“A word from man to man”. Interwar Venereal Disease Education Films for Military Audiences in France

Abstract

In the 1910s, in the wake of the glorious decade of syphilography (1900–1910), the early health education films lay the groundwork for a pragmatic approach to the containment of venereal diseases combining (early) diagnosis, treatment and prophylaxis. Realizing thatWWI was turning into a durable military conflict, the French Army created a Cinematographic Section (SCA) in 1915 for the purposes of war propaganda and documentation. In 1916, secretary of war Justin Godard declared syphilis a “national public danger” and initiated information campaigns in military and civilian spheres. Conferences accompanied with film screenings were organized for all new military recruits, resulting in the production of a series sex hygiene films for military audiences characterized by a short, evocative and precise documentary style, contrasting with the romantic sex hygiene films aimed at the general public. This contribution examines the cinematographic origins of the instructional films for the military, as well as their evolution up to WWII and their influence on public sex hygiene films for civilians in the interwar period in France.