A War in Hollywood (Hollywood contra Franco)

The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives & the San Francisco Laborfest Film Festival

presents the U.S. premiere screening of A War in Hollywood (Hollywood contra Franco)

Directed by Oriol Porta, with Walter Bernstein, Susan Sarandon, and Moe Fishman, the film will be shown on Sunday, July 26, 2009, 2pm in The Delancey Street Screening Room, 600 Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94107.

A WAR IN HOLLYWOOD is an in-depth look at the impact that the Spanish Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship had on the North American film industry.

Hollywood used the Civil War as a subject in more than 50 films. The defeat of democracy in Spain left an “open wound” in the heart of liberal actors, directors and screenwriters in the US, who used affection towards democratic Spain as a symbolic feature to define the romantic spirit of their characters. This sympathy, however, was shaped according to the American political tendencies of each period.

This evolution is narrated through the personal story of Alvah Bessie (pictured above), a Hollywood screenwriter who fought as a member of the International Brigade.

This documentary includes excerpts from Casablanca, For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Way We Were among others, and commentary by actress Susan Sarandon, screenwriters Arthur Laurents and Walter Bernstein and cinema historians Román Gubern and Patrick McGilligan.