Humanitarian action and cinema - ICRC Films in the 1920s

At the 10th International Conference of the Red Cross (Geneva, 30 March to 7 April 1921), the ICRC presented four films that it had commissioned from its delegations in Narva and Stettin, Warsaw, Budapest and Constantinople. The ICRCs aim was to reaffirm its role in the post-war period. The power and impact of the cinematograph as a tool of communication (known as propaganda back then) had already been recognized. Now he was being brought in to achieve this aim. These films are among the earliest ever made specifically to promote the humanitarian cause. They deal with problems left unresolved by the First World War: repatriating prisoners of war, fighting epidemics, looking after children and caring for refugees. This double DVD marks the origins of film as a medium of communication at the ICRC.

The Source films DVD presents part of the collection of nitrate films from the 1920s that the ICRC deposited with the Swiss Film Archive in 1963. They were restored between 1995 and 2001 by Hermann Wetter and Jean-Blaise Junod with support from Memoriav.
The Restored films DVD represents an attempt by Jean-Blaise Junod to re-create the first ICRC films from the original sources. The project is based on extensive historical research by Enrico Natale and Lukas Straumann.