Pelster-Wiebe to Work on Feature Film

Professor Richard Pelster-Wiebe will be an artist in residence at the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, California this May. Pelster-Wiebe will work on his feature length film, The Great War, an antiwar documentary composed of official documents and everyday ephemera issued from the United States government.  Pelster-Wiebe's project combines footage shot during World War I by Leon Caverly, America’s first official war cinematographer with text from the FBI’s file on pacifist Jeannette Rankin, America’s first woman to hold federal office. As a Marine Corps cinematographer, Caverly shot what would become the country’s first official war propaganda film, "America’s Answer/ (1917). Rankin cast one of just 50 votes against intervention in World War I and she was later the sole member of Congress to vote against declaring war on Japan in World War II. After serving in office, Rankin spent her life challenging America's wars until her death in 1973 at age 92. By repurposing Caverly’s pro-war footage alongside the FBI’s letters and memos seeking to criminalize Rankin’s pacifist activities, Pelster-Wiebe will fashion a film in which documents of the United States government ultimately provide the means for its own critique.