So This Is God's Country?(1966)

So This Is God's Country? is a 1960s Mondo documentary that captures America through an outsider's unflinching lens. The film assembles a kaleidoscopic portrait of the era's contradictions: gleaming consumerism alongside deep social fractures, religious fervor mixed with racial violence and neo-Nazi movements. Director Paolo Cavara pieces together scenes from across the nation—abandoned ghost towns, LSD culture in New York City, the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, Amish communities, KKK gatherings, and African-American fashion shows—to expose the country's uglier underbelly. Rather than celebrate the American dream, So This Is God's Country? interrogates it, revealing the racism, oddity, and adversity simmering beneath 1960s prosperity. The result is a provocative time capsule that refuses easy answers or comfort.