Yesterday's Tomorrows

Yesterday's Tomorrows (1999)

DocumentaryHistory

Showtime's "In the 20th Century" is a millennium-related strand of feature-length documentaries in which famous directors take on major subjects of their choosing. In the third of the six films, "Yesterday's Tomorrows," filmmaker Barry Levinson delves into what we, as Americans, thought the future would be as we traveled through the 20th century. Houses and cars of the future, the promise of technology, and the other hopes and dreams of the early part of the century gave way to the fears and anxieties brought about by the atomic age and the Hollywood disaster films that followed. Soon we wondered if we could control technology, or if it would control us. This film is by turns light-hearted and thoughtful, and rare historical and archival film, produced by government and industry, alternates with on-screen interviews with people as diverse as consumer advocate Ralph Nader, cartoonist Matt Groening, futurist Alvin Toffler, comedienne Phyllis Diller, and actor Martin Mull.

Director: Barry Levinson

Casts

	Richard Belzer as Self
	Octavia E. Butler as Self
	Phyllis Diller as Self
	Spalding Gray as Self
	Matt Groening as Self
	Charlton Heston as Self
	Robert Klein as Self
	Fran Lebowitz as Self
	Isaac Mizrahi as Self
	Walter Mosley as Self
	Martin Mull as Self
	Ralph Nader as Self
	Bob Newhart as Self
	Andrew Rooney as Self
	Alvin Toffler as Self
	Heidi Toffler as Self
	John Waters as Self

Crew