When "The Bridges of Madison County" Came to Moscow.

• Author: Orr, Gregory
• Position: Effort by the U.S. to promote public diplomacy - Viewpoint essay - Personal account

Title: When "The Bridges of Madison County" Came to Moscow

Author: Gregory Orr

Text:

Of all the cultural tools used by the United States Information Agency (USIA) to promote public diplomacy, film had a prominent role. For nearly half a century, the film division at USIA produced, distributed, and sponsored films throughout the world. It is estimated that the USIA archive included nearly 18,000 films distributed to over 150 nations in dozens of languages. They ranged widely in style (documentary, newsreel, animation, educational, and even fiction) and subject matter (social issues, biography, history, the arts, the environment, daily life in America, and sports.)

It was not surprising when President Ronald Reagan selected Charles Z Wick, a businessman with ties to the motion picture and tv industry, as the Director of USIA. During his tenure from 1981-1988, Director Wick is most remembered for establishing the ambitious Worldnet Television and Film Service, a 24-hour-a-day cable and satellite channel directed to audiences outside of the United States. As a result, the United States Information Service (USIS) offices overseas had ample film resources to distribute to local schools, libraries and media outlets as part of our cultural diplomacy.

Sometimes though we would receive requests for assistance that required us to expand our "cinematic" universe.In 1995, the USIS office in Moscow where I worked was approached by the Dom Kino (House of Cinema) to show a first-run American film to its membership. The Dom Kino was the Headquarters of the Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation and its presentations and screenings were well attended by the film community.

American films had been popular in Russian cinemas for years and they were usually of the superhero, space opera, cops and robbers variety. However, the Dom Kino audience would undoubtedly have higher expectations for this USIS-sponsored screening. So the pressure was on.

By late summer, there were two very different critically lauded films in American cinemas, "Apollo 13" and "The Bridges of Madison County". One was a rousing story of a near tragedy in space saved by American ingenuity and the other was a modest love story between a photographer and an Italian-American housewife.

My boss, Public Affairs Officer Paul Smith, had recently seen both films on home leave and felt that "Apollo 13" would be a little too patriotic for our Russian audience while the simple pleasures of...