Social guidance film

Social guidance films constitute a genre of film attempting to guide children and adults to behave in certain ways. Typically shown in school classrooms in the USA from the 1950s through the 1970s, the films covered topics including courtesy, responsibility, sexuality, drug use, and driver safety; the genre also includes films for adults, covering topics such as marriage and how to balance budgets. Social guidance films were generally produced by corporations such as Coronet Films, Centron Corporation, and even Encyclopædia Britannica, but the films were also produced by maverick independent filmmakers such as Sid Davis, dubbed by author Ken Smith as the "King of Calamity" for his often calamitous narratives. Notorious social guidance films include Duck and Cover (instructing children to duck under their desks in case of nuclear war, and including the famous cartoon with the turtle and the stick of dynamite to illustrate the point), and Boys Beware, a film warning of the dangers...