Underplayed Gems

The First Measured Century (2000)

The First Measured Century poster
Genre
documentary film
Country
United States
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

This documentary looks at American history in the 20th century by focusing on social scientists who used numbers and statistics to understand the country. It uses archival footage, interviews, and graphics to show how data shaped views of America. The film also includes a modern update of the famous Middletown studies.

informativefactualthoughtfulmeasuredretrospectiveeducationalanalytical

What happens

The First Measured Century: The Other Way of Looking at American History is a three-hour PBS documentary film hosted by Ben J. Wattenberg. The film was produced for PBS by BJW, Inc. and New River Media, Inc. and was first broadcast in December 2000. The film traces American history during the 20th century through a sequence of vignettes of pioneering social scientists who used numerical tools to examine America. The film mixes archival footage, archival still photography and artwork, interviews with contemporary experts, graphical animations of statistical trends, and on-camera narrative appearances by the host. Information from Middletown IV, a 1999 replication of Middletown studies of Muncie, Indiana, first begun by Robert and Helen Lynd in 1924, is included in the film and companion volume. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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