NATIVE SONGS

Year Published: 1945

Creator: FDR Presidential Library

Format: 16mm/video file

Description: National Archives and Records AdministrationNATIVE SONGSWar Department. Military Intelligence Division. (08/26/1918 - 04/19/1947)ARC Identifier 44142 / Local Identifier 242-MID-5181. SUMMARY: Made in Byelorussia (White Russia), 1949, this is a musical film featuring native songs and dances, sung and performed by young people. Reel 1: A Shepherd plays a flute, flowers open, a boy and a girl appear among the trees. The girl does a waltz of spring in the pastoral setting. Other couples appear and a group of girls sing a lively song to an accordion. Afterwards they all walk into "the cultural park" under an arch decorated with Lenin's and Stalin's pictures. Reel 2: After dancing the polka, the couples drift in rowboats. Sailors dance on deck and wave to the girls on shore. A girl on shore sings a sad song as boys go off to the army. On their return the sailor and soldiers are greeted with flowers. Reel 3: Various dances at the station: group dancing, solo, comic dances, etc. In the evening two fellows out strolling meet a couple. In dance pantomime, they lure her away from her accordion-playing boy friend, then fight over her. At the end of the dance she goes back to her boy friend as the two fellows move on. In the morning a group of young girls rise from the flowers in the field, sing and dance. Reel 4: A girls sings while she wields a sickle. In the background, girls cut wheat. Before a statue of Stalin the girls hold bundles of grain in symbolic pose. A winter dance follows with snow and sliding down an incline. As a finale, groups sing and form pyramids under huge pictures of Stalin and Lenin. Thousands wave banners in a stadium.Made possible by a donation from Veronica Alzalde.

Complete Record: National Archives and Records Administration NATIVE SONGS War Department. Military Intelligence Division. (08/26/1918 - 04/19/1947) ARC Identifier 44142 / Local Identifier 242-MID-5181. SUMMARY: Made in Byelorussia (White Russia), 1949, this is a musical film featuring native songs and dances, sung and performed by young people. Reel 1: A Shepherd plays a flute, flowers open, a boy and a girl appear among the trees. The girl does a waltz of spring in the pastoral setting. Other couples appear and a group of girls sing a lively song to an accordion. Afterwards they all walk into "the cultural park" under an arch decorated with Lenin's and Stalin's pictures. Reel 2: After dancing the polka, the couples drift in rowboats. Sailors dance on deck and wave to the girls on shore. A girl on shore sings a sad song as boys go off to the army. On their return the sailor and soldiers are greeted with flowers. Reel 3: Various dances at the station: group dancing, solo, comic dances, etc. In the evening two fellows out strolling meet a couple. In dance pantomime, they lure her away from her accordion-playing boy friend, then fight over her. At the end of the dance she goes back to her boy friend as the two fellows move on. In the morning a group of young girls rise from the flowers in the field, sing and dance. Reel 4: A girls sings while she wields a sickle. In the background, girls cut wheat. Before a statue of Stalin the girls hold bundles of grain in symbolic pose. A winter dance follows with snow and sliding down an incline. As a finale, groups sing and form pyramids under huge pictures of Stalin and Lenin. Thousands wave banners in a stadium. Made possible by a donation from Veronica Alzalde.