Confederate States of America

IFC Films

R1 DVD

Website: http://www.csathemovie.com/

Confederate States of America is one of the most breathtaking satires you will ever see, it is mockumentary taken to extreme and amuses, offends and shocks in equal measures. Kevin Willmott has created a fake documentary with newsbreaks, adverts, commentators and more. This is a different America, one where the South has won the Civil War. The film is represented by having been produced by a British broadcasting company and only being presented for the first time on television in the States.

Beginning with the British and French forces joining the battle with the Confederacy, thus assuring the defeat of the North at Gettysburg and ensuing battles, the South takes the battle northward and form one country out of the two. Lincoln attempts escape to Canada but is captured in blackface. This moment is captured in the clip of a silent film that might have been.

After victory, President Davis brings slavery back to the northern states by offering a tax rebate to businesses and households who will buy and own them. Liberals move to Canada. The nation chooses an expansionist policy and conquers Cuba, Mexico and South America.

As world war looms, the CSA takes a non-aggressive stance toward the Third Reich and their move toward racial purity (although not condoning their wasting of possible slave stock by the Final Solution) and makes a pre-emptive nuclear strike on Japan on December 7, 1941. Hitler and the CSA have a good relationship though disagreeing on the commercial value of inferior racial stock.

Kennedy is assassinated soon after being elected as it appears he will not only emancipate but also give women the vote. A growing black terrorist base stems from Canada and a Cold War breaks out...complete with the Cotton Curtain being built between the two countries.

Through it all, including a contemporary run for the presidency, we follow a political dynasty, the Fauntroy family, who lead the country through its triumphs and tragedies.

This is truly a startling work of satire, made all the more confronting in that many of the products advertised in the breaks were actually available on the American market, from Sambo to Coon Inn. While it uses a confronting if not potentially offensive form of politically incorrect humour, it does so in a way that makes us consider the racism that still exists within the modern Western world. The re-envisioning of history with new wars, characters, historical works, movie clips and documents is ingenious to say the least and CSA is certainly a fascinating and challenging work of satire.

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