happened right they will destroyed it he's saying just before you launch something nuclear nuke sorry that China is watching that you have to there's a procedure to launch something it's not that easy just to launch something exactly what can I say about it right well I just kind of listen to tell you I mean I respect you asking me questions about such every test esoteric subjects but it would be presumptuous of me to have an opinion about things that I'm know very little about I don't know I'm just gonna give you the perspective so we should but we should move on to the next question so we have one more question from the audience um let's go right right here right here thank you hey Bob uh my question is also about inside uh red China is that loud enough yeah okay um my question was since you didn't know a lot about China when you were there when you were filming and you had to do a bunch of research later I'm interested in knowing how much do you think that affected how you edited the footage and what you used and what you didn't uh learning exactly what you had had seen I'm just saying so so you didn't know much about China when you filmed there then you came back and researched it and she's just wondering how that impacted the way you edited the film when you put the film together well my editing of the film and the way I put it together is totally dependent on the research that I did after I came back from filming because I had film and I didn't know what it meant I didn't in many cases I didn't know who the names of the people involved or what their positions were and so on I knew a big building was a big building that's about it I I was as equipped as let's say you would be if you found yourself in a country that you had never been to with the language that you didn't know and with history that you knew nothing about and you had a camera what would you film we filmed what we know we filmed something big okay or we film people punch each other so we film them you know but we filming is part of information gathering but it's only a means it's a technology what you what you point your camera at what you record and how you use it it's totally dependent on understanding the relationships and you're not going to understand them just by going over there and pointing the camera you have to know where you are where everything came from and where it might be going you know I sound like an old hippie can I add something that was that Bob has also gone back and filmed in China again after he made inside red China so after 1957 you filmed again in 1978. 1986 85 I've been back to China several times and again in 2015. I I uh my my wife and I traveled with Chinese camera Crews to over 10 Chinese cities we filmed extensively uh it's unrecognizable in Shanghai today it is virtually impossible to find a single building that I filmed in 1957. we did find one yeah yeah I mean we found the same bank that that he had filmed that was the bank of Taiwan that building was still standing there on the booth but that was the only one though that I basically and not only that but the impression I got with the Chinese at the the Chinese that you meet today have no idea what it was like in 57. you see this is based on my readings about China and I could be wrong but each Dynasty in Chinese history has eliminated its predecessor to the degree of changing the official color if the Royal color was Green it might become blue if in fact they would paint the trees different colors now Alice in Wonderland 19th century British is based essentially upon the British knowledge of China at the time when a dynasty changes in China they eliminate their history and so the footage that I saw in China 57 they don't have in China today the government has actually physically destroyed I I I thought oh well what's my big deal there were cameramen all around me in 57 the Chinese were filming everything we went back we didn't see any footage from that we don't I didn't Chinese history is very very transient it depends on which group is in power at a given moment as to what the history is that you actually see in China that's my experience anyway now they're I'm sure there are Scholars and there's there are ancient works but from the physical point of view of neutral material it's very difficult to find footage from the 50s in China shot by the Chinese so I'm going to take the last question and hopefully try and make it a summation question you talked about living under the realization that this could all end at any moment because of in nuclear war and you became a kind of existentialist so many of the films so many of the subjects and issues that we see depicted in your films we're still dealing with those same issues today but we have made some progress and we are still here which is nice has your opinion about the cold war or your opinion about Humanity in general growing up under that fear of annihilation has your opinion changed at all in terms of like possibilities in terms of Hope have you gone from an existentialist to an optimist at all just curious your final thoughts on where we are now unfortunately cutting through all the the danger of a nuke War today is greater than it's ever been in the past the presence in our in Washington DC that I visit frequently I have a daughter who lives there I have many friends they're in the government and so on okay the Trump Administration okay which is a symptom okay has brought us closer to Annihilation than any other event up until now we have had someone who had control over the nukes and probably stole all the stuff and has it in their pocket at home someplace okay who doesn't have the faintest idea of you know I mean we're talking about total sheer insanity there's no other word to describe it okay on the highest level of government and the problem is there are and there are educated intelligent people in Washington DC as there are here as well okay but if they open their mouths they'll get fired they there's a tendency if you even if you know what's going on just to keep your mouth shut and go along with it and try not to be the guy who pushes the button but uh I I am not optimistic I was hoping we might get a little optimistic I'd like to say oh it's all wonderful you know the the clouds are past the fact of the matter is from my point of view we are in Greater danger of a nuclear Annihilation today than we ever have been in history well Bob I appreciate your frankness on that and I want to say also I really do also appreciate it that we would be an even worse situation if it wasn't for people like you who refuse to just go along and say nothing and you actually did something and the films that you're that we've shown this weekend show that um you know it is possible to um I think make a document to make to put it on record to you know counter the larger narratives and to speak your mind and so I want to just your your example is is really extraordinary so it's again an honor to have you here on stage and thank you so much Bob I really appreciate it [Applause]