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Learn more- The Cinematographic Broadcasting Service (SDC) of the General Government of Algeria (GGA, then Government Delegation in Algeria), created in 1943 but active only from 1945, is used to broadcast films produced by France on Algerian colonialism in the countryside (and more rarely in the cities) of Algeria using "cinebuses" whose number will increase until the end of the Algerian war. Organized in the manner of German propaganda and its American counterparts of the Psychological Warfare Branch during the Second World War, composed largely of civil servants of "European" origin, the SDC is resolutely thought of as a tool for psychological action, used in times of peace as in times of war with rural populations in order to orient their perception of colonial power. The filmic grandeur of the French action contrasted sharply with the reality of a dispossessed and exploited population. The children, for their part, represented even more of a captive audience, the supposed aim of the school screenings being to inculcate in them the "bases" of history and geography concerning Algeria, giving little account of the disparities at work in the Algerian society. To improve acceptance of propaganda, which involves documentaries, the two services (SCD and CHPT/CDP) almost systematically offer short fiction films, mainly cartoons and comedy films of the Charlot type, as well as short musical films in Arabic (Music and joy; The unexpected party...). The listing of SDC cinebuses is made up of a variety of films that make the service an "instrument of information, mass education, relaxation of minds and sometimes also French propaganda"13. Sometimes and above all, because the bulk of the films are generalist propaganda documentaries on Algeria (highlighting the role of France in the human and industrial development of the country: Algeria at work; Algiers the city that builds; El Djezaïr. ..), to which is added the prophylactic and technical film (Once upon a mountain; Alert to the fields; Alert to mothers; Boussaad, Djeloul and the mosquitoes; Caravan of light...) and the tourist film on the different regions from Algeria, even from France. As we can see, these films alternate between prosaic considerations on malaria or the gullying of the mountains and generalist propaganda whose content is most often very far removed from the daily life of the Algerian populations to whom they are addressed.
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