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With support from the German Marshall Fund, the 2005 Washington, DC, International Film Festival (Filmfest DC) will showcase a series of films about the Marshall Plan entitled “Selling Democracy.”  These films consist of some 40 German, French, British, Italian, and Greek shorts from the late 1940s and early 1950s that documented and promoted initiatives of the European Recovery Program — the United States’ largest and most successful public diplomacy and foreign assistance program to date.   The films provide viewers with a fascinating window into post-World War II reconstruction efforts, the encroachment of communism in Europe, and the role of the United States in reshaping a new, peaceful, and economically integrated Europe.  These films also serve as an important lens through which to reexamine current American foreign policy, specifically democracy promotion, economic liberalization, and public diplomacy.   The Selling Democracy series of original Marshall Plan films will be screened April 15 – 18 at the Goethe Institute in downtown DC.  The program will be launched with an opening event on April 15 at Regal Cinemas with remarks by Harlan Cleveland, former assistant director for Europe at the Marshall Plan Agency.  A public symposium on the relevance of the Marshall Plan today will follow the final showing at the Goethe Institute on April 18, concluding the DC run of the films.   A schedule of the DC screening of the films is available for download (PDF — 161KB)   GMF also supported the screening of the Selling Democracy series at the 42nd New York Film Festival October 11–15, 2004, and the 55th Berlin International Film Festival February 12–20, 2005.