Australian
Screen

Clip description

This 10-minute film, seen here in full, extols the health benefits of drinking and cooking with milk. At Parramatta Girls’ Home Science School, one girl daydreams what a world without milk might be like. Dairy is advocated as one of the most important food types and the students all drink milk at recess. They prepare a range of milk-based foods, including soups and desserts, which are displayed on a table. After class the students look at photographs of milk-drinking models and athletes with healthy skin and strong bodies. At home, one of the students tells her parents she would like to drink more milk and her father comments on the good lessons their daughter is learning at school.

Curator’s notes

White River of Life presents a perfectly uniform world: a class of obedient female students, eager to learn about milk; a teacher well-versed on all aspects of milk; and a mother ‘modern enough to profit by what the youngsters are learning’ about milk. The students do not question anything they are told. When asked if drinking milk leads to weight gain, a young woman naively explains that a ‘boxer drank two quarts of milk a day during training and didn’t put on a single pound in weight in three months’. Perfection is reinforced by a home science classroom filled with girls in white uniforms, pouring milk-based sauces in unison. This government-sponsored film offers a good opportunity to compare and contrast an idealised 1950s school environment with today.