Post-War Blues

The official music video for Post-War Blues by Juno Award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter Dan Mangan is an homage to the 1964 Stanley Kubrick classic Dr. Strangelove. Like the original film, the video playfully skewers the political tensions of the time. Instead of a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union however, the plot follows a war-mongering Air Force general who launches a fictitious war "for the kids" to justify arts funding cuts in favour of ramped-up military spending. The war even gets a jingoistic name, "The War On Evil", that is used to indoctrinate the nation's youth. A shadowy (and seemingly desk-chair bound) "weapons of mass media" expert presents the war room with a live feed of how the plan is being carried out in school classrooms. Will the kids blindly accept the pro-war politics being foisted upon them or will they rise up in revolt?

Credits:

Directed by Kevin Eastwood

Produced by Kevin Eastwood & Katelyn Mann

Cinematography by Ian Kerr

Edited by Brendan Woollard

Starring: Dan Mangan, Don McKellar, Tom Butler, Kirsten Slenning, Raphael Kepinski, Kevin MacDonald

Awards:

• Nominee: Best Music Video, Leo Awards