Early "interactive" film attempting to train teenagers to negotiate, not fight, with their parents. When Mary's family refuses to let her go out on a date, what should she do? What happens when family members shirk their chores? How can Bill and his father agree on what time Bill should get home at night? These scenes are shown dramatically, then summarized, and each spectator is invited to join in the discussion. (Rick observes): One of the first social guidance films to be produced after World War II, You and Your Family is also an early example of interactivity in the way it poses direct questions to the viewer and seeks viewer intervention and discussion. This invitation runs against the stream of most postwar social guidance films, which tended to supply answers rather than encourage questions. (The major exception: Young America Films' Discussion Problems in Group Living series.) You and Your Family also hints at the war-induced fragmentation of the American family unit. In essence, this film is a series of exercises in re-exerting parental control over independent adolescents Ñ but the adolescents are supposed to do all the figuring out about how best to fit in. (Ken Smith rants): This film, probably the first postwar social guidance production (and #1 in the Art of Living series), shows us how Mary, Bill and George Johnson deal with the tribulations of mid-forties teenage life. Mary, in particular, seems to forever be bumping heads with her stick-in-the-mud parents. As the film opens, Mary gets a telephone invitation to a dance, but when she asks permission from Mother and Dad, they disapprove. "I think we all feel that Mary is still a little young to go out in the evening," Mother says, warmly refering to her daughter in the third person. "That's right," echoes Dad. "Sorry, Mary." Now the omniscient narrator takes over. "Has anything like this ever happened in YOUR home?" he asks, and the film spins backward in time to show us the different responses Mary could offer. "No one in this family wants to have any fun at all!" Mary wails in one. "I wish I were dead!" The narrator, of course, is not willing to leave things so untidy. "Was that the BEST way?" he coos. "Or should Mary do THIS?" "Why couldn't I have Frank and the gang over HERE tomorrow night?" the new Mary suggests spiritedly. "We could all play the radio and dance and make sandwiches!" "Hey! That'd be swell!" cries brother Bill, and the Johnson family is on an even keel again. "Most family problems can be solved through frank and friendly discussion," the narrator concludes. With problems as bland as those presented in this film, he's probably right. FAMILIES MANNERS PARENTS CHILDREN BEHAVIOR Teenagers Homes (interiors) Parents Rebelliousness Social guidance Families Girls Girls (bad) Disobedience Obedience Telephones Telephone calls Lying Graphic design Questions (to audience) Audience participation Open-ended films Behavior Manners Etiquette Parents and children Dating Rules Danger Lurks

youth, blake (b.k.) inc., social guidance,