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

Honestly It's the Story of My Life

  • 1990

Mildred

  • 1960

The Dirt Inside

  • 1998

Children of Wax

  • 1988

Pretend You'll Survive

  • 1981

Green Men, Yellow Woman

  • 1973

Two Faces

  • 1968

Slug Life

  • 2018
Worst. Parents. Ever. But a lovely animated tale using cut-out animation designed by Sunniva Kellquist

Little Tom Thumb

  • 1967

Childhood Memories

  • 2018
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.

A Short Vision

  • 1956
An animated tale with a Lutheran message that's equal parts Christmas spirit and good old-fashioned guilt

The Candlemaker

  • 1957
No man is an island, but Charley represents his nation in this economical cartoon tale of Britain's economics

Robinson Charley

  • 1948
Long before the 'Charley Says' campaign of the 1970s and '80s, another cartoon Charley was used to demystify the newly created NHS.

Your Very Good Health

  • 1948
A cartoon fantasy brings fabric patterns to life in a literal soap opera - yet even here the reality of Home Front life creeps in

Carnival in the Clothes Cupboard

  • 1941
Santa's on strike! This charming animation for the GPO advises early posting to keep Father Christmas onside.

Christmas is Coming

  • 1951
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