Hands, Ralph Steiner, Willard Van Dyke, 1934, Canada
In the depths of Great Depression USA, a coalition of radical filmmakers fought to birth the new genre of social documentary. They confronted crisis by creating a new cinema of reality, infusing facts with feelings, art with propaganda, actuality with drama, to document, communicate, and even help resolve the significant issues of troubled times. As the New Deal pursued another America, documentary did too. The weaponised cameras of revolutionary collectives (Film and Photo League, Frontier Films), ambitious US government productions, and directors including Joris Ivens, Leo Hurwitz, Pare Lorentz, Ralph Steiner and Paul Strand, evidence a unique decade of possibilities and experiments in both cinema and society, whilst showing how many of today’s contemporary challenges are mirrored in our past.
A total of 58 films make up the retrospective The Documentary on the March: The Turbulent 30s in New Deal America, programmed in collaboration with the Cinemateca Portuguesa, where all the screenings will take place.
See the full program below:
The Passaic Textile Strike, Samuel Russac, E.U.A., 1926, 79’
Manhatta, Paul Strand, Charles Sheeler, E.U.A., 1921, 10’
H2O, Ralph Steiner, E.U.A. , 1929 , 13’
A Bronx Morning, Jay Leyda, E.U.A., 1931, 14’,
Oil: A Symphony in Motion, M. G. MacPherson, E.U.A., 1933, 8’
Footnote to Fact, Lewis Jacobs, E.U.A., 1933, 8’
Hands, Ralph Steiner, Willard Van Dyke, E.U.A., 1934, 4’,
Today, Esfir Shub, U.R.S.S. , 1929 , 66’
Workers Newsreel: Bonus March 1932, Leo Seltzer, E.U.A. , 1932, 12’
The Road to Life, Nikolai Ekk, U.R.S.S., 1931 , 119’
Hunger 1932, Workers Film and Photo League, E.U.A., 1933, 18’
Gabriel Over the White House, Gregory La Cava, E.U.A., 1933, 86’
The News Parade of 1934, Hearst Metrotone News, E.U.A., 1934, 11’
The World in Review, Leo Hurwitz, E.U.A., 1933-1934, 7’
America Today, Leo Hurwitz, E.U.A., 1932-1934, 6’
Confidence, William Nolan, E.U.A., 1933, 8’
The Great Depression, Maurice Bailen, E.U.A., 1934, 18’
Century of Progress, Workers Film and Photo League, E.U.A., 1934, 10’
Marian Anderson: The Lincoln Memorial Concert, Hearst Metrotone News, NBC Radio, UCLA, E.U.A., 1939, 8’
One Tenth of our nation, Felix Greene, E.U.A., 1940, 26’
Pie in the Sky, Ralph Steiner, E.U.A., 1935, 22’
Millions of Us, Jack Smith [Slavko Vorkapich], Tina Taylor, E.U.A., 1936, 17’
People of the Cumberland, Sidney Meyers, Jay Leyda, E.U.A., 1937, 21’
The World Today: Sunnyside: The Second Battle of Long Island, NYKino, E.U.A., 1936, 8’
The World Today: Black Legion, NYKino, E.U.A., 1936, 6’
The Wave, Emilio Gómez Muriel, Fred Zinnemann, México, 1936, 65’
A Colour Box, Len Lye, Reino Unido, 1935, 4’
The Face of Britain, Paul Rotha, Reino Unido, 1934, 20’
The Triumph of the Will, Leni Riefenstahl, Alemanha, 1935, 114’
The Plow That Broke the Plains, Pare Lorentz, E.U.A., 1936, 29’
Our Daily Bread, King Vidor, E.U.A., 1934, 80’
The Spanish Earth, Joris Ivens, E.U.A., 1937, 53’
The 400 Million, Joris Ivens, John Fernhout, E.U.A., 1938, 53’
Heart of Spain, Paul Strand, Leo Hurwitz, E.U.A., 1937, 30’
China Strikes Back, Leo Hurwitz, E.U.A., 1937, 37’
The River, Pare Lorentz, E.U.A., 1937, 31’
Wild River, Elia Kazan, E.U.A., 1960, 110’
Crisis: A Film of ‘The Nazi Way’, Herbert Kline, Hans Burger, Alexander Hammid, E.U.A., 1939, 70’
The Land, Robert J. Flaherty, E.U.A., 1942, 43’
The City, Ralph Steiner, Willard Van Dyke, E.U.A., 1939, 43’
Power and the Land, Joris Ivens, E.U.A., 1940, 39’
Valley Town, Willard Van Dyke, E.U.A., 1940, 35’
Men and Dust, Lee Dick, E.U.A., 1940, 16’
A Place to Live, Irving Lerner, E.U.A., 1941, 17’
…One Third of a Nation…, Dudley Murphy, E.U.A., 1939, 79’
The Fight for Life, Pare Lorentz, E.U.A., 1940, 70’
The Forgotten Village, Herbert Kline, Alexander Hammid, E.U.A., 1941, 67’
White Flood, David Wolff [Ben Maddow], Robert Stebbins [Sidney Meyers], E.U.A., 1940, 15’
The Adventures of Chico, Horace Woodard, Stacy Woodard, E.U.A., 1938, 60’
Native Land, Leo Hurwitz, Paul Strand, E.U.A., 1942, 89’
Strange Victory, Leo Hurwitz, E.U.A., 1948, 75’
Song of the Rivers, Joris Ivens, R.D.A, 1954, 111’
To Hear Your Banjo Play, Willard Van Dyke, Irving Lerner, E.U.A., 1946, 17’
Emergency Ward, Leo Hurwitz, E.U.A., 1952, 17’
Young Fighter, Leo Hurwitz, E.U.A., 1953, 30’
Confrontation, Maurice Bailen, E.U.A., 1975, 19’
The Savage Eye, Joseph Strick, Ben Maddow, Sidney Meyers, E.U.A., 1960, 68’
Look Park, Ralph Steiner, E.U.A., 1974, 11’
