The Public Health Film Goes To War
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World War II-era public health films comprise The Public Health Film Goes to War collection, which demonstrates the United States government’s use of film to inform and mobilize military men and women as well as the public for health purposes.
Highlights include:
- • The combination live action and animated film Winky the Watchman (1945) which entertains and informs children on oral hygiene;
- • The Inside Story, a 1944 United States Coast Guard training film that describes common emotional illnesses that military service members may experience and suggests how to deal with them;
- • the Federal Security Agency and U.S. Public Health Service produced Save a Day (1944), a film featuring the United States’ industrial army and the role of the National Institute of Health in studying hazards. Industrial health hazards and the illnesses, accidents, and deaths workers face are characterized as a threat to public health and the war effort.
For more information on the films in the collection, read the essay on the NLM Medicine on Screen site. The original Public Health Film Goes to War site was created in 2011 by Drs. Michael Sappol, Paul Theerman, and David Cantor. You can find the original site in the NLM WebArchive.