Our secret century : archival films from the darker side of the American dream. Vol. 5-6 / by Rick Prelinger.

Media archaeologist Richard Prelinger presents hilarious, disturbing, and revealing archival films. In vol. 5, six movies explore the not-so-golden years of the late fifties and early sixties. White and Chicano gangs in working class L.A. call a truce in Gang Boy. Robert's downward spiral in The Dropout includes a stint in the malt shop waiting on his one-time peers and The Terrible truth is that nice girls get hooked on "horse". Vol. 6 is a rare visual record of the changing face of urban and rural America, the blank slate upon which fantasies of growth and prosperity were enacted. In the Suburbs celebrates the swingin' white suburban dream (a paradise for advertisers), and in American Harvest the exploitation of our bountiful natural resources culminates in...a Chevrolet.