Film Screening
Strange Victory

02/13/20
7:00pm
Maysles Cinema

The year was 1945. The free world rejoices over the defeat of fascism. But the peace soon chilled, and in the Cold War that followed the United States entered a period of national paranoia and political repression. In response, film producer Barney Rosset and director Leo Hurwitz joined forces to create Strange Victory.

This rarely seen, stylistically bold documentary equals the visual, poetic brilliance of Battleship Potemkin and I am Cuba while delivering an extraordinary cry from the heart to make a better place for our children. Skillfully combining documentary footage of World War II battles, postwar refugees, and the Nuremberg trials with powerful dramatic re-enactments, Hurwitz wove an extraordinary cinematic portrait of postwar American Fascism. How could it be, the film asked, that servicemen returned home from defeating a racist and genocidal enemy and found the United States plagued by racism, Jim Crow, anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, and xenophobia?

Followed by a discussion with Michael B. Gillespie, Associate Professor of Film in the Department of Media and Communication Arts and the Black Studies Program at The City College of New York

Strange Victory
USA, 1948, 71 min.
Dir. Leo Hurwitz

Presented as part of the event series Black Solidarity in a Global Context, in collaboration with Rosa- Luxemburg-Stiftung—New York Office and Maysles Documentary Center.