C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America

C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America
Directed by Kevin Willmott
Produced by Rick Cowan
Ollie Hall
Sean Blake
Victoria Goetz
Benjamin Meade
Andrew Herwitz
Marvin Voth
Written by Kevin Willmott
Starring Rupert Pate
Evamarii Johnson
Larry Peterson
Narrated by Charles Frank
Music by Erich L. Timkar
Kelly Werts
Cinematography Matt Jacobson
Edited by Sean Blake
David Gramly
Distributed by IFC Films
Release dates
 January 2004
(Sundance Film Festival)
Running time
 89 minutes
Country United States
Language English

C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America is a 2004 mockumentary directed by Kevin Willmott. It's a fictional tongue-in-cheek account of an alternate history in which the Confederates won the American Civil War, establishing the new Confederate States of America (that incorporates the former United States as well). The film primarily details significant political and cultural events of Confederate history from its founding until the early 2000s. This viewpoint is used to satirize real-life issues and events, and to shed light on the continuing existence of discrimination in American culture. C.S.A was released on DVD on August 8, 2006.

Willmott, who had earlier written a screenplay about abolitionist John Brown, told interviewers he was inspired to write the story after seeing an episode of Ken Burns' The Civil War.[1] It was produced through his Hodcarrier Films.

Overview

The movie is presented as if it were a British documentary being broadcast on Confederate network television, and included fictional commercials between segments of the documentary. It opens with a (fictional) disclaimer that suggests that censorship came close to preventing the broadcast, that its point of view might not coincide with that of the TV network, and that it might not be suitable for viewing by children and "servants." It purports to disagree with an orthodox Confederate interpretation of American history.

It portrays two historians: Sherman Hoyle, a conservative Southerner, and Patricia Johnson, a black Canadian, as "talking heads," providing commentary. Throughout the documentary, Confederate politician and Democratic presidential candidate, John Ambrose Fauntroy V (the great-grandson of one of the men who helped to create the CSA), is interviewed. Narration explains faux historical newsreel footage, which is either acted for the production, or made of genuine footage dubbed with fictional narration.

Racialist adverts aimed at white slave-owning families appear throughout the movie, including an electronic shackle for tracking runaway slaves, a Runaway television program (parodying COPS), Sambo X-15 Axle Grease, Darkie Toothpaste, Gold Dust washing powder, Niggerhair cigarettes, and the Coon Chicken Inn. Additional commercials were produced but deleted from the film's final cut, including several for the Confederate States Air Force and a children's show, Uncle Tom and Friends. The sitcom Beulah is portrayed as Leave It to Beulah. Also shown is a slave auction held online, with the Internet replacing the traditional slave market.

At the film's end, titles note that parts of the alternate timeline are based on real history, and that some of the racist products depicted did exist.

American Civil War

In an alternate United States history reality, after the Union victory in The Battle of Antietam, Union President Abraham Lincoln issued a revolutionary proclamation entitled the "Emancipation Proclamation" (which announces that all slaves are permanently free), but—in this fictional reality—the proclamation failed. Confederate President Jefferson Davis took this opportunity to counteract the Emancipation Proclamation and sent politician Judah P. Benjamin to persuade the military and financial aid of United Kingdom and France to the Confederacy in their fight against the Union. Benjamin also created the "Southern Cause of States' Rights" which proclaims Southerners have the right to have private property and doesn't proclaim it being the salvation of slavery. Eventually after the success of Benjamin's gambit, the Confederates—with the aid of British and French forces—were able to win the Battle of Gettysburg, capture Washington, D.C. and take over the White House a few months later, but by then the now deposed President Lincoln escaped. Union General Ulysses S. Grant surrenders to Confederate General Robert E. Lee on April 9, 1864, effectively ending the American Civil War. The hunt for the now deposed President Lincoln (disguised in blackface) and abolitionist Harriet Tubman was undertaken, and both are eventually captured, which became the prime subject of D. W. Griffith's fictional classic silent film called The Hunt for Dishonest Abe released in 1915 and shows a humorous reenactment of Lincoln and Tubman's failed escape attempt. Abraham Lincoln was quickly tried for war crimes against the Confederacy and was imprisoned in Fortress Monroe, Virginia, where he watched the execution of Tubman from his cell. In 1866, Lincoln—frail and gaunt from his two-year sentence—is fully pardoned by the now President Davis and exiled to Canada, where he remains until he dies in June 1905 at the age of 96. Shortly before his death, Lincoln laments not having made the Civil War a battle to end slavery. As the years would past, the C.S.A. identified the American Civil War as "the War of Northern Aggression".

Post-war expansionism

After the civil war ended, the South was in mass celebration for the victory in the war. After Confederate soldiers moved further east, burning New York City and Boston down to the ground, the Confederacy—with the stroke of a pen—annexes the remainder of the United States, and renames the nation the "Confederate States of America" (C.S.A.) and abolishes some of the old American symbols and replaces them, including the nation's flag (from the traditional U.S. flag to the Confederate Navy Jack flag), the national currency (which the Confederate States of America dollar became the dominant currency of the C.S.A.) and the national anthem (from "The Star-Spangled Banner" to "Dixie", ironically written by a northerner).

But President Davis—after leaving Richmond, Virginia and moving into the White House—faced difficulty to induce the North in accepting the institution of slavery. John Ambrose Fauntroy I introduces a tax that is alleviated by the purchase of slaves, and the works of Samuel A. Cartwright dominate Confederate medical science. Reconstruction efforts for the C.S.A. proved to be a challenge with pioneers, gold-prospectors, the Plain Indians—which a war against them lasted almost 30 years—and the railroad expanding from the South into the Great Plains. In the 1890s, a decision is taken to enslave the West Coast Chinese migrant workers, too. In 1895, the government of the CSA, which does not separate the Church from the State out of fear for more foreign slaves and their religious beliefs in contrast to the C.S.A., outlaws all non-Christian religions. After much debate, the Roman Catholic Church is classified as a Christian religion. Originally, Judaism, too, is outlawed, but after a dying Jefferson Davis cites the crucial contribution of the Jewish Judah P. Benjamin, the government decides to allow some Jews to remain on a reservation (similar to a Native American reservation) in Long Island.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the Confederate States of America has become the Western hemisphere's paramount superpower and occupies all of the continental United States along with Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, the Caribbean, Central and South America with a blend of segregation, apartheid, and semi-slave labor and their dominant ideologies and ethnicity, with only the Russian colony of Alaska and Canada remaining as free from being "client states" of the CSA's Golden Circle, and with Canada being the home to refugee abolitionists, runaway slaves, and former United States citizens. The strong hatred of "The Red Canadian Injustice" dates back to the end of the War of Northern Aggression (the American Civil War) and the beginning of Re-Construction of the CSA, when Frederick Douglass convinces the Canadian Parliament and Canadian Prime Minister John A. Macdonald not to repatriate escaped slaves.

World War II

The CSA, shortly following the end of their expansion and annexing of Mexico, Central and South America, Haiti, Cuba and the Caribbean, is hit by the 1929 economic crash, forcing them to retreat into isolationism, but extricates itself by reviving the Trans-Atlantic slave trade with New African slaves provided by collaborationist African leaders who enslave members of other tribes.

During World War II, the CSA became friendly with Nazi Germany, but disagreed with Adolf Hitler's Final Solution for a pure Ayran Continent, hoping to exploit non-white races instead of murdering them. The CSA agrees to remain neutral in any German war. However, the CSA becomes hostile with Japan, seeing its expansionism as a threat to the entire Pacific Coast Region. Confederate leaders assume that the CSA will easily win the war, judging the Japanese as small and weak in physical stature, as well as not being white. On December 7, 1941 (the date of the actual attack on Pearl Harbor), the CSA strikes two Japanese naval bases and bombs the city of Kyoto as the opening blow in a war against the "Yellow Peril". During the war, the CSA military suffers massive losses, and tries to solve its manpower shortages by recruiting a black regiment by promising slaves their freedom if they would fight (which is later revealed to be a lie). This regiment receives the most dangerous missions and suffers high casualties, but earns the respect of white officers. The war is won using the atomic bomb. The European war still ends in German defeat, albeit with many more Soviet casualties. After the war, the Summit Nations impose trade sanctions and embargoes on the CSA, forcing the nation into isolation. South Africa becomes the only country maintaining diplomatic relations with the CSA.

Cold war with Canada

During the 1950s, the CSA erects a wall along its Canadian border called the "Cotton Curtain" (a lampoon of the Iron Curtain) to divided the C.S.A. from Canada. But after a series of abolitionist attacks and the international trade embargo cause some Confederates to question the need for slavery. In 1960, when only 29 percent of voters approve of slavery, Roman Catholic Republican John F. Kennedy is elected CSA president over Democrat Richard Nixon. However, foreign policy such as the Newfoundland Missile Crisis[2] distracts him, and he is unable to implement his domestic agenda.

Also throughout the 1960s, the Vietnam War is briefly mentioned as an "expansionist campaign" of the CSA, also women demanded the right to have a voice and Canada became the popular culture capital of the world with the contributions of African Americans and other exiles (Elvis Presley, after being jailed for some time, flees there), whereas the CSA's culture never evolves beyond its propaganda. Canada also continuously defeated the C.S.A. in the Olympic Games, which brought the Confederate congress to include slave in sports, forming their very first C.S.F.L. championship games. This illustrated the time to break the color barrier and support Kennedy's movement to emancipate. But before this movement would sent into motion,

President Kennedy was assassinated. Kennedy's assassination completely dismantled the hopes of emancipation and for women to get the vote. Slaves throughout the country, rebeled in fury and retaliation, including the Watts Riots. By the early 1990s, the Confederacy has largely put away such self-doubt. Democratic Senator John Ambrose Fauntroy V presents programs returning the Confederacy to its former Southern Protestant Biblical values, such as husbands beating their wives and intolerance of homosexuals.

Modern day

The documentarians ask Senator (and presidential candidate) Fauntroy V to arrange an interview with some slaves, but it becomes clear that the slaves have been coached. However, they are clandestinely passed a note instructing them to meet a black man named Big Sam (earlier identified as the fugitive leader of a radical splinter group of the "N.A.A.C.P."). Big Sam, in turn, leads them to Horace, a lifelong slave of Fauntroy's, who alleges Fauntroy V is part black, sharing a common slave ancestor. The racial accusations cost Fauntroy V the presidential election; a month later, the senator commits suicide on December 12, 2002. Narration then states DNA tests were "negative".

Expanded timeline

The film's official website contains an expanded timeline of the history of the CSA, which features events not covered in the mockumentary. The timeline identifies President William McKinley's assassin as an abolitionist rather than an anarchist. The CSA manages to advance in space technology by smuggling Nazi scientists out of East Germany before its annexation by the Soviet Union.[3] Rosa Parks is identified as a Canadian terrorist and a member of the John Brown Underground. The failed assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II occurs in New York City instead of St. Peter's Square, with the assailant being a Southern Baptist who is subsequently executed for the crime.[4] The Gulf War has Kuwait as CSA territory. In 1995, Timothy McVeigh blows up the Jefferson Memorial instead of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City; his execution is broadcast on pay-per-view.[5] The War in Afghanistan and subsequent American interventions in the Middle East are known as the 1st and 2nd Crusades, with the goal of eradicating the "Muslim Menace" by overthrowing the Islamic governments, taking over their oil production, and converting their populace to Christianity.[6]

Cast and crew

Main cast

Crew

Reception

The film received generally positive reviews, garnering a 78% approval rating via Rotten Tomatoes. Most critics were intrigued by the film's premise, but some found the execution to be lacking primarily due to a low budget. The film grossed US$744,165 worldwide in limited release.[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Second Civil War", Village Voice, February 7, 2006.
  2. ↑ "Confederate Geographic: Newfoundland Missile Crisis", CSA the movie
  3. ↑ "Confederate Geographic: Operation Aryan Angel", CSA the movie.
  4. ↑ "Confederate Geographic: Assassination Attempt of Pope John Paul II", CSA the movie.
  5. ↑ "Confederate Legacy Presents C.S.A.: A Historical Timeline", CSA the movie.
  6. ↑ "Confederate Geographic: The 1st Crusade", CSA the movie.
  7. ↑ Box Office Mojo

External links