Humanitarian action and cinema: ICRC films in the 1920s
28-04-2005 FilmRef. CD13/001;002
A joint production between Memoriav and the ICRC, this double DVD production makes available for the first time rare footage of humanitarian work taken between 1920 and 1923. Shot amid the ruins of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian and Ottaman empires, the ICRC films show the suffering that followed the First World War and the attempts to alleviate it through the repatriation of prisoners of war, relief operations for children and refugees and the fight against epidemics.
Excerpt 1: The ICRC and its post-war activities, 1923
On a Friday in the summer of 1923, the weekly meeting of the ICRC was filmed by Jean Brocher, a young director. The purpose: to produce a film presenting the new activities of the ICRC and its post-war objectives.
Silent, with on-screen captions
Excerpt 2: An ICRC doctor
Alexis Tarasov, a Polish doctor of Russian origin, plays the leading role in this documentary illustrating ICRC's efforts to combat typhus in Poland.
English commentary
