S7.E4 ∙ Marie Richardson

Academy Award-winning screenwriter Robert Riskin headed up a secret film unit that sought to redefine America in the eyes of the world during the darkest days of World War II. The filmmakers created powerful short documentaries that showed America's strength not through images of tanks, but in portraits of farmers, school children and window washers. The "Projections of America" films were brilliant, moving portraits of America that were unlike any films ever made before, but seventy years later they are forgotten, hidden away in government archives. Narrated by John Lithgow, PROJECTIONS OF AMERICA tells the dramatic story of Riskin and his team, and the risks they took to project a profoundly democratic vision of the nation that would soon emerge as the most powerful on earth.

The second film of trilogy is called "Buran". About the raid into the enemy rear in 1941-1942, in the battles during the crossing of the Dnepr and Pripyat, the famous operation near the Sarny, which went down in the history of World War II under the name "Sarn Cross".

This is the poignant untold story of warmth and compassion after a terrible war. Thousands of Jewish survivors, landed in Southern Italy, after WWII, on their way to Israel. To their surprise they were welcomed by the poor locals. In this time of psychological and physical healing, hundreds of children were born. The film follows the story of three Israeli women who were born then, in Santa-Maria-Di-Leuca. The film weaves rare historical footage with unique current testimonials capturing a ray of light after great darkness.

The life of three young women who are friends, under the Czar and then during the Civil War after the Bolshevik Revolution, is depicted in the style of Socialist Realism.