Spotlight on Leo Hurwitz
Mar 11, 2010The conventional narrative of American documentary filmmaking generally jumps from 1922’s Nanook of the North to such exemplars of the sixties vérité revolution as the Maysles’s Salesman . . .
Synopsis
By the start of World War II, Paul Robeson had given up his lucrative mainstream work to participate in more socially progressive film and stage productions. Robeson committed his support to Paul Strand and Leo Hurwitz’s political semidocumentary Native Land. With Robeson’s narration and songs, this beautifully shot and edited film exposes violations of Americans’ civil liberties and is a call to action for exploited workers around the country. Scarcely shown since its debut, Native Land represents Robeson’s shift from narrative cinema to the leftist documentaries that would define the final chapter of his controversial film career.
Cast
| Narrator | Paul Robeson |
| Farmer | Fred Johnson |
| Farmer's wife | Mary George |
| Farmer's son | John Rennick |
| Maid | Amelia Romano |
| White sharecropper | Housely Stevens |
| Black sharecropper | Louis Grant |
| Union president | James Hanney |
| Stool pigeon | Howard DaSylva |
| Harry Carlyle | Art Smith |
| Spy executive | Richard Bishop |
| Wife of union president | Vaughn King |
| Contact man | Charles Jordan |
| Grocer | Robert Strauss |
| Little girl | Dolores Cornell |
| Thug | John Marlieb |
| Minister | Rev. Charles Webber |
| Funeral speaker | Clancy Cooper |
Credits
| Director | Leo Hurwitz and Paul Strand |
| Cinematography | Paul Strand |
| Editing | Leo Hurwitz and Paul Strand |
| Assistant directors | Alfred Saxe and William Watts |
| Music | Marc Blitzstein |
| Commentary | David Wolff |
| Script | David Wolff, Leo Hurwitz and Paul Strand |
| Orchestra conducted by | Lehman Engel |
| Sound editing | Robert Stebbins and Ralph Avseev |
| Production manager | George Jacobson |
| Stills | Times Wide World International News |
| Animation | Ted Eshbaugh Studios |
Disc Features
FEATURED ON THE DISC PAUL ROBESON: CITIZEN OF THE WORLD WITH THE FEATURE THE PROUD VALLEY
- New, digital transfers of The Proud Valley and Native Land created from the best surviving elements
- “The Story of Native Land,” a new video interview with cinematographer Tom Hurwitz, son of Frontier Films cofounder and Native Land codirector Leo Hurwitz
- 1958 Pacifica Radio interview with Paul Robeson (Courtesy of Pacifica Radio Archives)
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
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Strand Preserved
Nov 11, 2008Groundbreaking modernist artist Paul Strand (1890–1976) might have been better known for his photography than his filmmaking, but the two films he directed are both extraordinary testaments to his brilliance. The first, his silent 1921 avant-garde masterpiece Manhatta, a luminous visual . . .
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