Pretend You'll Survive

Pretend You'll Survive


Nuclear nightmares realised in cartoon form by a Yorkshire women's collective that advocates protest over pointless preparation

Protect and survive? This activist cartoon from a Yorkshire women's collective argues that the Government's public information message on preparation for a nuclear attack is just a pretence. The only way to survive was to protest against such an outcome ever happening. The film also make a connection with the potential for an environmental catastrophe through the use of nuclear power.

The roots of the Leeds Animation Workshop began in 1976 when a group of women came together to make Who Needs Nurseries? - We Do! Over forty years on and they are still going as an all women's co-operative, releasing They Call Us Maids: The Domestic Workers' Story in 2015.


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From the collection

Women of Animation

Celebrating pioneers and boundary-pushing female artists

16 videos in this collection

1

Honestly It's the Story of My Life

2

Mildred

3

The Dirt Inside

4

Children of Wax

5

Pretend You'll Survive

6

Green Men, Yellow Woman

7

Two Faces

8

Slug Life

9

Little Tom Thumb

10

Childhood Memories

The animated short on the terrors of nuclear apocalypse that become a sensation when it played on the Ed Sullivan show, leaving middle America highly disturbed.
11

A Short Vision

An animated tale with a Lutheran message that's equal parts Christmas spirit and good old-fashioned guilt
12

The Candlemaker

13

Robinson Charley

Long before the 'Charley Says' campaign of the 1970s and '80s, another cartoon Charley was used to demystify the newly created NHS.
14

Your Very Good Health

A cartoon fantasy brings fabric patterns to life in a literal soap opera - yet even here the reality of Home Front life creeps in
15

Carnival in the Clothes Cupboard

Santa's on strike! This charming animation for the GPO advises early posting to keep Father Christmas onside.
16

Christmas is Coming

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