C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America.

This film has an interesting history: made by Kevin Willmott, a professor of film at Kansas U., it debuted at Sundance in 2004 but took a while to achieve distribution, through the offices of Spike Lee, to whose Bamboozled it bears more than a passing resemblance. C.S.A. has been catergorized both as a comedy and as a documentary, so the designation of mockumentary seems made to order. It’s a dog’s breakfast of differing elements -- overall, a Ken Burns-like mix of archival visuals and talking heads, ostensibly made for British television to tell the history of America, from the surrender of Grant to Lee to the present day, interlaced with commercials for Darky Toothpaste and Niggerhair Cigarettes and the Coon Chicken Inn, which a kicker at the end reveals as real products in the pre-Civil Rights era. I don’t suppose there was ever a Slave Shopping Network, however. The history jumps off from the premise that Judah Benjamin’s envoy worked, so England and France came in on the side of the South, which proceeded to win at Gettysburg, leading to a rout of Union forces and the taking of Washington. What follows takes some huge speculative leaps, but still circles back to fact. The South pillages the North, Blacks and abolitionists flee to Canada and develop an alternate culture, while the CSA pursues empire into South America. America is neutral against the Aryan Hitler, but attacks the colored Japs. Kennedy is elected as a reformist president but is still shot in Dallas. The ambition of Willmott’s film certainly exceeds his means; some of the acting is at summer stock level, and while the commercials are acceptably cheesy, the famous film parodies do not achieve the style of the originals. In its scattershot way, however, the film does hit a number of satirical targets. (2006, dvd, n.) *5+* (MC-62.)