''To Be Alive!'' is a 1964 American

short Short may refer to: Places * Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon * Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place People * Short (surname) * List of people known as ...

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

co-directed by

Francis Thompson Francis Joseph Thompson (16 December 1859 – 13 November 1907) was an English poet and Catholic mystic. At the behest of his father, a doctor, he entered medical school at the age of 18, but at 26 left home to pursue his talent as a writer a ...

and

Alexander Hammid Alexandr Hackenschmied, born Alexander Siegfried George Hackenschmied, known later as Alexander Hammid (17 December 1907, Linz – 26 July 2004, New York City) was a Czech-American photographer, film director, cinematographer and film edito ...

. The film is notable for its use of a multi-screen format and for winning the

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for Documentary Short Subject at the

38th Academy Awards The 38th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 1965, were held on April 18, 1966, at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California. They were hosted by Bob Hope. The ceremony was broadcast on the ABC network and was ...

Concept and presentation

''To Be Alive!'' was produced by the S.C. Johnson & Son for presentation at the Johnson Wax pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair. The film was designed to celebrate the common ground between different cultures by tracing how children in various parts of the world mature into adulthood. The film was shot over an 18-month period in various locations across the

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and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. In screening ''To Be Alive!'', it was decided to use an experimental method consisting of three separate 18-foot screens. Unlike the

Cinerama Cinerama is a widescreen process that originally projected images simultaneously from three synchronized 35mm projectors onto a huge, deeply curved screen, subtending 146° of arc. The trademarked process was marketed by the Cinerama corporati ...

process that joined three screens into a single unbroken entity, the three screens for ''To Be Alive!'' were separated by one foot of space. In 1966, a book based on the film was released by S.C. Johnson. This text included an endorsement by Ralph J. Bunche, the

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-winning

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undersecretary.

Awards

''To Be Alive!'' made history in late 1964 when it received a special award from the

New York Film Critics Circle The New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) is an American film critic organization founded in 1935 by Wanda Hale from the New York ''Daily News''. Its membership includes over 30 film critics from New York-based daily and weekly newspapers, magaz ...

, which marked the first time that a non-theatrical commercial production was cited for an accolade. (The film was considered non-theatrical because it was included as part of the admission to the Johnson Wax pavilion.) However, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences ruled that ''To Be Alive'' was ineligible for Oscar consideration because of its presentation on three separate screens. To rectify this, the film's producers created a 70mm single-screen version that was shown in 1965 in

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, qualifying it for the Oscar. It won the Academy Award, beating out another sponsored short documentary: ''Point of View,'' produced by the National Tuberculosis Association. The film was also honored with an award by the

National Conference of Christians and Jews The National Conference for Community and Justice is an American social justice organization focused on fighting biases and promoting understanding between people of different races and cultures. The organization was founded in 1927 as the Natio ...

Screenings

After a screening at the United Nations Pavilion at Expo 1967 in

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...

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, ''To Be Alive'' was only available for public screening at the Golden Rondelle Theater at the S.C. Johnson headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin.

References

External links

* {{Academy Award Best Documentary Short 1964 films 1964 documentary films 1964 independent films 1964 short films American independent films American short documentary films Best Documentary Short Subject Academy Award winners Documentary films about children Films directed by Alexandr Hackenschmied S. C. Johnson & Son Sponsored films World's fair films 1964 New York World's Fair Multi-screen film 1960s short documentary films 1960s English-language films 1960s American films