大象传媒

Rick Prelinger is an archivist, writer and filmmaker who founded the Prelinger Archives, a collection of 60,000 advertising, educational, industrial and amateur films acquired by the Library of Congress.

A baby-boomer born in the post-war heyday of the American dream, he has observed and experienced America's most powerful myth in action both through his work and in his personal life.

"I was born in 1953 and so it was just what I was born into. I didn't really have to earn that dream. The American dream was just something that you picked up by osmosis. There was a greater sense of entitlement for many people at that point."

"On the other hand, I think the American dream is very contradictory. It's built upon exclusion of all sorts of groups that weren't allowed in. It's built on escape and it's certainly built on fear, whether it's fear of children, fear of an invading other, fear of your neighbours who don鈥檛 look a lot like you, fear of competition from overseas."