A popular tradition with many national pavilions is to have a film commissioned to show visitors what a nation has to offer around the theme of a World’s Fair. As the theme for HemisFair 68’ was the story of the various ethic groups which settled the region we know as Texas.
For the film, American director Francis Thomson who was known for use of multi-screen and large-screen formats was selected and began principal photography in 1967. Thompson created the film to be multi-sensory experience:
The story and narration was by the British / American poet W.H. Auden and the film score was written by American composer David Amram. The total run time of the film was about 25 minutes.
As part of the film experience, the theater’s 1,200 seat auditorium was custom designed. This included laying out the seating in three 400 seat sections thus starting the film as three small theaters. At the film’s 5:30 mark the theater performed an almost magical transformation from three small theaters into a single large theater.
Also included in the theater’s design was the way how visitors navigated. All visitors entered the theater’s lobby from the pavilion’s central courtyard. After the film was over all visitors exited via doors located at the rear of the theater on the eastern edge of the pavilion complex.
The idea of the overall film was to show to the world who we are as a nation – the good as well as the not so good. The film ends with this statement narrated by the American/British poet W.H. Auden –
“The eyes of the world are upon us and wonder what we are worth. Much they see dishonors the richest country on earth. Chiefly we betray our noble dead, if we after two-hundred years cannot or will not see more clearly what is meant. By certain truths that they believe self-evident. On each of us depends what sort of judgement waits – for you, for me, our friends and these United States.”
Below are scans from the August ’68 issue of “American Cinematographer” showing the theater interior. (Click on images for a closer look)
Below are scans from the pavilion brochure on the Confluence Theater and show. (Click on images for a closer look)
The project was able to restore the majority of the film to its original 25-minute run time.
As Francis Thompson was well known for using multi-screen & widescreen formats in his films the film records were split in 35mm and 70mm formats. As of the time of this restoration the first 5 – 1/2 minutes of 35mm film are not available. The resulting restoration has the audio starting at time stamp 0:00 and the video starting at time stamp 5:30.
The interesting point to note is where the 70mm video starts is where the theater as a whole would make is transition from three small 400 seat theater rooms into a single 1,200 seat theater room, as well as the transition from 35mm to 70mm format.
The archival audio files came from the University of Texas at San Antonio’s – Special Collections and the 70mm segment came from the U.S. Library of Congress.
Here is a weblink to the restored film via Texas Archive of the Moving Image – click here.
