AGITPROP!, an evening of social justice film & television, will be held at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco on Wednesday, April 26, 2017. The program makes a statement in alignment with current protests to galvanize the nation against actions from an administration seemingly bent on destroying as much of the social progress made in this country in the past half-century.
The intrepid works from the past to deliver this message star with an episode of the 1960s television drama THE DEFENDERS, followed by the rare film noir that tells a racially charged cautionary tale OPEN SECRET, and a seventieth anniversary screening of the great social justice noir dealing with anti-semitism CROSSFIRE.
LISTINGS SUMMARY
AGITPROP!, an evening of social justice film & television
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
The Roxie Theater, 3117 16th Street, San Francisco, CA - (415) 863-1087
6:00pm - “The Benefactor,” episode of THE DEFENDERS
7:30pm - OPEN SECRET
9:15pm - CROSSFIRE
ONLINE DETAILS:
Facebook event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/289306658166535/
http://midcenturyproductions.com
The Roxie Theater and Don Malcolm of Mid-Century Productions proudly stand behind this AGITPROP! event, an example the term’s definition of highly politicized art, and hope to continue the theme with an ongoing series at the Roxie during 2017 (and beyond). “We’re rising to the occasion with targeted programming from the past,” Malcolm notes. “We need to learn from these earlier works. We must be reminded of the efforts undertaken by those writers, directors, actors and producers who took a stand against anti-democratic actions.”
“We see this as part of the Roxie’s mission to offer challenging programming that addresses the issues that our country and community face,” noted Dave Cowen, the Roxie’s Executive Director. “We hope to see everyone come out on Wednesday April 26 to support the screening and preservation of these types of socially-conscious works."
THE program kicks off at 6:00pm with an episode of THE DEFENDERS, one of the most revered 1960s television dramas, featuring E.G. Marshall and Robert Reed as a father-and-son lawyer team dedicated to taking cases with social relevance. “This episode, entitled ‘The Benefactor,’” Malcolm notes, “is the first great socially-conscious tale on THE DEFENDERS. It takes us back to pre-Roe v. Wade America in its telling of a doctor on trial for performing then-illegal abortions who decides to use the case as a way to challenge the law.” A searing but sensitive tale, “The Benefactor” serves as a cautionary tale for what just might happen to America should Roe v. Wade be struck down.
Malcolm notes that THE DEFENDERS took a long time to make it to DVD—“the curse of the socially-conscious series,” he says, ruefully—and thus far only the first season has been released. Malcolm notes that a petition will be on hand on April 26 for people to sign urging Shout Factory to release the entire four-season run of THE DEFENDERS in order to make so many more memorable socially-conscious episodes of the show more readily available. “It’s so long overdue it’s not funny,” notes Cowen.
Next, at 7:30, is a rare film noir, OPEN SECRET (1948, John Reinhardt) that features John Ireland as a man who accidentally stumbles upon a conspiracy motivated by ethnic prejudice. “I’m especially pleased to be able to screen this long-lost film for the Roxie audience,” Malcolm says. “It reminds us that so many filmmakers and actors were courageous in presenting these cautionary tales at a time when such matters were swept aside by Red-baiting and fear-mongering.
Last but by no means least at 9:15 is a seventieth anniversary screening of the great social justice noir, CROSSFIRE (1947, Edward Dmytryk), featuring noir icons Robert Ryan, Robert Mitchum and Gloria Grahame as they inhabit a strange, nocturnal and unfamiliar America where, instead of the “land of the free” in celebration of a world-liberating victory, we find that “hate is a loaded gun.” Dmytryk’s brilliant direction garnered him an Oscar nomination, but he and producer Adrian Scott would soon be blacklisted and imprisoned for their efforts to combat anti-Semitism.
“We feel this is a superb program that we expect to augment with live speakers and a series of brief audience discussions,” Cowen noted. “We appreciate Don Malcolm’s efforts to screen film and television programs of this type at this point in time, and we can only say that we think more repertory houses should be doing the same thing. We hope that our example will inspire them to do so.”