Directed by Leo Hurwitz • 1948 • United States
Starring Alfred Drake, Muriel Smith, Gary Merrill
In 1945, the free world rejoiced over the defeat of fascism. But the sense of peace was short-lived, and as the Cold War began, the United States entered a period of national paranoia and political repression. In response, boundary-pushing publisher and producer Barney Rosset and director Leo Hurwitz joined forces to create STRANGE VICTORY. This rarely seen, stylistically bold documentary equals the visual brilliance of landmark works like BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN and I AM CUBA while delivering an extraordinary cry for equality and justice. Skillfully combining real-life footage of World War II combat, postwar refugees, and the Nuremberg trials with powerful dramatic reenactments, Hurwitz weaves an extraordinary cinematic portrait of postwar American fascism. How could it be, the film asks, that servicemen returning home from defeating a racist and genocidal enemy found a United States plagued by prejudice, Jim Crow, anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, and xenophobia?
Up Next in Maysles Documentary Center
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The House Is Black
Directed by Forugh Farrokhzad • 1963 • Iran
The only film directed by trailblazing feminist Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad finds unexpected grace where few would think to look: a leper colony whose inhabitants live, worship, learn, play, and celebrate in a self-contained community cut off from ...
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Symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take One
Directed by William Greaves • 1968 • United States
Starring William Greaves, Patricia Ree Gilbert, Don FellowsIn his one-of-a-kind fiction/documentary hybrid SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXIPLASM TAKE ONE, director William Greaves presides over a beleaguered film crew in New York’s Central Park, leaving them t...
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Salesman
Directed by David Maysles, Albert Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerin • 1969 • United States
This radically influential portrait of American dreams and disillusionment from Direct Cinema pioneers David Maysles, Albert Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerin captures, with indelible humanity, the worlds of four ...
