US

Year Published: 1970

Format: 16mm

Description: This experimental 1970 color documentary film, ostensibly designed to provoke classroom discussion employs a boldly unconventional approach to addressing the issues of drug addiction, featuring the music of Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn. The film eschews narration for montage effects and extended fly-on-the-wall scenes of various drug users in conversation (TRT: 27:54). The film was produced by Robert Appelbe (now part of Norflicks Productions Ltd.), written and directed by Kris Paterson, with director of photography Henry Fiks and editor Ron Wisman. Opening images of dead fish on a beach. Opening titles: "US, a film by Kris Paterson." Auto wreckage in a junkyard serve as a metaphor for waste and destruction (0:23). Lens flare and an audio collage of tragic news announcements (1:32). A young woman walks urban streets to the music of Bruce Cockburn, passing "Anne’s Hairstyling, Snell’s Wear, Walgreen Fish & Chips, Ian’s Variety" (2:43). Closeup on muddy tires. A montage of cars on a freeway, people on an escalator, pedestrians in motion, drug advertisements, tobacco cigarette smokers, pollution (4:17). Junk food, broken windows, stained glass, urban factory smokestacks, headlines, newsmagazines, a baby doll among rubble, construction machinery at work, bottles of liqueur (5:20). Blur effects, syringes (6:25). Young mothers review and discuss a Time magazine article (6:35). Young "hippie" men and women with long hair sit on a floor, smoking and passing a marijuana joint (7:24). These two contrasting scenes are intercut (8:10). Children peer into paper bags, covering their heads. The conversations continue (8:30). The hippies review an illustrated guide to drugs. A girl shoots up heroin using a syringe (9:40). Youths gather on a street corner. A transaction with a drug dealer (10:56). The mothers discuss the privilege of children. A protest demonstration. The hippies have the first Jefferson Airplane album on display (11:05). British men discuss advertising via psychedelic posters over alcoholic beverages. Moire effects with concentric circles. Extreme closeups on eyes during a discussion of LSD trips (11:53). A hippie advocates for acid and marijuana (12:40). Beer drinkers chug a tray of drinks and belch with appreciation, then break into a song half-heartedly. Closeup on glasses of beer (13:35). The British man discusses his wife’s use of diet pills (14:46). One of the mothers pops pills (15:33). The Brit’s companion wears glasses and slurs his words (17:03). The hippies discuss public displays of affection (17:30). One of the beer drinkers blacks out. Cross-cutting intensifies (18:14). A young man ties off his arm with a belt tourniquet and prepares an injection while sitting on a toilet in a bathroom. The shot triggers a montage of images of urban decay (19:16). The voices of children sing a song about marijuana and LSD to the tune of "London Bridges Falling Down" (19:50). The beer drinkers discuss drunk driving. The hippies continue "rapping about drugs." The drinkers discuss heroin addiction while grabbing for cigarettes, arguing "addiction can be anything" (20:23). Montages intrude on the conversation as it turns to the United States Vietnam War draft (22:30). The British man leaves a table of empty glasses. Nightclub signs. The hippies go for a drive in a Pontiac GTO convertible. Neon signs (23:37). The British man brushes his teeth at home while arguing with his wife (24:28). The young heroin user walks the illuminated city streets at night. Out of focus light bulbs cycle and flicker in strobing patterns (25:25). End credits. (25:35). Thanks to sponsors: "The producer wishes to thank the Addiction Research Foundation of Ontario, Uniterre Productions Ltd., Relay Investments Ltd., The United Church of Canada" (27:24).

Complete Record:

Transcription

[Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Laughter] [Laughter] so the death toll from peru's disastrous earthquake mounted yesterday and foreign diplomats quoted report today a judge in an unusual case today sentenced to 16 year old boy to be punished with five strokes of the lash in one of the most unusual whipping sentences handed down to death for the alleged robbing and beating of a white woman the amount of money in question was alleged to have been 70 deaths in hindu muslim rioting in maharashi state towns near bombay rose to 125 yesterday when state chief minister vp nate ordered police to shoot on site at those breaking curfew and indulging in violence nancy concentration camp commandant has testified like others before him that he only did his duty at the salvador and treblinka camps in poland where he is accused of murdering 400 000. all six blacks killed in riots here earlier this week were shot in the back according to augusta coroner nathan widener one man was shot nine times and another eight times rescue sevens are continuing despite darkness seven people are dead and twenty are missing the word at this hour from the capital is that the united states has launched the biggest bombing rate in north vietnam since the formal end of the bombing air pollution count downtown now is 38. this morning at 7 30 it reached a record high of 39. both marks are well above the point of concern to the government the point of concern is 32 when we come when we come again to celebrate renewal at the heart of us our eyes will touch life though it may be hard to find where we stand in time the mirrors of the past [Music] we wander in the flames there's nothing but our names [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] fred wants to go here i think we should i think it's ridiculous the whole thing is silly is it really that bad all right it's saying it's true here too so the kids are bored they're affluent are your kids bored i don't think so what do they do they hang around like my kids don't hang around they're affluent we give them everything they want so that's true they can take the car when they want lsd is chemical madness chemical matters that's probably true i'm just saying that it's not here and anyone who tells you that marijuana is beneficial and not have it forming is a dangerous hole it's all over the place it is good i mean surely the kids aren't using syringes i left a bunch of roaches in um in a flower pot a long time ago my father sees me you know you can't leave these things around here you know but he's he's really cool like the guy says he has to be you guys go ahead how would you know anyway you know well the paper said something about their eyes you know their eyes being wide and needle marks on their arms the girl that lives around the corner well she found a pipe in her daughter's door what'd you do with the parking well they smoke lsd with it or something i think and uh like with melted it didn't have any uh tobacco smell and obviously something had been in it and uh we do with it well did she find anything else just the pain or not no she just found the pipe and um she she was really she didn't want the girl to her daughter to know that that she had found the pie but she wanted to know what to do [Music] who knows where i can cop some speed i get a lot of things done it's really amazing you find your appetites going too yeah i mean you're busy all day you always eat that's the problem with it you know i can always eat doesn't matter but i can get things done i managed to get through the housework in an hour [Music] do you know if there's anything around oh i'm sorry you see what yeah there's some room and they just don't do it darn good a good i started taking two now so it's too all right for you know what i got you gave them to him well i suppose if he gave them to you they just why they just weren't working so i just had to take two and they're just completely oblivious to everything right they don't even get into their heads at all man like there's so many people doing drugs that are just so nowhere they just drugs don't you know necessarily it brings out you right no i was i was beginning to feel really edgy things were kind of upset at home and the kids were getting to me and fred was away a lot and they've really helped a lot what are they doing they're yellow i don't you know i've got the green black one for the same thing i don't fear me what are the names [Music] well if you believe what you read in the papers it's happening to all kinds of people but i'm sorry i don't believe it all right appreciate it if you didn't do it here you know because we don't think seeing it you know like it doesn't bug us you're into speed and then we're not going to tell you not to do it you know because you're that would be just the same as them telling us not to do other things but um you know we don't exactly dig singing too much i know kind of kind of bugs me [Music] it's your head back like it's a good drug though it is you know like i've you know i've done it but i haven't hit it you know i mean can i imagine i can imagine hitting it you know it's so good i yeah in distorting i couldn't imagine hitting it frankly it frightens me to death i don't know you know there's just so much coming out in the paper and it seems to be did you see this getting worse our husband's earning enough money to give these kids everything what they want we're taking them to hockey into skating into dancing and i mean they've got everything any kid could possibly want mine [Music] and then we thought we'd catch the enthusiastic market by a very psychedelic poster you're getting off you know peeking and coming down and then just sitting around and feeling generally shitty i know it got to be the same thing good good acid you don't feel like good acid yeah yeah that's so rare we haven't hardly known it like i've done about 50 trips you know maybe maybe that's exaggerating 30 but i said when he had three trips yeah that's like me i've done that and i've just come to realize that i've only had three trips you know yeah i've done about 100 times maybe about 10 20 of those outstanding you know like really something you know like but they're good too the others are good too so you know if you don't get hung up in that syndrome right see this is me now this is what this drug is doing to me and this is where i'm going with it right dope isn't you know it's it's just it's just a catalyst if you you have it's in the catalyst or it's an escape it can be either um or i don't know certain drugs are you know but certain drugs that heighten your awareness like grass and acid no you can't i don't like your awareness you're trying to i don't know it heightens my awareness like that that that album cover can heighten my awareness you know yeah anything can just anything sure but can it tranquilize or heighten your awareness i don't think so um no it's like you know right yeah i see [Music] right and bruce like you know yeah getting drunk instead of bringing it out that's that's well that's the whole conditioning we've been into suppression here's a dime that drowned here i keep it thank you oh all right hey never mind give it to yourself he's going down [Music] [Applause] thank you we are we are we are we are the [Applause] engineers [Applause] did you ever hear about this party this friend of mine had a fraternity party and the idea was that every guy brings a mickey i mean twenty sixer neoha the idea is to gross out the guy who's the grossest who does the most gross scene absolutely obscene you know he wins every 26 here i'm sure yeah then that's the last dance right yeah right yeah the advertising dance yeah yeah she's suddenly decided that she has to lose weight here she's on his rotten tablets yeah yeah what's so bad about him is she's using losing weight well well the doctor thinks you've got to take you know three a day one after each meal yeah that's fine but you by the time i get home you know she's so dude she's so she's so nervous well if she she wants to get rid of that weight well no should she take other pills but she's you know she's just she's not too much when i get home you know and she's so she's so damn jittery you think it says um slimming well it must be because i don't know she suddenly discovered i never said it you know she was kind of he was getting plump but you know i mean every woman gets you beginning sure yeah she's she's so hyper about the whole thing you know what i mean i don't know all the time you know you know do what you want i want to leave my car you know and she wants to go down and get me yeah she makes such a damn scene and it's so difficult go right through it every time the kids are back from school you know what i mean an interpreter we don't have to pretend you know that we're we tell be together but it they i'm sure they know my old man gets into rap like um you know you wouldn't have to do it unless you had some emotional problems [Music] you know but like they really they really think that you're going to smoke dope like we went to that cat's farm remember that kind of henry wentz was fun my mother thought we went up there for a dope party or something they're really into thinking you know yeah these teenage dope parties i read this article you know it says you've got to look at your kids you know you've got to look at the how small the pupil is you know it's not a thing that we can really understand right what can you do i you you've got to have some answers i should be staying out late at night but you read this kind of article you know the guy comes back he can't sort of grab hold his head and look at his the pills his eyes and they seem to have so much freedom in school now that's the whole problem i don't you know like even in my day it was different your day is so much different again but they seem to have so much freedom how can you they're really uptight about liking school um like they're really excited about you touching each other you know sam oh yeah it's like if you walk down the hall with your arm around the chick they they really they really pretty right they seem to be looking for more but but is that what why is me they've got everything right they've got this okay sure he's building a june black he's got his he's got my unit yeah phil's car he uses it more than children sorry dad well i think that's quite all the things that used to satisfy yeah more they've got the things we dreamed of sure so why do they want this you know for heaven's sake you're gonna put everything before me he's in grace and he his bride is gonna go to universe you know i would say that then you look like you're stoned on dope i know i mean we look we look almost like these guys are smoking right oh i'm just tired please like start doing acid i used to get into like you know spending the night out right you know when i first started doing anything and my old man never suspected us he thought i was bawling chicks or something but acid was way too far out you know for his head but now suddenly when i was you know i'm gonna i'm trying to watch phil see whether she's all right on these pills but you're not gonna watch my other two kids for heaven's sake you know me you're worried you do you want to confront him and ask him if he's doing at all that's phil's job you know yeah she's there you know i mean i'm awake rapping lunch go to heaven with people that's my business right yeah yeah close to 50 000 american and south vietnamese troops are moving through cambodian territory on six major fronts at this hour the new assault was ordered by the president they were to strike at north vietnamese and vietnam west consulate on university avenue some people stormed the embassy shouting kill the pigs an american flag was burned and paint splattered on the doors in montreal minor violence erupted during a demonstration by 650 people at the consulate four were arrested in buffalo students and police clash during the day and night with 11 student arrests several other universities and colleges have been closed down for the rest of the year more protests [Music] why can't we lsd lsd all the doctors make it's got to have something that booze doesn't have i mean we get we get sloshed right right we all get splashed and it's just fantastic and we all get drunk but what happens hangovers and they say they don't get hangovers how how about the driving the perception and everything how about that right i don't know yeah have you ever heard of a guy getting sick on grass or anything like what does he do barfly those actual accusations are pretty strange you know although they're real too you know and then i started talking to her about acid and everything she said a friend of hers uh put himself on fire and all this i said we got [ __ ] up friends she really she really flipped out you know she got upset in all this the language and i said well listen we're just rapping about drugs because i thought she said or something i mean it's quite it's sort of staggering that we don't understand what the there doesn't seem to be anything to it i mean oh come on now there's the addicting drug of them all the body needs heroin in order to function properly alcohol what are you doing an alcoholic needs alcohol and they say the addicts need heroin what are you doing here are they saying this cigarette you're looking for something right right now addiction right hey no cigarettes but in order for the body to function under the process of heroin done right hey call away you get it the first time this is the way we're taught you get the first high you get a high and it's a high feeling then you go on and on and on you sound like you took it hey listen i've read it i've read it right now there's two things there's cigarettes and there's coffee they both got a decade of drugs no when you take addiction addiction can mean anything i mean addiction could mean to be cars movies anything addiction is uh hey i guess the information we've got is in the paper right so we have to believe it we have to sort of take that as the information we've got about it wait i mean where would you find out more someone has to take the power trips [Music] well not everyone's aware right now right like it's all they repress their powers in a proper like the proper way your power should come up right your energy should come out they repress that you know in love that's where i think that's where most politicians are at there's there's a few like maybe they think they can they can get things done through politics you can avoid the political scene altogether which most of us do actually like i mean you can transcend all like like you know i mean i guess it's hard to uh in the states there is the draft which is a major thing right because it's hard to avoid right there's a hassle and avoiding but and transcending because it's it's a material thing right and also like you know it's really hard for those kids to transcend it because it's all around them and they're always getting hassled by it and we we don't really get yeah right we don't get the hassle because of you know we don't have to hang up with the draft but um and other other things the cops here aren't nearly as bad like like it's too bad that you know kids have to fight in order to dig things maybe you know it should just be fair but it's not yeah okay why why did you ring her up sure if you tell a friend it's better than i tell them see what i mean yeah that's great yeah [Music] how do we get to that party okay [Music] the car has to go in tomorrow yeah what the hell for i don't know just some minor repairs the man said bring it back uh-huh how are you going to get home how are you going to get home tomorrow night doesn't i clean my teeth i said how are you going to get home tomorrow night well does that matter of course it matters what do you mean i depend on you to get me home well then how are you going to get home well i can catch you cow or something you're usually so plastered you wouldn't even know where to get a cow you were usually so plastered you wouldn't know where to get a cow what the hell did you mean by that every time what the whole thing is you were the one that asked me to take them to get slapped ah what [ __ ] jesus [Music] or the our eyes will touch [Music] by ornaments [Music] the pattern's carved by chances [Music] season's turning yet again the mother's breast is full again [Music] more violence on the montreal postal scene the bomb explosion has slightly injured one man and shattered windows in an east end montreal postal substation it is also slightly military sources in saigon say three thousand communist troops have been other institutions to destroy firebomb was tossed through the window of a downtown postal station and 15 mail trucks had their tires slashed and window smashed protests by former drivers [Music] punishment and a crackdown on increasing black power militancy touched off a storm of controversy who knows where i can cope with speed you


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