The Untold History of the United States: Challenging the Established Narrative

This post was written by DOC NYC blogger Maggie Glass

If your memory of high school history class consists of dusty textbooks filled with stories of American triumphs, acclaimed director Oliver Stone has a remedy in the form of his recent television series THE UNTOLD HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. On Monday night, audiences were given the opportunity to view a two-hour unaired prologue to the series, and to hear Stone discuss the formidable project with DOC NYC Artistic Director Thom Powers.

A fast-paced tour through the darker parts of American history, the documentary series incorporates an incredible amount of archival footage from the early 20th century, as well as clips from movies of the era. When asked about why he wove in fictional films such as CASABLANCA and MEET JOHN DOE, Stone said, “I don’t consider them fictional because they were made at that time, so they represent the thoughts of the filmmaker and the feelings of the studios. And they were imprints on our culture. They represent the mood. And that’s something that historians can’t get you. They write books, but they can’t capture the mood.”

Gathering all that footage wasn’t easy, however. “It’s been five years of, frankly, hell,” Stone said when asked about the process of making the film. Acknowledging that his acclaim as a director helped him get the series produced, he cited the frustrations inherent in putting anything controversial on air. “You just can’t tell certain stories on American television,” he said. “We give up in advance. We pre-censor ourselves.”

For Stone, the goal of the series is to shed light on narratives that are not in the mainstream, like the collaboration of American corporations with the Nazis in the lead-up to World War II. His ideal audience would be high school students; he said he made the film especially with them in mind.  “My passion is to get this discussion, this truth, out there so kids can get a different way of thinking about American history,” he said. An audience member asked how he himself has changed since the completion of the project. “It’s given me a new source of consciousness,” he said. “I see the world in a new way. I feel like I understand where we’re going better than I did before and I think it’s going to inform my work.”

Maggie Glass is a New York based writer and film editor.