Episode 021: Holidays on Film

Today’s episode is our last one for 2022 so of course, we’re talking about holidays and how they're portrayed on film! We’re excited to have historian Vaughn Joy on to talk specifically about the impact of Christmas movies, how the government influenced the cultural sector in the nuclear age, and how those ramifications are still having ripple effects today.

We also discuss how pop culture changes social attitudes and conveys the politics of the moment as seen through the lens of innocuous media like what you consume around the holidays.

Lastly, we dive into how we’d like to see more representation on screen in terms of holiday films including different religions, different secular traditions, and different communities at the center of the story.

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Music: Deppisch
Design: Perpetualnotion.ca
Mixing/ Mastering: Tony Bao
Support this show: Patreon.com/BraaainsPodcast

MORE ON OUR GUESTS

Vaughn Joy is a PhD candidate at University College London and co-host of three podcasts: Impressions of America, Joy of Star Wars, and Hollywood in Focus. For her dissertation, Vaughn studies the government’s infiltration of Hollywood in the early Cold War and the cultural ramifications this caused via a case study on Christmas films.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

A list of Christmas movies we discussed during the podcast:

• It's a Wonderful Life (1947)

• The Bishop's Wife (1947)

• Miracle on 34th Street (1947 & 1994)

• Holiday Affair (1949)

• Susan Slept Here (1954)

• White Christmas (1954)

• Babes in Toyland (1961 - Disney’s first foray into Christmas movies which really set the tone for how Christmas would be dealt with for the next two decades of the Cold War, which is that it was almost entirely for children)

• Gremlins (1984)

• Die Hard (1988)

• The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

• Klaus (2019 - a passion project of Sergio Pablos, who created the film AND the myth of Santa Claus it was based on).

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