One of the most shameful episodes in Hollywood’s history is being examined in a new retrospective to screen at the Locarno Film Festival: Red & Black: Hollywood Left and the Blacklist. Speaking to Variety, the retrospective’s curator, Ehsan Khoshbakht, speaks about the inspiration for the program, which features the work of directors, writers and stars such as John Garfield, Joseph Losey, Dalton Trumbo, Dorothy Parker, Richard Wright and Charles Chaplin.
What was your starting point for the retrospective?
I have often wondered why someone who could have lived a life of comfort would instead fight for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, as the screenwriter Alvah Bessie did. Or why filmmakers such as Joseph Losey and Cy Endfield at the height of their success would leave their families, and end up working in Mexico, England or Italy, often forbidden even to use their real names. Trying to understand that inner compulsion — not to name names — became the starting point.
‘España otra vez’ written by Alvah Bessie
Courtesy of Mercury Films
