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New Dixie Usa (1940)

1940 · Short film · 16 min

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Synopsis

This film, "New Dixie USA" is narrated in German, and shows the cultivation of tobacco plants for the Lucky Strike cigarette company. It was released by the FWU Institute for Film and Image in Science and Education. The film opens with footage of a plantation or farm with African American agricultural workers moving through rows of crops (:28). A worker or sharecropper harvests leaves from tobacco plants (:56). A horse carries the packs which the men use to move the crop down the lines of the groves (1:10). Large modern machinery then moves down the groves (1:33). The tobacco leaves are pulled from the plants by a conveyor running along the machine (1:57). A tractor then moves the leaves down a modern roadway (2:31). The leaves are tied and hung to dry as children of the farm workers stand nearby (2:56). The dried leaves are piled in stacks (4:25). Female African American workers sort through the leaves (5:49). These are layered onto the back of a pickup truck (6:17). The truck delivers the tobacco to a factory (6:54). Within the factory, long rows of the leaves are mounded into high piles (7:24). Lucky Strike factory workers inspect the piles (7:56). These are moved to a room where the leaves are pulled apart and sent down conveyor belts (9:22). The leaves are then crushed (10:44) in large cylindrical vats. The wooden cylinders or tobacco hogsheads are loaded onto the back of a long truck which transports them (12:00) to another factory (12:22). A forklift lifts the…

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Details

Running time
16 minutes
Collection
Ephemeral Films

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