Awful effort on alternative outlook on history. Spike Lee? He made mistakes, too. Why on Earth making such a blatant parody of Ken Scott and Shelby Foote's Civil War masterpiece which was and is an unbeatable peak? Why, even if you did, do this newer effort such a rushes, rash-ed, rueful, woeful mish mash of all wrong elements possible? Badly calculated, poorly executed, terribly done, this short (and this Is the only redeeming quality of the effort) mocks the very core essence of Civil War achievements and depicts several sacred cows as desacralized calves. The worst moment? Alleged older Lincoln interview. Made me sick and filled with wrath. Wasted effort of dubious merit and horrible conclusion.

A fine mockumentary production which reflects faith in good old, down- home, painstaking hard work and passion.No idea why this languishes in the IMDb 6.x ratings doldrums; I can only guess it has to do with a kind of genre "offset"; like there's a ceiling for the cred due to any mockumentary.This is a marvelous production; and I'm not just trotting out that word gratuitously: I literally marveled ceaselessly from beginning to end. Productions of this nature are burdened with an expectation of almost supernatural ingenuity, and this flick carries that burden with a kind of iron-fisted grace. It's tough satirical medicine, reaching over the wall of your sensibilities to surprise you and get a dark chuckle out of you, and seems to do so with finesse and agility. It's a rollicking cavalcade of expositional ingenuity.Lovely tech work; sound, editing, emulation of "period" media, and all the rest of it.The only (possible) remonstrance might be in the area of acting: There's lots of either bad acting, or skillfully rendered bad acting by wonderful actors. And this contrasts with direction of "real" persons (typically on-screen historical experts, or politicians) which is done with aplomb.Check it out!

I found this gem on Netflix.Other reviews are criticizing the improbability of events depicted in the movie, starting with the involvement of France and the UK in the Civil War. That's why it's fiction: the precipitating events *did not happen*. It's a "WHAT IF" work of fiction. The film maker presupposes a few alterations to history, and then examines what would happen as a consequence. Chaos theory indicates that just about any imagined set of consequences of a few initial changes to a system are as plausible as any other. This movie is essentially "alternative Earth" fiction. It's fanciful by definition. It has a lot more in common with something like the sci-fi series "Sliders" or the "barbarian universe" riff in Star Trek than it is to be taken as a serious critique of modern US society. It's essentially "historical science fiction", with the aliens being the citizens of the "US" (CSA) in a different reality.I also really did not feel that it was liberal or minority grievance agitprop (it was pointed out at the end of the movie that "Aunt Jemima" and "Uncle Ben" are major US brands, but I don't need to be preached that they are somehow embody racist evil.) What CSA is, is an exploration of where the US would be if certain of the values of the antebellum South had been captured through the expanding US, and had then evolved to the present day as mainstream US values. How would the US relate to the rest of the world? What would become of the Americas? What about WWII, Nazi Germany, and the cold war? What would the major political dynasty of our time be in such a country? The film explores a fascinating series of possibilities that could have resulted.The film is only "ha ha funny" for the commercial segments. The meat of the narration is a bit satiric. The historical figures that the film portrayed, including Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas, and minor figures like Judah P. Benjamin and doctor Samuel A. Cartwright, show a serious effort to take one implausible assumption (the Union forces lose at Gettysburg to combined Confederate, French and English forces) and run with it to many logical or at least plausible conclusions.What I found very implausible has not been mentioned by most reviewers. Given that the CSA was born as a xenophobic and virulently intolerant society, I don't see a CSA type nation as having accomplished most of what the US has done, particularly in terms of the sciences, militarily, and economic development. The white supremacist establishment would have rejected and marginalized many of the most productive and brilliant members of "real world" US society. IE, would a CSA ever have developed the resources to conquer most of the Americas? Would the CSA have been in a position to plant a confederate flag on the moon? (Great sight gag, BTW.) Would a CSA have invented radio, TV, atomic fission, and the internet? "CSA" only got this diminished society aspect partially right by showing that the arts and entertainment flourished in the Canada of the film, and therefore arts in the CSA were stunted and mostly tended to government propaganda.The part that I felt rang very true was how values are transmitted from one generation to another. Supposing that abolition had never happened, and also supposing that it a preference of the government - what else could you say about the society? So in CSA, women in 2004 do not yet have the vote. And Canada is despised for "stealing" the CSA's slaves.If you have an open mind and a small interest in US history, I highly recommend this movie. It's fun. It's good when it is over, and you can breath a sigh of relief for our flawed but still superior real life world.

People, seriously... These are reviews of a Fictional movie. REVIEWS! As in, did you like it or not based on Staging, Costumes, writing, Acting, etc. No one cares if you're from a former confederate state, and you happened to get all butt-hurt about it being made. CSA was pretty good. Low budget, but entertaining. Half-a$$ed the costumes, but who cares! It's a mockumentary. And a silly one at that. If you like dry, humorous, FAKE, history movies then this is right up your alley.One thing I will say that I had a personal problem with was the amount of commercials that ran during this movie. If I didn't already have insurance on my slave, he wouldn't be working in the field with all that heavy machinery. When will congress pass mandatory slave insurance into law?See. Seems ridiculous when you treat it seriously, or as something to get upset about...